Do I need a video card, or only for gaming?

[jrstevan]

I have a Dell computer with a new 1905FP LCD monitor that is currently running in analog mode. There is no video card installed. This computer is only used for surfing the web and doing simple photo editing.
Will a video card help the performance? I know a DVI connection could improve the picture quality, but is that all? If so, please give me some suggestions for some good deals on cheap cards if you can, or just some model numbers. Any help would be great...


Josh

 

[CrispyFried]

Probably not, all the stuff youre doing is 2d stuff, add on cards are mainly for 3d stuff like games or cad. There may be cards faster at 2d but I doubt youd notice any difference.

How old is the dell?

 

[aidanjm]

Are you having problems with the performance of the computer? Why are you looking to improve performance?

 

[jrstevan]

It's my parent's computer, and it is running slow. It's only a year old, but it's a 2.2Ghz Celeron Dell. I've tried tons of tweaks and ran over a dozen programs to clean up the system, but it's still slow. I told them I could simply back up their docs, and do a clean install of XP but they are "not ready" for that yet since they want to be sure every possible thing is backed up. They are complete idiots when it comes to computers. I am positive a clean install would do it, but I am frustrated that I can't find out where the slow-down is coming from. I'd be interested in knowing what kinds of tools you guys use for system maintenance, etc....

 

[RussianSensation]

Probably from a slow hard drive (lacking 8mb cache), and your slow processor.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Probably from a slow hard drive (lacking 8mb cache), and your slow processor.

That, and likely too little RAM (256MB + WinXP will never be super-fast). And that Celeron is a dog, but it should be fine for desktop work.

Define "running slow" better. Programs take a long time to open? Browsing the hard drive takes forever? Internet isn't snappy? What's the RAM usage look like? Anything hogging CPU time? Did you scan for spyware/adware? Reinstall the chipset and video drivers (which are the same, since you have integrated video)? Did you try disabling System Restore? Do you have something like GoBack installed (can kill performance if it's not working properly)?

 

[Cheesetogo]

If you do get video card, don't get agp, as I'm guessing this system is the 2400 which has no agp slot. You'll want to look for a cheap pci card with dvi.

 

[jrstevan]

Programs are taking a long time to load much of the time, programs take too long to maximize/minimize, switching between programs is slow, etc.

 

[ddogg]

its mainly because of unfragmented data...happens when u dont format the OS in a long time!! just make them back up whatever data they want to and then do a clean install...ur pc will be perfectly smooth then BUT yes ur RAM is also less so u dont expect super fast speeds even after a clean install...i would suggest u upgrade ur ram atleast to 512mb for a good experience. upgrading ur video card will not help except in gaming and 3D applications

 

[jrstevan]

Thanks ddog, a clean install was my first idea as well.

 

[ddogg]

:thumbsup:

 

[CrispyFried]

Open device manager, check under ide drive properties and make sure the transfer modes are still udma 4 or 5, not a pio mode, sometimes windows will revert to a slower mode.