graphic card help

[postzit]

OK so I just fixed my pc and I wanted to play WoW so I download it after waiting for ages it downloads and I go to start up and says I need a better graphic card. so I get an old but better one from my pc before and put it in the computer and I go to start up wow again and I get this message 'failed to find a suitable display device, im just wondering if you guys got any advice

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Did you install it's drivers?

 

[postzit]

to be honest i have no idea what im doing

how do i install a driver?

 

[MR T3D]

go to g-card's site
go to its download section, then to drivers, find the one for your OS and card, then download, install.

 

[dommyuk]

Assuming you know which model of card you have, go to it's manufacturers website, likely either ATi or Nvidia and follow the links to thier drivers, download them, install them, reboot your PC and you should be done.

 

[A Weary Exile]

go to g-card's site
go to its download section, then to drivers, find the one for your OS and card, then download, install.

I actually have a related dilemma. I've been trying to run Medieval II: Total War faster on my lapotop, defragging my laptop didn't do much so I wanted to look for a graphics card. What would be a good one to buy? How do I know what kind of graphics card I already have?

I guess this has become the 'Help the console tards.' thread.

 

[dommyuk]

go to g-card's site
go to its download section, then to drivers, find the one for your OS and card, then download, install.

I actually have a related dilemma. I've been trying to run Medieval II: Total War faster on my lapotop, defragging my computer didn't do much so I wanted to look for a graphics card. What would be a good one to buy? How do I know what kind of graphics card I already have?

I guess this has become the 'Help the console tards.' thread.

You wanted it to run faster on your laptop, so you defragged your computer? I guess you mean you defragged your laptop, which usually gives a negligible performance boost. Chances are you won't be able to improve the graphics card in your laptop because it's part of the motherboard.

 

[A Weary Exile]

go to g-card's site
go to its download section, then to drivers, find the one for your OS and card, then download, install.

I actually have a related dilemma. I've been trying to run Medieval II: Total War faster on my lapotop, defragging my computer didn't do much so I wanted to look for a graphics card. What would be a good one to buy? How do I know what kind of graphics card I already have?

I guess this has become the 'Help the console tards.' thread.

You wanted it to run faster on your laptop, so you defragged your computer? I guess you mean you defragged your laptop, which usually gives a negligible performance boost. Chances are you won't be able to improve the graphics card in your laptop because it's part of the motherboard.

Yes I meant I defragged my laptop. What about the drivers you mentioned? Would I be able to download one of those for my current video card? How do I figure which brand I have?

 

[blackjaw1]

Generally speaking with laptops the drivers are provided by the manufacturer of the laptop. If you go to their website and enter the model of your laptop they'll generally have a page listing all your drivers. However, they are never as current as drivers provided by the manufacturer of the chipset (ATI or Nvidia). If ATI or Nvidia supports your integrated chipset with official drivers you can find them on their website. If you right click your desktop and click properties in Windows XP there is a button you can click that will show you the details of your card.

As it was said earlier, graphics cards on laptops are generally integrated (part of the motherboard). Integrated graphics chips don't have their own memory, they rely on what they can take from the system's RAM and are a lot slower than an actual graphics card.


In Windows 7 it looks like this: http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4540/gcard.jpg

This shows that my card's chipset is made by ATI and the model is the HD 5700 series.

You can also download a program called GPU Z that will show you a lot of information about your card: Temperature, fan RPMs, etc.

 

[dommyuk]

go to g-card's site
go to its download section, then to drivers, find the one for your OS and card, then download, install.

I actually have a related dilemma. I've been trying to run Medieval II: Total War faster on my lapotop, defragging my computer didn't do much so I wanted to look for a graphics card. What would be a good one to buy? How do I know what kind of graphics card I already have?

I guess this has become the 'Help the console tards.' thread.

You wanted it to run faster on your laptop, so you defragged your computer? I guess you mean you defragged your laptop, which usually gives a negligible performance boost. Chances are you won't be able to improve the graphics card in your laptop because it's part of the motherboard.

Yes I meant I defragged my laptop. What about the drivers you mentioned? Would I be able to download one of those for my current video card? How do I figure which brand I have?

Go to your control panel then select the device manager, if you have Vista or 7 you can just type 'Device manager' into the search bar. Click the '+' next to Display Adapters and the item in there should be your graphics card it should also have the manufacturers name, I doubt updating the drivers would help though.

Take mine for example:

Apologies for the small image, I don't know why it's done that.
The red circled text is the manufacturer so I'd go to nvidia.com and go to the drivers section. The blue circled text is the card model: 9600 GT. So at the nvidia site I'd enter in the boxes:

Product type: Geforce
Product Series: Geforce 9 Series
Operating System: Windows Vista 32bit
Language: English

then search and follow the simple download link. You'd likely have to uninstall your current drivers which can be done by right clicking your display adapter and unstalling it, then reset your PC assuming the download is done. When you've rebooted it you clours will likely all look funny, so go to where you've saved the drivers you'd just downloaded, I'd suggest saving it to the desktop so it's easier to access. Run the executable then it'll tell you to reset your computer which you should do and then everything should work fine again if not better.

 

[A Weary Exile]

snip

Alright, I've found my graphics card. Apparently I have an ATI Radeon X1200 which, according to their site [http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx], does not exist. Their list of ATI Radeon drivers goes from X1050 to X1300.

I used this program called Catalyst Control Center that let me find my graphics card information and let me check for driver updates, but I couldn't find the X1200, so WTF? Also, I'm using Windows Vista if that helps at all.

 

[AlphaOmega]

What videocard do you have, which operating system and which language is it in?

 

[blackjaw1]

snip

Alright, I've found my graphics card. Apparently I have an ATI Radeon X1200 which, according to their site [http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx], does not exist. Their list of ATI Radeon drivers goes from X1050 to X1300.

I used this program called Catalyst Control Center that let me find my graphics card information and let me check for driver updates, but I couldn't find the X1200, so WTF? Also, I'm using Windows Vista if that helps at all.

Like I said, ATI probably doesn't support that integrated chip. Also, there are seperate options on their website for integrated chips versus graphics cards, and there are also legacy drivers for older cards they don't officially support anymore.


Edit: Actually, I guess they do. If you select "Integrated/motherboard" it shows the x1200.