2 Video Cards?

[DRock]

I bought my computer from HP. The monitor plugs into the motherboard so does that mean there is no video card?? -- its just a chip on the motherboard right?

So if i go out and buy a video card, that will slide into one of the open adapter slots? Then i will have two ports where i can stick in my monitor? Will the new video card become my "primary" video card so my computer will use the right one??

Thanks.

What kind of requirements do video cards have? For example memery requirements? or CPU requirements?

 

[butchrecon]

First off it may depend on the HP BIOS. In theory Windows98 will use 2 Video Cards at the same time with multiple Monitors. Second, If youdecide to get another Card be sure you know if you HP supports AGP or not. Open it up and look for the AGP slot. If it does get an AGP card. Most BIOSes today will switch automatically to the AGP card if installed. And last, The type of AGP (orPCI if you do not have AGP port) card should be determand by the type of CPU and RAM you have. If your system is a PII or higher then any of the AGP cards should do fine.

Hope this helps

Jim

 

[DRock]

Thanks Jim. But how do i know if i have an AGP slot of PCI slot? Is there a way of telling by looking at them? ie: are they labeled?

Thanks

 

[butchrecon]

Unfortunatly they are not labled. The AGP is usuall brown and at the top of the PCI slots (which are usually white).
I suggest taking your computer to a computer shop and let them look at it. They can give you advice on what you have and what you can get based on looking at it.

 

[mhughes]

Go to this page and put in your model, you can then look up your HP model and get the specs. Most have an AGP slot.

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/software.html