I'm having problems with my graphics card and i think it causes windows not to load up sometimes, it is onboard shared graphics.

I know radeon cards are good, which ones are good for a low budget?.....

What do you mean by 'cheap'? Also what socket does your motherboard have (AGP, PCI-E)?

If you can get PCI-E cards, then you can pick up a budget N-Vidia 6800 for under £50.

my 128 bit N VIDEA was only £30 from a computer fair at doncaster, it does the job superbly and plays every game i have thrown at it with no problems, i would however reccomend that you stay clear of cheap (sub £50) radeon cards as they can be a swine to install when you are switching from integrated to plug in modules... keep an eye out for up and coming computer fairs. hope this helps..:D

check out ebay too, people who have upgraded may like some of the money back by flogging the old card

I've just upgraded one...an AGP 128Mb Radeon 9000 based card. Only upgraded 'cos it was struggling at times with C&C3.

So this is now available if any use to you?

Jackass,

you need to go into system and check to see if you have an AGP, PCI or PCI express, slot. If its more than two years old it might not have a PCI express slot which most of the graphic cards these days are.

If its really old five years plus, might just have PCI cards which are hard to find for less than £30...

AGP ones are on 2-5 year old machines and you can get a decent one for £25-£50.

Send me the spec of the machine and I will tell you best solution TT Man

If it's AGP I can recomend one that another user recomended to me.

Asus A9250 (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3T7Z&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=a9250&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0#specifications) Works great and at around £30, can't complain.

Or maybeThis one (http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=3HQ7&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=371630000&InMerch=1).

I'll check my system in a minute to see what slot i have.

My pc is 2-3 years old.

Jackass,

no problem depending on what you tell, will depend on what cards I recommend.

I have just refurbed two machines, for two nephews and their dad's happy because he can now play the games he remembers playing before the kids took over the PC. As they are now a three PC family, everyone is happy as they have a PC each! TT Man

I've just had a look inside my computer, i noticed that i have an Asus P5S800-VM/S motherboard which i did not know before....

Are the AGP slots dark brown and above the PCI slots? if so i have one AGP slot...

Jackass,

try the below link this has all versions of graphic cards. I meant go into Windows and look into control panel and check system spec, this will then list all the hardware. It will tell you if your mother board has an AGP, PCI express or just PCI for graphics card. I'm sorry you had to open machine up! Will be more precise in future, but sounds like its an AGP port, I say this as I have several machines and the ports are all different colours.

http://www.autdirect.co.uk/acatalog/autlogonewdesign.jpg

TT Man

Or even this one
http://www.autdirect.co.uk/acatalog/autdirect_co_uk_Graphics_Cards_12.html

I think my graphics card is shared onboard graphics, its a SIS 661FX REV 64MB.
My BIOS is another thing that seems really strange..apart from basic information about the processor and the memory installed there is nothing else, there's nothing about the shared graphics or anything..I've never seen a BIOS like it.
Anyway sometimes when i load up windows i get a blue screen come up and i have to restart my computer, also recently my resolution has been knackered, i have had the settings on 1024 X 768 pixels and everything is really big! I tried changing it several times but nothing changed, i think my graphics card is affecting my computer and conflicting somewhere, but if it's shared onboard graphics and there's nothing in the BIOS how do i disable it?
I've been into the control panel and been onto hardware in system but cannot find any info about the AGP/PCI slots..

Download Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) and tell us exactly what hard ware you have. i.e motherboard.

Don't worry, it's safe but you will be surprised what it can tell you.

Download Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) and tell us exactly what hard ware you have. i.e motherboard.

Don't worry, it's safe but you will be surprised what it can tell you.

He already posted that it is Asus P5S800

In which case he has an AGP 8x slot to use.

He already posted that it is Asus P5S800

In which case he has an AGP 8x slot to use.

And me with a radeon 9000 128Mb.. ;)

I might be selling a GFX card soon.

Nvidia Geforce 7300 GT 256MB DDR3 for £45 ono.

He already posted that it is Asus P5S800

In which case he has an AGP 8x slot to use.
Sorry, I stand corrected.

I meant go into Windows and look into control panel and check system spec, this will then list all the hardware. It will tell you if your mother board has an AGP, PCI express or just PCI for graphics card.

Whereabouts, exactly? Ive never seen anything in the windows control panel, device manager, or anywhere else that listed the available slots and their types on a motherboard.

Whereabouts, exactly? Ive never seen anything in the windows control panel, device manager, or anywhere else that listed the available slots and their types on a motherboard.

open the 'system devices' branch in device manager - you should see a list of stuff. in amongst that will be the details (well, it shows PCI-Exress on mine)

open the 'system devices' branch in device manager - you should see a list of stuff. in amongst that will be the details (well, it shows PCI-Exress on mine)

Cant work on all motherboards then, no mention of PCI-E on here, even though theres a Geforce 7800 plugged into a PCI-E slot in the case