New PC Video Card or Audio Card An Asset?
Nope. I don't know squat about PCs. My 1990's final PC really needed a video card to shop (chopping?). And an audio card really improved music sound quality. But I may be getting a desktop. A...
Forum Discussion
On-board audio-video will be adequate for most needs. In the 1990s there was usually no video capability on the motherboard and audio tended to be limited. Early 2000's Intel and AMD started putting modest 3D video capability into the chipsets that interfaced CPU with memory and peripheral busses (Core family processors in the case of Intel). Around Gen 5 to Gen 7 Core processors, the integrated 3D graphics got moved into the CPU package (in some cases onto the CPU chip), with performance often equivalent to mid-range 3D graphics cards of the late 1990s.
You won't need an add-on graphics card unless you are into extreme 3D gaming. Add-on audio has all but disappeared at the consumer level, but you can still buy professional grade audio capability, usually as external equipment, if your needs include multi-channel mixing, equalization, and special effects.
My graphics intensive apps have been the last three versions of MS Flight Simulator. FS8 (2002) and FS9 (2004) ran pretty well on entry-level 2001-vintage GeForce boards, and 2004-vintage Intel GMA graphics. FSX (2006) challenged the best available 3D boards but by 2008 the mid-range chips from AMD and NVidia were adequate for FSX, Intel HD Graphics was still marginal although surpassing anything I could buy for less than $3000 in 1990.
There are a lot of games even more demanding, partcicularly if you are displaying on multiple 4K monitors, and the graphics card market is aimed here today, where for $600-$800 you can buy capabilities available only from Silicon Graphics (at $30,000 to $100,000) in 1998-2000. I don't think you can even buy add-on graphics below the mid-range today, because that market has been taken over by the graphics on the main processor or in the interface chipsets.
If you are asking about upgrading a 1990s vintage PC with a new graphics card, I think you'll find that there is nothing much newer that will interface with your motherboard. The high=performance deskside computer I bought in 2001 was still using the AGP interface for graphics, and in 2004 the only AGP cards I could find were not much above entry-level. Most desktops of that era didn't even have the AGP, all the slots were 8-bit PCI.
Looking at upgrades for desktops with AGP interface, NVidia is still manufacturing 2004-vintage GeForce 6200 chip for upgrade purpose. The chip is a half step up from typical motherboard graphics of that era, reason for upgrade would be to have graphics capable of supporting Windows Vista and Windows 7 (i.e. Direct3D up to version 10). If not going past Windows 2000, there is a $10 AGP card using the (2002 vintage) GeForce 4 chip but that takes support back to Direct3D version 8, Windows NT and 2000.
For upgrades to HD video (that would give sharper images) there is at least one manufacturer selling a card using ATI Radeon HD3450 chips (2008 vintage), again an entry-level 3D graphics chipset, but better performance than entry level a few years earlier. This graphics chip family supported Direct3D 10.1, so Vista and Windows 7.
Considering any graphics card upgrade to a AGP slot motherboard, the slot would have to be AGP 2.0 or newer, none of the cards I'm seeing work with AGP 1.0, which had a different power supply voltage from later standards.
You won't need an add-on graphics card unless you are into extreme 3D gaming. Add-on audio has all but disappeared at the consumer level, but you can still buy professional grade audio capability, usually as external equipment, if your needs include multi-channel mixing, equalization, and special effects.
My graphics intensive apps have been the last three versions of MS Flight Simulator. FS8 (2002) and FS9 (2004) ran pretty well on entry-level 2001-vintage GeForce boards, and 2004-vintage Intel GMA graphics. FSX (2006) challenged the best available 3D boards but by 2008 the mid-range chips from AMD and NVidia were adequate for FSX, Intel HD Graphics was still marginal although surpassing anything I could buy for less than $3000 in 1990.
There are a lot of games even more demanding, partcicularly if you are displaying on multiple 4K monitors, and the graphics card market is aimed here today, where for $600-$800 you can buy capabilities available only from Silicon Graphics (at $30,000 to $100,000) in 1998-2000. I don't think you can even buy add-on graphics below the mid-range today, because that market has been taken over by the graphics on the main processor or in the interface chipsets.
If you are asking about upgrading a 1990s vintage PC with a new graphics card, I think you'll find that there is nothing much newer that will interface with your motherboard. The high=performance deskside computer I bought in 2001 was still using the AGP interface for graphics, and in 2004 the only AGP cards I could find were not much above entry-level. Most desktops of that era didn't even have the AGP, all the slots were 8-bit PCI.
Looking at upgrades for desktops with AGP interface, NVidia is still manufacturing 2004-vintage GeForce 6200 chip for upgrade purpose. The chip is a half step up from typical motherboard graphics of that era, reason for upgrade would be to have graphics capable of supporting Windows Vista and Windows 7 (i.e. Direct3D up to version 10). If not going past Windows 2000, there is a $10 AGP card using the (2002 vintage) GeForce 4 chip but that takes support back to Direct3D version 8, Windows NT and 2000.
For upgrades to HD video (that would give sharper images) there is at least one manufacturer selling a card using ATI Radeon HD3450 chips (2008 vintage), again an entry-level 3D graphics chipset, but better performance than entry level a few years earlier. This graphics chip family supported Direct3D 10.1, so Vista and Windows 7.
Considering any graphics card upgrade to a AGP slot motherboard, the slot would have to be AGP 2.0 or newer, none of the cards I'm seeing work with AGP 1.0, which had a different power supply voltage from later standards.
