is graphics card compulsary?

[bizx]

hi,
take the subject on its light side.i am going to buy a new pc.till now used my friends pc.he has no grphics card.his is pentium 4 2.4 ghz and intel mobo with intel extreme graphics.
almost all games were running well on that pc.i am not a hardcore gamer.but i play a lot of games.
well do i need to get a graphics card or intel graphics is good enough?
please suggest me.

[rakesh_1024]

If U play a lot of games then go for atleast an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Barton processor plus a motherboard with an Nvidia chipset.

The following link will help U decide--
http://s3.invisionfree.com/Computek/...hp?showtopic=3

[blade_runner]

If u play a lot of games then investing in a Gfx card would be a good bet.

[anidex]

About a year from now, having a graphics card will become a necessity. On-board adapters will slowly die out because of their lack of graphic horsepower and more importantly, feature set. So, if you wanna be ready for things to come, get yourself a graphics card.

By 2006, once Windows codename Longhorn is released, you WILL need a graphics card, a darn good one too, to "run" it. On-board chipsets are becoming obsolete, and will completely become so in a few months time despite Intel's effort with their new DX9 compliant on-board chipsets (on the 925/915 motherboards).

[TheMask]

Anidex, pal, ur post reminds me of the plight of all those who bought a "cost-effective" solution -i810. Those ppl are cursing Intel (and themselves) for the lack of AGP slot!

if u r a gamer, then u ought to have a graphics card.

[akshayt]

Man if you feel that the intel extreme grpahics 2 can sufficice your needs and play games well then you tak some onbaord video or cheap chipsets like geforce 4.

If you need one take a mb with agp slot.

Also,some new mb have decent video-radeon 9000

[bizx]

now i am convinced that i should have a graphics card.but my budget wont allow me for a n expensive one.
please tell me which card is the cheapest now that could perform decently for atleast 1.5 yrs(i mean most of the games should run).

[blade_runner]

Cheapest one is the Fx5200 3.3k. Somewhere in that range.

[anidex]

Any DX9 compliant card should do. As blade here suggested, the FX 5200 is a decent buy. A better solution would be the Radeon 9600 Non-Pro for about 5.5 grands.

[akshayt]

radeon 9600np costs minimum 7k

[go4inet]

u need to get graphics card only if you go for high end gaming or working out with animation / graphics, you need a good graphics card, as ur system comes with pre built graphics card ( on board ).

Seeya !

[akshayt]

only a radeon 9800pro will ACTUALLY run decently for 1.5yrs

[cooljeba]

Originally Posted by anidex

About a year from now, having a graphics card will become a necessity. On-board adapters will slowly die out because of their lack of graphic horsepower and more importantly, feature set. So, if you wanna be ready for things to come, get yourself a graphics card.

By 2006, once Windows codename Longhorn is released, you WILL need a graphics card, a darn good one too, to "run" it. On-board chipsets are becoming obsolete, and will completely become so in a few months time despite Intel's effort with their new DX9 compliant on-board chipsets (on the 925/915 motherboards).

Buddy i like to comment on that .... a few years from now there will be no graphics card. With the introduction of nforce2 chipset with in some years cards will die out as integration will be done in the mobo itself.
..:: peace ::..
Jeba

[theraven]

in that case graphic cards shouldnt be born !!!!
the only reason we have separate cards is to lighten the load on the cpu/mobo as well as have a dedicated piece of hardware for the purpose !!!!

[blade_runner]

LOL ! cooljeba that doesn't make much sense does it ?? Integrated solutions no matter how good they are won't better dedicated graphics cards.

[Loki87]

yeah jeba how can integrated solns get better than dedicated graphics cards
also i dont think even radeon 9800 pro will run decently for 1.5 yrs
as pci express solns are coming up geforce pcx 5300 has already come up

[blade_runner]

The Radeon might do 1 year not sure abt more than that, depends on the kinda games that roll in. Yeah the pci exp 5300 will debut @ 5k. I got this frm BBC.

[Nemesis]

on board graphics will stay but wont replace dedicated gfx cards. there r always ppl who dont need a dedicated card so they will use fast, on board graphics. and those who play the latest games, well u still gotta invest in a dedicated card.

[only_moin]

yes i think so too , there is no doing away with the graphics cards . this is not the 1980's jeba. and even if (hypothetically) , onboard graphics become as good as dedicated cards then we will have to replace the whole motherboard to update our graphics systems!

Moin
Calcutta

[akshayt]

By decent i meant that by the end it would be handling games@
640*480/800*600 *32
low settings-med with minimum 30fps

[anidex]

There is no way in all of hell that would allow GPUs to be integrated with the motherboard. There simply isn't sufficient technology to get that kinda graphic horsepower out of an integrated solution, and we won't have one forever.

In fact, in the near future GPUs are going to become far more powerful than CPUs (actually, the latest ones already are) with much greater parallel processing capabilities. Then, GPUs will be just as general as CPUs and will be able to execute perhaps even C++ code faster than the CPUs.

There is no way that will allow future GPUs to be integrated on a motherboard.

[Nemesis]

plus, do u think nvidia and ati will allow this 2 happen?????? they r churning out gfx cards really fast. and nowadays they release a whole bunch of cards at once

[demoninside]

if u play a lot but lo load games than i think intel 865 gbf work fine(with lo quality)
but if u blay games like Q3 or UT2004 than go for AGP cause quality is one factor u don`t wanna compro