[cbminfo]

I'm currently shopping online for a video card to use my Cintiq drawing tablet & my LCD monitor.

It's been 3 days. The card I did order went on back order and the guy expected me to stay online long distance and decide right there what card I wanted to get instead. Took a whole day just to decide on his out of stock card.

Anyways 3 days shopping under the belt has provided some real strange insight into the 'video card' business.

Nvidia is under investigation by the SEC.. Read some reviews you'll see why. try Newegg. most reviews.

I was an involuntary beta tester by ATI for several years. I said never again to ATI.

And it seems, you don't have a choice, it's either Nvidia with their bad cards
or ATI with their equally bad cards. Anyways the only ones making any profit
from the sad state of affairs with video cards is UPS, Fedex, and the Gasoline
industry with all the buy and return of the cards.

As for why I'm bringing this rant here, is if you need help, you go to the
experts.

I tried HP's experts, they didn't know squat.. And quit selling Nvidia cards.
They're mixed up in the SEC thing also.

Anyways here's the problem
HP pavilion a1723w bought march 2007.
2 gigs ram
600 watt PSU
dual core Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz
3 PCI slots
1 PCI express 16 slot [at the very bottom of the case.] Cards I saw have the
blowers blowing down to the small space under the bottom card. Really get that sucker hot.

I don't know diddly about what they're talking about PCI express 1.0 and 2.0
2.0 seems to be on all the newest fast most expensive cards.
on board graphics card *Video Card Chip Type*Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family

HP vs19e LCD monitor same age as the rest. Less than 2 years.

Cintiq 12wx requires DVI OR VGA for dual monitor.

Since I have to buy a card to use this thing with two monitors, I might as well
get PCI express 16 [the slot on the machine, & 2 DVI connections or 1 DVDI and 1 VGA. onboard video has a vga connector so I've been looking at dual dvi. When I asked Cintiq for some xpert help on getting a card, their response was any of the medium range cards would do. That's just not true once you get into shopping for a card. I'd be amazed to hear anyone not having trouble. I even took a look at one of the ATI all in ones [the kind I've used with tv onscreen] Even it couldn't get a fair rating.

So I'm assuming there's some REAL hard core gamers here that are actually using a video card that isn't setting off smoke alarms, annoying every dog in the neighborhood with the shrill cooling fans, burning down the house [Nvidia card]. Missing parts, incompatible with Vista HP. DOA, DOA, DOA.. yeah 3 DOAS to the same guy with the same card. This could be how the companies are actually staying afloat. the RMA's for each of these DOA'S ran $29.00, requires a 6 pin power, All my PSU power slots are 4 pin. And there's 5 empty of them. And I can't believe one of the gripes with ATI.. Buy a Vista CD, and REINSTALL the entire OS B4 installing the card. Because installing the ATI will crap up all of your OS. Actually I got expert re-installing Windows XP every time I got an ATI upgrade. Thats what taught me to make 3 copies of everything at all times. The HP doesn't come with an OS CD.

With 3 PCI slots, I even looked at the PCI cards with ddr2 memory. Same gripes for the PCI, and not much difference in price from a PCI or PCI express. But performance when it lasts more than 6 months is in favor of the PCI express.

I dread going back online tomorrow and trying to pick a useful card again
tomorrow.

OH FWIW: The Cintiq works like a dream plugged directly into the VGA slot on the computer. Just can't use the 19 " monitor when I use the tablet. Unbelievable the onboard video [is just so so.] It craps out my HDTVGT if I update the video card. I'm sitting here dreading with all the problems with ALL the cards I've looked at, that not one of them will work with my HDTV GT.

If you have a similar machine, and using a 3rd party video card.. HELP ! What is it ?

[miller390]

I have the same comput.I have upgraded to a 8600gt 512mb.have no problems at all.Been in this machine for over a year.

[Little Writer]

Computer video cards are shortcuts to the fourth circle of hell. They're also like snowflakes. I hope you find help here, but whatever anyone says about their experiences, you'll probably still have different ones.