Hey,

I just bought a new graphics car from Tiger Direct and realized it has the same amount of graphics memory as my current onboard video. I got a new one because I started playing some really graphics intensive games and was getting 2 frames per second so now I'm wondering since they both have the same amount of video memory will I see any performance boosts?
New card - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...6810&CatId=697
Current onboard - Intel(R) 946GZ Express Chipset Family

I am really low on money so I'm hoping this will help but I also hope to return it if it's not right as soon as possible and spend some more money to get a 2xx upgrade. Thanks!

There definitely can be a difference with the new card even though both are 128MB. NVidia Geforce cards are pretty good. Im not sure how much of a difference you will see though. But 2 frames per second is pretty crummy. Are you sure you have enough system memory? And when you say "current onboard", you dont mean that it is integrated do you? If so, then the new card will make a huge difference.

Sorry, I always say onboard and mean integrated. Yes, the current garphics system is integrated. I hope you're right because I don't think I can return it after I rip open the box. Thanks!

Since your current one is integrated, then you should definitely see an improvement with the new card. The new card has its own memory on it. It doesn't have to use your system memory. All those 128MBs are coming from your system memory right now and will slow you down!

Oh, and before you open the new card, be sure you have an open PCI slot. Im sure you do, but just double check! And you will probably need to disable the onboard video in the BIOS.

O wow, thew integrated graphics is really using my system memory? So this should improve my overall system performance as well. Pretty much doubling my graphic/system memory (adding half for graphics, and taking away the other half that was being used in system memory before to be used by other processes).
If that's true then this should help out a lot. Thanks!

Yeah, integrated cards rob you of your system memory. You can read a little about this on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit scroll down towards the bottom and read about "dedicated graphics cards" and "integrated graphics solutions".
Have you had a chance to install your new card yet? I think you are going to notice a big improvement!

It's being shipped and it should be here within a few hours. I'm so excited. . I'll edit if I see any improvements. Thanks for the reassurance Agele. I'd give talkupation but supposedly I sadly have to 'spread it around' more according to it.

EDIT: Wow.. This card is amazing. I can't even imagine how the expensive ones preform (this one was only 39.99 plus shipping. I am getting probably 50 frames a second on a game called Soldier Front and 20-30 frames a second on World of Warcraft. But this thing is burning. I can't use it for longer than 5 minutes. Well, that's only when I'm gaming but when I'm not it still is hotter than I'd like it to be. I have a mini system blower in a PCI express slot next to it but there's no way to get one of the mini system blowers blowing onto the heatsink as I'd like. It is just blolwing the back of the chip which does really help but it's not nearly enough.
So would I mount a real fan to blow right onto the heatsink. Is it possible to buy one that sits on top of the heatsink and blows down, up, etc? I notice when I just start up I get almost 35 frames a second on World of Warcraft (and it's already pretty hot from booting up) so I can tell the heat is hurting my frame rate real badly.
Any suggestions?

Thanks for all the help. You were right on.