Graphics Card Comparison

[gdifalco]

Hi guys. I have a dumb question. I tried Gateway Support but they absolutely had no idea what I was asking and couldn't help me. I bought a second monitor, but my computer had only 1 VGA port. So, it turns out I had a 3-year old graphics card lying around. I installed it. It has 2 ports so I plugged both monitors into it. They work fine now.

But the original VGA port doesn't work and I'm not sure if the specs of the new graphics card are better/worse than the specs of the graphics card that came with the computer. All I know about the card that came with the computer is that it is an "Intel HD Graphics" card. My PC is a Gateway DX4860-UR11P.

Meanwhile, the new one is a Radeon HD 4550 with up to 1GB hypermemory and 512MB GDDR2 memory (model # HD-455X-YA). Any idea how I can find out what the original graphics card specs are? And any idea why the original VGA port doesn't work? Maybe the driver got overwritten?

Yes, I probably should have just bought a USB connector for the second monitor. Stupid!

Thanks.

 

[ibjeepr]

I'm going to say that "Intel HD Graphics" was integrated graphics, not a card and your old VGA port no longer works because once you installed an actual card, it disabled the integrated graphics.

 

[gdifalco]

Hi, thank you for the quick reply! Yes, you are probably right. That would make sense. I did a little more research and found out that it's Intel® HD Graphics 2000. However, I can't figure out if that is better or worse than the Radeon card I installed. It's not worth using the other graphics card if the performance is going to be worse, you know?

Also, any idea how to re-activate the original VGA port, say, if I want to add a 3rd monitor? Without overwriting anything ...

 

[ibjeepr]

Hi, thank you for the quick reply! Yes, you are probably right. That would make sense. I did a little more research and found out that it's Intel® HD Graphics 2000. However, I can't figure out if that is better or worse than the Radeon card I installed. It's not worth using the other graphics card if the performance is going to be worse, you know?

Also, any idea how to re-activate the original VGA port, say, if I want to add a 3rd monitor? Without overwriting anything ...

I'm going to guess your Radeon card is better than the integrated.
As far as running both, it's a Gateway so I have no idea. I'd say probably not possible but you'd have to go into the bios and see if you can reactivate it. Even if you can that won't give you a 3 monitor setup. If you wish to go back to the integrated. Just removing the Radeon should do it.

 

[ittimjones]

Per this chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

The Radeon is the better GPU.

 

[gdifalco]

Thanks All! You guys are smart.