Integrated Graphics Card, do I need a PCI express type?

[michaeldx]

Hi everybody, I recently purchased a new desktop computer, AMD Athlon dual core, 5 GB of RAM.

I use it in a guest room to watch TV and videos from the computer. I also browse the internet and ocassionally I play games. It is mainly an entertainment PC.

It is an HP, the motherboard has an integrated graphics card. It is an ATI Radeon HD 4200. I was thinking about getting another graphics card, a PCI express, that way I would ease the memory and CPU.

One of my biggest concerns is the motherboard heating up. As I mentioned, I will mainly use it to watch videos. If the integrated card overheats, wouldn't that mess up the entire motherboard?

If not, is it worth the money to add an external graphics card or not necessary at all just to watch movies or Justin tv? Is it a waste of money? I am talking about entire movies, no short videos. Hours and hours of graphics card use on videos and live streaming TV.

Thank you so much for your help.

 

[hunter315]

The 4200 is fine for basic stuff like internet and movie watching, thats not a massive load for a graphics chip. While the GPU is on the northbridge its power consumption is quite low, you dont need to worry about it overheating for the most part. Using the graphics or not isnt going to increase your failure rate, if the northbridge is going to overheat and die there really isnt much you can do about it, not using the IGP isnt going to avoid much heat and wouldnt add a significant portion onto its lifespan if it was going to go.

 

[4745454b]

Agreed. Watching movies isn't demanding. The first computer I ever had that had a DVD drive in it was a P2 @ 300MHz with 192MBs of ram and a 4MB ATI AGP video card. The first movie I watched on my 21" CRT was Resident Evil 1. I was worried because the software I was using said you needed a P2 @ 350MHz, but my machine played it fine. A current AMD chip with a 4200 is WAY faster then the machine I was using. I know the codecs have got more demanding over time, but you are still fine with what you have.

 

[michaeldx]

Thank you guys for the replies. I also plan on playing some battlefield heroes and minecraft sometimes. Would in this case be better to get an external card? Or still the same?

Thanks again