Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
In article <37vah01npupv29isjk1p83sahnb3c53opm@4ax.com>, chasm@texas.net wrote:
> ok, as soon as everyone gets thru laughing at this, could someone give me an
> answer?? I have just bought my 3d ASUS board in 12 yrs and am damned if I can
> find a monitor port on the back plane. there simply is no FEMALE 15 pin plug
> in.
>
> do I have to buy a separate graphics board for the monitor?? what the hey???
>
> thanks and if I was not so frustrated, I would be laughing too.
> point is, the damned manual does not say anything about an IO on the backplane
> other than a serial MALE 9? pin.
>
> HELP???
>
> thanks
> chas
Motherboards that come equipped with integrated graphics, are generally
microATX in shape, have three PCI slots, and have names that end in
-VM or -MX. Examples would be A7N8X-VM/400, P4R800-VM, P4P800-VM,
A7V8X-MX, and so on. These boards usually have an AGP slot, and if
you find the performance of the built-in graphics too pokey, you
can later replace the onboard graphics by plugging in an AGP video
card.
For the full size ATX boards, with five or six PCI slots, generally
the user provides graphics via a separately purchased PCI or AGP
video card. If you just need a frame buffer, without anything in
the way of fancy 3D graphics, an Nvidia MX440, Nvidia FX5200,
an ATI 7000 or low end 9000 family board can do that. Similarly,
there are some PCI versions of these type of cards, that can be
used on motherboards that don't even have an AGP slot.
To get a feel for pricing, click the Search button under the left
hand options fields in the following link. That will give you a
list of a couple hundred cards, sorted by price. The cheapest
reasonable card there, just to give you some kind of display,
is the ATI7000 based card for $28.50.
http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=48&DEPA=0
The low end cards run cool enough, that they don't even need a fan.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-142-021&DEPA=0
You need a 1.5V AGP card, one that advertises 4X or 8X AGP transfer
speed, if you are going to use an AGP card for graphics. The AGP card
has to be recent enough, that it is not a 3.3V-only AGP card. Look
at the bottom of the web page on the first link below - your purchase
should look like case (e) or case (h), as your motherboard has a
plastic key marking the motherboard as 1.5V only. A 3.3/1.5V universal
card will run at 1.5V for you and is compatible. (The ones with Rage
in the product name, for the most part, are 3.3V only cards and cannot
be inserted into your motherboard AGP slot.)
(ATI product info)
http://mirror.ati.com/support/faq/agpchart.html
http://www.ati.com/support/agpchart/agp.html
I don't know if Nvidia offers product pages like that or not.
If you plan on gaming, then take a look around tomshardware.com, for
some of their jumbo comparison articles, where they compare the
various models of video cards in large charts. Using the charts, and
keeping a list of prices handy, you can pick a card based on how
big a budget you've got.
HTH,
Paul
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram