Can I add a video card to my PC?

Hello

I recently asked about a video card and apparently it is the same thing as a graphics card.

Well my bro couldn't run PC games on his PC so some computer repair guy came round and attatched a video card onto his PC and now he can run the games with good graphics.



But how could he put in a video card if he already has a graphics card?

So how can I put in a video card if I already have a graphics card?



Also both of our PC's are pretty much the same.|||all computers have some kind of graphics card. if its a cheaper pc its probably integrated into the motherboard. if not there is probably one in the motherboard as well as a dedicated card(one not integrated) and the monitor cable that plugs into your computer will plug directly into the video card instead of the motherboard.

to upgrade from an integrated card you can pretty much add any dedicated video card into a slot on your motherboard(most use pci express). if you already have a dedicated video card you can add another one like it into a different slot if your motherboard and power supply support it, otherwise you would take the old one out and put a new one in.



there are instructions that come with the card.

to put in a graphics card first you need to know what kind of slot it uses(instructions will say).

all pci express slots are back-compatible, if the card is made for pcie 2.0 and you only have a pcie 1 slot it will work almost as well(very slight bottleneck).

pci slots come in x1, x8, and x16 versions. 16 having the most bandwidth then 8 then 1. a x16 slot will have 2x the bandwidth as x8 and 16 times the bandwidth as x1 etc

turn computer totally off, touch metal part of case to ground yourself(static electricity can fry a computer),then there should be like latches on the slot your video card is in. put the down, take old video card out(if there is one) and put new on in, put latches up, plug in monitor.

finally, download the new driver.

again all of the instructions will come with the card but thats about what you should expect|||Almost all motherboards inside of a computer have a video card(aka graphics card) embedded into them so that you dont have to buy a video card seperate to save money. Although you can go to your local computer shop and buy a better graphics card to improve the performance of your computer.



The embedded video card is probably not as good as an aftermarket video card so putting in an aftermarket video card will increase the amount of graphics you can have on your video games.



Your brothers computer may have been the same as yours but since the computer guy put another better video card in it his computers video performance increases.|||Yes a graphics card is the same thing as a video card. Add-on video cards typically are more robust (have more built in memory to support games) than the built in on-board graphics card are. Make sure you find out what expansion slots you have on your computer, i.e. AGP slot or PCI-express. You can usually go to the manufacturers site to find out your motherboards specifications. If you don't feel comfortable installing one yourself, most computer shops will do it for you. Good luck!|||if you current video card is built into the motherboard and you install a second one, the only thing you should need to do is install the drivers for the new one and you should be ready to go|||He most likely had onboard video, so theres a free slot for additional video card, once installed, it will bypass the older one.