Hack 69 Upgrade from Built-in Video

Untie yourself from that low-performance built-in adapter by upgrading to an after-market AGP video adapter.

If your system has a built-in video adapter, there is the possibility that some of your main memory is shared over to the video system. This is not a good thing, since system memory is much slower and functions differently than video RAM. The RAM on your video card is typically dual-ported, meaning that it can be written to (by the PC) and read from (by the video processor) at the same time, saving critical timing cycles. When system RAM, which must be written to and read from in separate timing cycles, is used for video, its contents must be moved into video RAM and processed before it can be used for display.

If you have an AGP slot available and can disable the on-board video, get a late model AGP-based video card like the one pictured in Figure 7-2

Figure 7-2. A second-generation AGP-bus video adapter