n00b with a n00b question

N

Number1SuperGuy

New Member
Hey guys, nice forum!

I've done a little work with computer hardware before. Not nearly as much as I'd like to but hey, I work for peanuts :D Anyways I'm gonna be buying an entirely new system soon but lately I seem to be bewildered by all the different video cards on the market. I understand some of the simpler things like the difference between AGP and PCI-E but there's something that I just can't seem to grasp. Does it matter what video card you put in what motherboard? I ask because I figured there'd be very specific guidelines about which motherboards support which video cards but everywhere I look it seems like it makes no difference. Could someone please explain to me how I can pick a video card that will be compatible with my motherboard?
 
first of all, welcome to the forums!

motherboards are basically the piece where the rest of the hardware goes. concerning the video card, motherboards support either AGP or PCI-E which you already know. some motherboards have Nvidia Scalable Link Interface or SLI support which means you can hook up two of the same Nvidia video cards s for increased performance and. it goes the same for ATI if you have a motherboard that is Crossfire supported.
 
Thanks for your help! The funny thing is that the things you just mentioned are basically the few things I already knew :D What I was specifically wondering is I see motherboards that say things like "nForce 405 chipset 6100" does this mean it only works with the Nvidia 6000 series video cards or could I hook up any card to it?
 
the chipsets on the motherboard allow for what kind of processor and gpu it is able to support.

maybe the other members could help you out here as i'm not too familiar with the chipsets and its features. :)
 
I'm pretty familiar with processor support, it's just the GPU that gets me confused. But thanks for your help so far :D Anyone else have more experience with video card compatibility?
 
You can have any graphic card on any motherboard almost. Rarely will you ever find a motherboard that cannot support a graphic card with the correct bus type. Your example of the nForce 405 chipset 6100 has nothing to do with your graphic card except for the onboard graphics will be the 6100. You can have an ATI or Nvidia card in an nForce motherboard and so on. I hop between the companies all the time. Hope this helps!
 
Thank you so much that was very helpful! That should be all I needed to get started. It'll probably be a while before I actually purchase the computer but now I'm much less hesitant.

Again, my kudos to this forum. I'll definitely be coming back whenever I feel like talking nerdy :)
 
Honestly, for compatibility issues, and peace of mind, don't build something odd with an Nvidia chipset motherboard, and an ATI video card, and a Cryix (I know I'm reaching into the past for that one, hehe) CPU, and then wonder if you're getting the max outta your system.
As far as I know, video cards are interchangeable, but I think there are some motherboard features and CPU features that could work better in conjunction with the appropriate video card.
Kind of like a wireless LAN, it says "Up to xxMB/s", and they mean up to that speed, ONLY IF you buy their stuff, i.e, the same brand router, same brand WAP, same brand NIC, etc . .


But for conversations sake, yea, you could probably put any video card in any motherboard and expect it to produce the basic functional graphics you wanted it to.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top