tips on setting up a new graphic card

[dangerousmovingunit]

i have a nvidia geforce 2 mx400 video card and i can barley play any good games anymore so im deciding to get the at radeon 9550 card, but i have no experience in changing graphic cards..so can someone give me some tips on taking the cards out/in and if i just need to run the setup after that.
thanks

 

[Motoxrdude]

Well, just make sure you have the write slot for that 9550. Do you know if you are getting the agp edition or the pci one? The agp one is better, but some computers don't have an AGP slot. Do you know if you computer has an AGP slot?

 

[dangerousmovingunit]

im gonna be try to get the agp slot but how can you check?

 

[Maddhatter]

geforce 2 mx400 is an AGP card so it has to have an AGP slot....and swapping them out is very simple.....unscrew the on thats in there pull it out, push the new one in with a little pressure until it fits properly and then screw it in place...boot up and download the latest drivers from the ati website. I wouldn't recommend using the drivers off the cd that comes with the cards they're very buggy and outdated

 

[Motoxrdude]

geforce 2 mx400 is an AGP card so it has to have an AGP slot....and swapping them out is very simple.....unscrew the on thats in there pull it out, push the new one in with a little pressure until it fits properly and then screw it in place...boot up and download the latest drivers from the ati website. I wouldn't recommend using the drivers off the cd that comes with the cards they're very buggy and outdated

Not all of the mx400 are PCI.
PCI slots are white and AGP slots are brown. Heres a picture of a pci slots:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Pci-slots.jpg/200px-Pci-slots.jpg
And heres an agp slot:
That brown slot is the agp slot:
http://www.benchmark.co.yu/tests/mainboards/asus/a7ve/agp.jpg

 

[diduknowthat]

geforce 2 mx400 is an AGP card so it has to have an AGP slot

Then what do you call this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005QFYM/002-8861599-5584842?v=glance&n=172282



@dangerousmovingunit, just open the computer up and see if there's a slot situated a bit to the right ontop of all the PCI slots. Also, you can download programs like Everest that tells you all the info bout your graphics card.

 

[Maddhatter]

ah well thats my mistake then

 

[dangerousmovingunit]

ok mine is an agp and has agp slot so i turn on install CD and update drivers and finish?

 

[34erd]

ok mine is an agp and has agp slot so i turn on install CD and update drivers and finish?

Thats it.

You might want to uninstall the nvidia drivers first though.

 

[dangerousmovingunit]

do i have to? you mean the one i dl from their site the driver update?

 

[ckfordy]

do i have to? you mean the one i dl from their site the driver update?

Unistall your old drivers and get the fresh one from the manufactures website and youll be good to go.

 

[dangerousmovingunit]

ok my geforce 2 mx400 has a 3 slot chip while the new one im trying to get has only 2 slots

my current one has 3 so will it be okay? if i put in the new card? because my computers agp slot has 3 insertions 2 with a little wide sockets in each side with a smaller one in the middle