Help Your PC’s Graphics Make Vista and XP Sparkle
windows vista clearly ups the ante
on PC graphics power. No matter how
basic or advanced your machine, chances
are you can upgrade its graphics hardware
to run Vista’s Aero interface—or
improve XP—for viewing online
videos, playing games, and using
other graphics-heavy apps.
Find the connection: If the video
connector on the back of your PC
is next to the USB, PS/2, and other
ports that are attached directly to
the motherboard, your system has
integrated graphics. Make sure
your computer has an open AGP
or PCI Express x16 slot.
If your PC does not automatically
disable the old graphics processor
when a new card is in -
stalled, enter your system’s BIOS
(watch for the key to press when
your system starts but before Windows
loads) and disable the setting
for integrated graphics.
Get the right card for your PC: High-end
graphics cards typically need their own
power connector. They also generate lots
of heat, and often are so big they require
the space of two expansion slots. Make
sure your case has plenty of room inside.
Upgrade DirectX: Fast-action games and
other graphics-intensive programs re -
quire a recent version of DirectX. Windows
XP supports versions up to DirectX
9c, but to use the improvements in the
latest, DirectX 10, you’ll need Windows
Vista—and compatible graphics hardware
that won’t be mainstream until late
this year. To check your Di rectX version
in XP, click Start•Run and type dxdiag; in
Vista, click Start and type dxdiag in the
Start Search box. Your DirectX version is
listed under the System tab. The Display
tab shows graphics RAM and other data
on your video subsystem (see FIGURE 1).
Do driver diligence: Download the latest
version of your card’s driver from the
vendor’s Web site. Before you swap out
the cards, however, remove the old card’s
driver to avoid problems. In XP, choose
Start•Control Panel•Add or Remove Programs,
select the current graphics driver,
and click Remove. In Vista, click Start•
Control Panel•Uninstall a program (Programs
and Features in the Classic View).
What if you don’t see your driver listed?
Right-click My Computer (Computer
in Vista) and select Manage•
Device Manager. Under ‘Display
adapters’, right-click the graphics
driver and select Uninstall.
Upgrade on the inside: If you’re
not quite ready for a new graphics
board, you can squeeze more performance
out of your system’s
current graphics hardware by
overclocking it. Both of the leading
graphics card makers—ATI
and nVidia—include an overclocking
utility with many of their
cards. Using ATI’s Overdrive utility
doesn’t invalidate the card’s
warranty, but using nVidia’s Coolbits
overclocking program does.
Overheating is probably this
trick’s biggest risk. While ATI’s Overdrive
utility monitors a graphics card’s
temperature and prevents overheating,
most other overclocking utilities don’t.
Rigging an inexpensive thermal sensor
like HighSpeed PC’s $15 Digital Thermal
Probe to monitoryour graphics card
temperature could
save you the cost of a replacement.
