motherboard question

newbiesforever · 07-13-2013, 12:21 AM

I'm preparing to replace my five-year-old motherboard, and it seems I'm rusty on understanding all the possible features. If a board I look at has no onboard graphics chipset, doesn't that mean if I boot the computer with it, I won't see any video without installing a graphics card? I've never used a graphics card and would rather not buy one, because I never use any graphics-intensive software.

Ser Olmy · 07-13-2013, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbiesforever

If a board I look at has no onboard graphics chipset, doesn't that mean if I boot the computer with it, I won't see any video without installing a graphics card?

Yes, that's exactly what it means.

cascade9 · 07-13-2013, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbiesforever

If a board I look at has no onboard graphics chipset, doesn't that mean if I boot the computer with it, I won't see any video without installing a graphics card?

In 'the old days' yes. Now the terminology has got more complicated.

New Intel chipsets and some AMD chipsets have the video chip/GPU on the CPU. Sometiems that is listed as 'onboard video', sometimes its listed as 'Supported only by CPU with integrated graphics' and all sorts of other things.

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbiesforever

I've never used a graphics card and would rather not buy one, because I never use any graphics-intensive software.

A cheap video card is $30 or under and worth it in many cases IMO, even if you arent playing games or runnig graphics heavy software.

In almost all cases using onbaord video means you are sharing 'main' system RAM and RAM I/Os for video use.