2 year old graphics card or new motherboard onboard

[jhpope]

I am replacing my motherboard and it has the ATI Radeon HD 3200 onboard video. I was using a Powercolor X1950PRO 256MB video card.

Which would be best to use?

 

[evongugg]

Welcome to the forums!

Powercolor X1950PRO 256MB video card would be better than onboard video.

 

[jhpope]

Huh, I figured the board would be since it is newer.

I don't do anything very graphics intensive anyway where I would really need to know which is actually better so I guess I will use the card in order to keep memory and processing load off the board.

Any other input, my board comes in today

 

[jay2tall]

I could swing either way on this question. You mention that you don't do anything very graphically intensive. And the HD3200 is definitely one of the better onboard graphic solutions. In my mind i wouldn't even bother with the x1950pro as it will just consume power sitting there. If you have no intentions of gaming you might be better off with the HD3200. It supports DX10 and has several HDMI functions. Your PC would also run cooler as the x1900s tend to run really hot.

Just my thoughts. More graphical power doesn't always mean better for certain situations.

 

[jhpope]

Haha, I had just decided to use the card to keep graphics processing and memory off the board. After that, now I'm leaning towards my original thought of the board.

The only thing I do really is edit RAW images in photoshop.

The hdmi is nice, but right now I just have a dvi monitor.

I'm still up in the air. Maybe I'll use the board, unless I see performance issues, in which case I'll switch to the card.

 

[jay2tall]

the ATI drivers and CCC can be really bloated. As in they take up alot of memory. I am not sure how the HD3200 drivers are, they maybe just drivers with no CCC. If it uses the system memory it may take up less memory to use the onboard. I also know some of those boards use sideport which gives the onboard GPU direct access to the RAM. Does the HD3200 have it's own dedicated memory? i know some of those onboard cards do.

RAW images in photoshop are nothing, any onboard chip would work for that. Photoshop is just memory intensive.

 

[jhpope]

i believe it does have the ability to have its own memory, but my board does not support that.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128373

It looks from this toms' review it looks like you can set the amount of system memory the gpu will take

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-780g-chipset,1785-2.html

I have noticed that the CCC is pretty bloated, but I think since this is still ATI that it would use the same driver/CCC combo

 

[coozie7]

I`d follow your own advice; use the onboard and if performance issues arise, it`s a simple job the pop the card in.