Yep. You need a GPU and a monitor to see the stuff that you need to see.
The OS has basic character and graphics drivers built into it. Doesn't have any of the fancy - or not so fancy
- drivers for the acceleration features of the card.
Once you boot and install the OS, put the chipset driver disk (the one that came with the motherboard) in the optical drive and install those drivers.
Then you can install the video drivers. Then install the printer driver and any other device driver you have.
Install some kind of firewall and antivirus software.
Do not go online without these.
Then download all the updates.
Anyway, this is basically what I do.