do i need a graphics card

[gcj123]

Hi, i am planning to buy a PC and one of my main purpose is to watch DVD movies on it. I am not much into games. Do you think that I will need to buy a separate graphics card to watch movies? Will the onboard 64 mb graphics suffice? And does a separte graphics card make a significant difference for DVD movie watching?
Goutam

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Onboard graphics should be enough

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[pauldh]

I am not sure if the Integrated would be perfect for DVD's or not, but do yourself a favor and buy a computer that has an AGP slot, so you can add a graphics card if you later want one. An example why is the Dell 2400 series. Integrated Intel Exreme graphics and NO AGP port... you are stuck with crappy graphics unless you replace the motherboard. Sure, it's games that would make you want to upgrade, but knowing you CAN'T upgrade makes those value systems lose all value in my book. The Dell 4600 series now comes with Intel Extreme II integrated graphics, but at least you get an AGP slot.

If you are building one, the Integrated graphics on the NF2 mobos isn't bad and you still get an AGP slot.


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[Mr5oh]

I remember I had to upgrade my 32 MB TNT2 card to watch DVDs in higher resolutions. I pretty much always run in 1280x1024. I told my buddy at the shop that I was getting choppy playback from my DVDs in these resolutions, he said it was my video card, I upgraded and the problem went away.

Of course obvisuly this TNT2 probably wasn't as good as the on-board graphics on your new computer.

Like mentioned above, make sure you get a board with an AGP slot, just so you do have some options to upgrade, if the need arises.

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