Windows 7: New MB - use onboard graphics or old card?

bilzmale · 03 Jun 2010

I have aGigabyte GA-MA785GM-UD2H motherboard on order. The onboard graphics are AMD HD4200 which I believe are pretty good. I also have a nVidia GeForce 8400 GS which I bought when I upgraded to a HD monitor.

Simple question which should I use when the new MB is installed?

stormy13 · 03 Jun 2010

Pretty much either or as they both perform about the same. The only advantage the 8400GS will have is that it won't use system ram.

rev1775 · 03 Jun 2010

If I read the specs correctly and maybe I didn't but it doesn't look like you can use an Nvidia card in that board since the onboad video is ATI already...

smarteyeball · 03 Jun 2010

You can disable the onboard in order to use the nvidia card

If the 840OGS has a fan, one advantage of using the onboard would be less noise. However it's a moot point if the 8400GS is passively cooled.

If that's the case, then go with the external to save on the onboard using your system resources.

rev1775 · 03 Jun 2010

Aah okay, wasn't sure if you could use the Nvidia.. with the onboard you could use it as crossfire though with another ati card, which might be okay with decent amount of memory installed at least.

smarteyeball · 03 Jun 2010

With certain models of ATI cards, you can hybrid crossfire with the onboard GPU.

stormy13 · 03 Jun 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by smarteyeball

With certain models of ATI cards, you can hybrid crossfire with the onboard GPU.

And very limited amount of cards as well. Assuming the 785G only allows the same as the 780G, then the 4 shown here,

Compatibility Charts

are it. All things considering it is a nice idea, but not very practical as you can get better performance for a single card that isn't much faster than the supported cards when used this way.

Mellon Head · 03 Jun 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by stormy13

...All things considering it is a nice idea, but not very practical as you can get better performance for a single card that isn't much faster than the supported cards when used this way.

Agreed. The money you'd spend to get a card to Hybrid Crossfire with would only be a little cheaper than a card that would outperform the two of them together in Hybrid.

If you have a compatible ATI card just laying around, then sure, but I wouldn't go out and buy one just for Hybrid. Spending a little extra money on a discrete card makes much more sense.

archie123 · 04 Jun 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by smarteyeball

With certain models of ATI cards, you can hybrid crossfire with the onboard GPU.

can you!!?? cool

i know you can use your NVidia card as a PHYSx card and run onboard as main GPU

Windows 7: New MB - use onboard graphics or old card?

New MB - use onboard graphics or old card? problems?