Integrated 3d Cards aren't as impressive

[~|Fox-Hound|~]

Well nowadays the Compaqs usually come with an Integrated video card whether it is an ATI Rage or any 2d/3d bit card. People are fooled by it and do not know that their ram is being shared in half everytime they play games which reduces your virtual memory bandwith. I noticed it on a computer today and it was annoying and slow. So basically get a computer with a non integrated 3d card such as a Tnt or a Geforce so it's replacable by another AGP card

[FreakyOCR]

That's why it never recommended to get a name-brand computer as upgradeablility is very poor in those machines. (Aside from poor performance and lack of stability)

[RobRich]

nVidia's nForce integrated chipset platform is about the only decent onboard video solution currently available due to the memory access model of this chipset. The 440 uses a 128-bit transfer model with dual-channel DDR memory. The Athlon only needs 64-bits, thus the extra 64-bits can be utilized for video memory transfers. Toss in 512 MB of system memory, and the nForce performs moderately well.

Otherwise, anyone interested in gaming should definitely avoid integrated video systems.