Q: This is probably a silly question, but I’m quite new to using computers. My PC (HP Media Center m7760n) has integrated graphics on the motherboard, but there’s a spare PCIe x16 slot to allow it to have a separate graphics card. My question is, if I want to use this slot to add a new card and boost graphics performance do I need to do anything to activate it and tell the machine to use the card in place of the onboard?
A: In most cases you shouldn’t need to do anything, the motherboard should detect when a card is plugged into the x16 slot and automatically disable the onboard graphics. In the event that it doesn’t all you need to do is go into the BIOS and look for a setting labelled something like “primary video” which should give you the choice of which graphics to use. You’ll need your monitor connected to the onboard port to do this, but once you’ve made the change you’ll have to swap it to the new card or you won’t see anything on the screen.
It’s worth noting here that this model of HP has a motherboard that is actually made by Asus (model number P5LP-LE). So in the event that you need updates or drivers you should be able to get them from Asus as an alternative to the HP website.
Originally featured in PCU107