Alright, I'm having a problem. I've seen other threads about this issue, but I just want to be sure about something. I'm sure y'all have answered a question on this hardware a billion times, but please help and bear with me...

I have the Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller. It's awful! I can't play many games on it because it's not fully compatible with Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader. I even have DirectX issues on it. I got sick of it and bought an ATI Radeon 9250 to replace it. It's not the best, but it's sufficient for the games I want to play. I've put it into the computer, and it's there now, installed and everything. I've seen a small increase in performance. I went from about 16 fps in a game (Call of Duty) to 40 fps. That's great and all, but all the games I wanted to play that wouldn't work with the Intel Graphics Card still won't work! What's the deal? I found out that the Intel Graphics Card is intergrated into the motherboard. That sucks because it still acts like the primary graphics card even though I put the new ATI card in. Now, I've read that I can disable the Intel Card. I'm kind of hesitant about that because it's fused with the motherboard, so wouldn't that disable the motherboard too? I'm also afraid to disable it because I'm afraid if I did, when I restarted the computer, my screen would just be blank since my moniter is on it. Is it safe to disable my intergrated card? Anyone else having the same problem and can pass on some words of wisdom?

Disabling onboard graphics will not disable the motherboard - it will only disable the onboaed graphics. Uninstalling the onboard graphics from within Windows and not having it connected will have the same effect.

You should check to see how much system memory is allocated to onboard graphics and set it either to none or to the minimum allowable by your motherboard. System RAM allocated to onboard graphics is not available to the system itself.

You should also be mindful of how much RAM is available in your system. A modern gaming PC needs at least 512Mb of RAM installed and available.

You need also be mindful that the 9250 itself is NOT a high powered display card - it is very much a low-end card. For good performance in modern 3D games an nVidia 6600GT or ATI X700 Pro should be considered the base level for games performance.

How can I check to see how much RAM is allocated to my onboard graphics card?

By the way, I have 512MB of RAM.

There should be a setting somewhere in your BIOS setup menu system.

This article describes accessing BIOS setup
http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2....256E6D003D7A2D

This article talks about changing from onboard graphics to an add-in card, and includes mention of changing the setting for shared memory. The terms used and their location on the BIOS setup menus varies from system to system.
http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2....256E2E002C5E20

I disabled my Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller via the Device Manager (Start>Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager). All that happened was my desktop's screen resolution is now 640x480 and is being displayed in Low 8-Bit Colors. Is there anyway to fix this? Maybe I could help you help me better if I told you my goal. My goal is to get the ATI card to be the primary card that the desktop/moniter is displayed on in a normal mode. I want to be able to play games without the computer even recognizing the Intel intergrated card.

Edit: Oh, ok. I'll check out the article. Thank you very much for taking the time to help me! :mrgreen:

OH NO! I went in the BIOS and switched the display from onboard to auto, and now I have no display at all! I can't see how to fix it! Do you know how I could just use the keyboard to reset the BIOS to default?

Edit: Nevermind, I fixed it. I'm sorry, just freaked out there. I'm good with computers, I just don't like to experiment with it. I'm afraid I'll do something wrong.

heh heh.......

No need for panic. 'RESET CMOS' fixes all BIOS stuff-ups short of dead BIOS chip

Thank you, my graphics are much better now! You've helped me out big time!

Hello i also have the Intel(R) 82845g/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller and have just brought a 256MB ATI Radeon 9250 Graphics Card i and i would like to no the same things and what did you do to change it to the default graphics card ect and not very good at this type of thing thx .adio

I just posted about this pretty much, very topic, in the PCI forum. My card is the Xtasy Radeon 9250 and I assume was part of the 9000 series supported by Activision's latest games like Gun and HollywoodStudio mogul, or whatever it is. I know 3D games require very fast cards, but how can this card be a poor one when it is one of the better ones for sale around here!? I shopped all over and about half the cards had lower numbers, or the faster ones need the latest bus ports. I'd have to consider a new PC to have a motherboard that would work. It may not even be worth the bother to have the 9250, but with DVI-I, won't it work well with HDTV processing along with DVD's MPEG2, 4, DIVX and the new digital format Apple's promoting for portable devices....hopefully PSP files?
BILL