[Turtley]

I am trying to upgrade my graphics for gaming speed purposes. My 3D graphics was 3.0 with integrated nvidia6160SE (directx10) on board. I purchased nvidia geForce 9400gt (directx9). Everything installed smoothly. When I rebooted to PC and checked my graphics score it had gone down to 1. What's up? I have a graphics presario with Vista as the os. Thanks.

[Turtley]

I installed nvidia geForece 9400gt on my compaq presario that has integrated nvidia 6150SE on board for faster gaming purposes. Everything went smoothly. After installing and rebooting the PC my graphics sub score went from a performance rating of 3.0 to 1.0. What's up? I have vista as my os. Thanks.

[cogs]

I don't know from where you're measuring the performance values, but do your games run better? Also, do you have the same elements activated that you had on the other card? One more thing, does the card have updated drivers for vista?

[Turtley]

Okay now you are getting a little too technical for me. I am getting the score for my PC performance rating by going through system and maintenance. I istalled the graphics card, ran the cd, it said everything was successfully installed and to reboot the PC. When I did and checked the graphics subscore again it had gone from 3.0 to 1.0. I did not attempt to play any games or troubleshoot it further as it was my impression from the "geek" at the store that this would bring my graphic subscore up. I removed the card and did a system restore and reinstalled my original Directx10. So if it dropped the performance rating from 3.0 to 1.0 are you suggesting that it may have actually increased my graphics speed regardless of this number? Thanks.

[darkvision]

Firstly yes you should have loaded a game with it to see if it is in fact slower. Secondly one of the big reasons it could be slower is that it is A not hooked up correctly or B your PSU is not supplying enough power.

For A. open your case and look at the graphics card is their a spot for power connectors on it? If yes, is their a power cord going to it? If no, plug it in :) if you do not have additional power cords refer to B

B The big metal box in the back of the PC is your PSU, it should have a bunch of power cabels coming out of it, if your out of the appropriate voltage type for the card(base it off size) you need a better PSU. Also their should be a sticker on the PSU that shows its voltage output(should say something like 350v 450v etc) post that here as well. If the voltage amount is to low for the card you will not get optimal/increased performance.

[Turtley]

Okay I get it. There did not appear to be any place to plug it in. According to the graphics card manual all that was needed was to put the card into the appropriate slot (I did) and then run the software (I did). Everything installed successfully. My PC was not running that slow to begin with so I said to heck with it and just returned the graphics card to the store. Thanks for your help.

[darkvision]

The other thing I forgot to add(was tired last night, had been a long day). You needed to get into your BIOS and disable your onboard card if you didn't. That could have also been what was wrong.