Video cards are how your computer communicates with your monitor to display pictures on the screen. Many 486 (and older) motherboards have an on board video adapter. But the majority of pentium motherboards need to have a seperate card to plug the moniter into. Most video cards have memory built in. This is like RAM that is used soley for video purposes and helps to greatly increase the speed an overall quilty of the graphics you are seeing. A general tip is that the more memory on you video card the better the performance will be. It will also cost more though. I have 4 megs on my card and it is upgradeable to 8 and I find that this works well for any application that I use. Serious gamers might want more to help speed up graphic intensive games.
To install a video card:
Turn off your computer and unplug it.
Check the type of slot you need to install the video card in. It should say on the box if it needs a PCI or ISA slot. Almost all video cards go into PCI slots but some very old ones go into ISA slots. I will detail this on how to install a PCI video card but if you have an ISA video card just follow the steps as if PCI slot means ISA.
Remove the case,
Look inside and find a free PCI slot (picture).
Take special care not to touch the hard drive or the motherboard without grounding yourself or discharging any static build up that you may have by touching an unpainted metal part of the case. Static electricity can damage or erase computer components and data.
Remove the metal strip that is in front of the slot on the case (some unscrew, some must be popped out).
Take the video card and gently, yet firmly push it straight down into the slot until it is firmly seated.
Screw the card into the case (picture).
Replace the cover in your computer.
Attach the moniter cable to the back of your computer and screw it in.
All you need to do is install the drivers now.