Video/Graphics card basics???

I am running Win xp Home edition on a 1.66 Ghz computer with 480 Mb of
RAM. As part of my attempt to get my system up to par for video
capture and DVD burning I am considereing getting a better video card.

I have some dummy questions when it comes to video/graphics cards.

When I go to Control Panel/ System/Hardware/Device Manager I cannot
identify my current graphics card. How would it be listed?

1. I see some cards called video card and some called graphic
cards. Are these terms interchangeable? ( I told you they were dummy
questions)

2. I looked up some cards on OVERSTOCK.COM and here are a few of
the listings.
Radeon 9600SE 128 Mb AGP Video card

Radeon 9800 PRO 128 Mb PC Graphic Card

Radeon 9600 128 Mb AGP

Ffx GEForce 6500 Graphics Card Turbocache

What does all this mean?? All these cards are available on
Overstock.com for under $100. I guess the bottom line is, what should
I look for in a graphic card and is there a limiting factor in the
computer I am using. I realize I need more RAM and that is on my
agenda. TIA

Loring H

After I posted my info/questions below I found the graphics card. It
is a plain vanilla model. Mfgr is VIA/S3 Graphice, Inc and the Chip
type is VIA/S3G Unichrome IGP, Approx total memory is 32 Mb

Loring H
On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:23:40 GMT, Loring Hutchinson
wrote:

I am running Win xp Home edition on a 1.66 Ghz computer with 480 Mb of
RAM. As part of my attempt to get my system up to par for video
capture and DVD burning I am considereing getting a better video card.

I have some dummy questions when it comes to video/graphics cards.

When I go to Control Panel/ System/Hardware/Device Manager I cannot
identify my current graphics card. How would it be listed?

1. I see some cards called video card and some called graphic
cards. Are these terms interchangeable? ( I told you they were dummy
questions)

2. I looked up some cards on OVERSTOCK.COM and here are a few of
the listings.
Radeon 9600SE 128 Mb AGP Video card

Radeon 9800 PRO 128 Mb PC Graphic Card

Radeon 9600 128 Mb AGP

Ffx GEForce 6500 Graphics Card Turbocache

What does all this mean?? All these cards are available on
Overstock.com for under $100. I guess the bottom line is, what should
I look for in a graphic card and is there a limiting factor in the
computer I am using. I realize I need more RAM and that is on my
agenda. TIA

Loring H

Loring Hutchinson wrote:
I am running Win xp Home edition on a 1.66 Ghz computer with
480 Mb of
RAM. As part of my attempt to get my system up to par for
video
capture and DVD burning I am considereing getting a better
video card.

I have some dummy questions when it comes to video/graphics
cards.

When I go to Control Panel/ System/Hardware/Device Manager I
cannot
identify my current graphics card. How would it be listed?

1. I see some cards called video card and some called graphic
cards. Are these terms interchangeable? ( I told you they
were dummy
questions)

2. I looked up some cards on OVERSTOCK.COM and here are a few
of
the listings.
Radeon 9600SE 128 Mb AGP Video card

Radeon 9800 PRO 128 Mb PC Graphic Card

Radeon 9600 128 Mb AGP

Ffx GEForce 6500 Graphics Card Turbocache

What does all this mean?? All these cards are available on
Overstock.com for under $100. I guess the bottom line is,
what should
I look for in a graphic card and is there a limiting factor in
the
computer I am using. I realize I need more RAM and that is on
my
agenda. TIA

Loring H

I presume you're not thinking HD?

If you can play video on your PC now, you have all that you need
to capture video via a PCI or USB2 device and then write DVDs.

If you plan to do this often AND do any editing (more than
simple cuts) you'd probably want a faster PC, more memory, and
at least 2 hard drives - a second drive, or more, speeds things
up when you need to re-write large files.

I do my captures on a 6+ yr old 2gp4-512 which had an equally
old NVIDIA AGP minimal quality card. I did replace that card
with an ATI PCI graphics card, but only to support a 42" 1080p
monitor which was beyond the 60 Hz capability of the old card.

When I do write DVDs, it's at 8x via USB2, so you can surely do
that.

However, if your capture card does not produce DVD compliant
MPEG2 on-board, then think new computer, or new card!! Because
the processing time to get from non-compliant to compliant is
hefty.

Look into Hauppauge and Snazzi for MPEG2 DVD compliant capture
devices (cards) and you should not need to tweak any other
hardware. Snazzi also offers Divx capture but you'd need more
CPU power for that.