Say if a PC had a motherboard with an onboard graphics chip and I wanted to install a graphics card, would the motherboard stop using the chip and just use the card (and thus free up the ram it reserves for the chip)?

You'd have to check the board's details. Some come with only the onboard graphics and no AGP or PCI-E slots, MicroATX boards in particular. The same can be said for some full system manufacturers; some of them use proprietary motherboards which all but close off your system to upgrades.

 

 

 

However if it does have an AGP/PCI-E slot then you're pretty much guaranteed you can use a third party graphics card. Why bother putting on in if they won't let you use it?

if the graphics card is built in and your putting in a new card heres what you do. first install the drivers for the new card. next go to start, control panel, system, the hardware tab, device manager. now you go into ythe graphic card section and disable the built in card. after all this is said and done all you have to do is power down, put the new card in, hook monitor up to the card, go back into the device manager and enable the new card

if the graphics card is built in and your putting in a new card heres what you do. first install the drivers for the new card. next go to start, control panel, system, the hardware tab, device manager. now you go into ythe graphic card section and disable the built in card. after all this is said and done all you have to do is power down, put the new card in, hook monitor up to the card, go back into the device manager and enable the new card

 

D'oh, I was afraid it was this obvious >.<

 

Thanks for the help, both of you!