ATI Radeon HD 3200 & Vista x64

I have an HP Pavilion with ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics
I use Second Life and the latest version of SL does not work with my graphics card
I do not know if my graphics card is "integrated" in which case I think I'm out of luck .. OR ... if I can purchase a new graphics card for this computer to replace the 3200 that will no longer work with SL
any advice? thanks

 

:wave Welcome to Major Geeks! :major

Well, since HP made over 2000 different Pavilion models in both desktop and laptop configurations, it's hard to say for sure. But, if the PC is a laptop, the answer is "No, you cannot install a different video card". If the PC is a tower/desktop, then the answer is "You can probably install a PCI-Express video card". Some HP towers do not have PCIe video card slots and you would be forced to use a fairly low-end PCI card which is not really going to help much. Also, some HP tower PCs cannot accept high-end PCIe video cards due to space constraints inside the case, and there's also the fact that most higher end PCIe video cards have their own power connectors and must be plugged in to the PC's power supply. Stock power supplies from the factory are famous for being somewhat weak and under-powered and generally are not strong enough to power high-end video cards. So you may need to upgrade the power supply as well as the video card depending on which video card you end up purchasing.
I hope this helps! :-D

EDIT- I did some poking around at SecondLife web sites, and found no mention of the exact model of video card you have, the HD3200. This doesn't really mean anything, but I found it odd that it's not listed as a compatible card or as an incompatible card. Also, I found no mention of Vista x64 so it may be that SL is not compatible with 64bit operating systems, but I could be wrong about this. More info about SL issues and compatibility can be found at these links:
http://jira.secondlife.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Category:Bug_Fixes
https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417

 

thank you for such a thorough and prompt reply

geeks rule

yep it's a laptop. sigh ... ok i shall begin shopping for a new one with improved graphics card

again THANKS!