Review on VisionTek Radeon 5450 2GB DDR3 Graphics Card Review: DVI-I, HDMI, VGA - 900861, Black/Red by Joseph Cvetkovic

Error installing driver on my 11 year old Dell with Windows 7 64-bit I have already tried 2 other graphics cards as well as integrated graphics cards. I was starting to think that this might not be possible due to some internal hardware. I've lost count of the number of times I've opened the case and tried to install different drivers. I ended up dropping the Visiontek Radeon 5450 and ordering a PNY NVIDIA Geforce GT 730. I dropped them, downloaded the latest driver although they don't list the GT 730 as one of the cards it works with, and connected the computer to the internet. Everything works for me and it's GREAT! - Side windows open without overlap. You can see wide images without being reduced to an unsatisfactory vertical size. And I added a second screen to place the files panel, tools and layers for Adobe Photoshop, leaving the entire image free! disappointing and maybe it will work for other brands. If you google "Dell Optiplex Widescreen" you will see many people asking for help, but not many report that their problem is solved. I was surprised to see that this issue dates back to the early 2000s! Apparently, widescreen monitors appeared before HDTV. I didn't find anything specific that could help me. One thing to note here is that I don't have an Optiplex that is connected to the internet. Windows is like Bubble Boy - no immune system! It works well when isolated from the environment, but when connected to the network, it gradually becomes a useless behemoth between Microsoft "updates" and a virtual swamp of malware. All McAfee, Norton and other branded security software can only delay this and slow everything down from the moment they are installed. Around 2012 I bought my previous computer, an Optiplex 755, and also bought a Toshiba NB505 netbook specifically to get online. Network. Both had Win7. The NB505 initially worked great, but after about 4 months it started to lag. The usual cleaning history and defragmenting didn't help, so I did a reformat. This helped a lot, but it's a lot of trouble even though there's almost nothing on the computer. Over the next 2-3 years, this cycle was repeated several times. At one point, after receiving a blue screen ransom attack, I reformatted and even installed Norton on it. (about $50!) After that it was never like new. Slow and Norton keeps crashing. But it eventually got so slow, even after a full OS reinstall, that I gave up and tried to install Linux OS on it. Since I'm not a programmer, it didn't work for me. He could access the Internet, but everything was very basic and crude. Some websites didn't even open. At that point, Google Chrome was available, so I bought a Chromebook. By now the Optiplex 755 was perfectly operational. I did a defrag maybe once or twice a year, but that's about it. And that's how it was until a few months ago. (August 2020) I'm digressing here so I'll cut short what happened: I got another Optiplex 755 with Win10 and both connected to the same monitors and keyboard. Either Win10 (connected to the internet) killed it via connections or the Vizio TV somehow disabled it via the HDMI cable. I still don't know. Evidence for both theories. All of this suggests that part of the problem with installing the graphics driver is that the device is not connected to the internet. There are many Windows components that need to be updated in order for video card drivers to install and work. To help with my Google search, I'll summarize some of the basics: Have the new LG 29WK50S, an ultra widescreen computer monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio. (29-inch, 2560 x 1080) It comes with a disc that looks like it has a driver but doesn't have one. It only contains security warnings, warranty information, and legal garbage. Waste of time, don't plug it into your player. And don't visit their website. No help. After many wasted hours I ditched the Radeon 5450 graphics card and got a PNY NVIDIA Geforce GT 730. The package included a disc which was the driver and other software but also failed to install. It got to the point that you restart the computer and while booting Windows reinstalls the default driver which prompts the installation of the new driver blocked. website and got the latest driver for the GT 730. There was also something from Microsoft, NT 4.0, that I said I needed, and I got it. So far the driver has not been installed. Another 2 hours wasted. I gave up for a few days. working on a much larger project (prototyping a UVC pathogen killing helmet and face mask). Coming back to that, I tried installing the latest 2020 Geforce driver even though it wasn't listed as applicable for the older "legacy" GT 730. He pushed further but still failed. I tried a few more times, but in the end I decided to take the risk of connecting my computer to the internet. It worked. It automatically downloaded a bunch of stuff from Microsoft and NVIDIA, and then booted up with the LG ultra wide display at its correct 2560 x 1080 resolution. And the old ViewSonic display was now on! I immediately unplugged the internet cable. Bottom line, if you want to use widescreen on a Win7 machine, you'll have to risk some updates from Microsoft. I've heard many stories about how they "upgraded" old versions of the operating system, forcing people to lose their old software and be online, so be careful. For example, my old version of Adobe Photoshop doesn't work on Win10. In my opinion the main blame for this lies with LG as this is their product and should work with existing equipment. My guess is that they must be receiving a lot of returns from unsatisfied customers. They did a great job with the hardware but missed the opportunity with the software. In fact, they didn't even notice! Perhaps PNY, Dell, AMD, LG or whoever will take this opportunity to create a generic driver package that will work for a variety of configurations and situations. I would happily pay $20 for something like this to save me a lot of time.