graphics card advice / onboard mem. shortage prob.

Hello,

I'm sure this is a century old problem put down, but hey, what can I do

I am having trouble with my configuration, which is an HP / 2 Duo 2.8GHz x2 / 3Gb ram / intel onboard vga with max 384 Gb mem allocation (basically an office servant , that is what my univ. told me to teach with sadly). The graphics manuf. interface tells it is using only 27Mb of memory all the time. I am not sure whats going on. SW (2008 sp0) takes years to save/update/move objects (obj.s like a line of 48pcs chain), objects are partly shown many times (cut from sides), and many of the hard times, it crashes. (I have freezes with my browser also, so it might be a system problem, dunno..)

Could someone advice me how to overcome this ? I am not working on heavy models or renders, yet. Being low on my budget, would a 2nd hand 256 or 512 mb graphics card with a reputable chipset ease my work ? If so what details shall I be considering when buying one ?

Thanks a lot everyone..

halukb

SolidworksAdministration