AGP vs. PCI

[ImanAzlan]

I have a preinstalled 16MB SDR SiS PCI card, so, I want to buy an AGP 128MB DDR Sapphire Radeon 9250. I'm using VIA Samuel 650mhz processor (Damning low spec), bought 2 years ago, if that makes a difference. So yeah My questions are:

1. Will the DDR work on my PC?
2. Will AGP work on my PC?

 

[LTR12101B]

Depends on the motherboard, not the CPU.

The first absolute rule - the memory technology of a graphics card is the business of the card and nothing else - other issues relating to specifications do matter, but a DDR RAM graphics card would work with an SDRAM motherboard if nothing else prevented it.

Back to the main thing...

The CPU is Socket 370 (eg. Celeron socket) - and that covers a range which runs from PCI only, through AGP 1.0 and 2.0 specification. If it's only AGP 1.0 - 3.3v specification, that that is also pretty dodgy for modern cards.

The 9250 seems to be one of the last graphics cards to be fully "Universal" with AGP 2x mode at 3.3v supported, so it looks like you may be ok if you can see an AGP slot (usually brown, set further in than the PCI slots). Never rely on a utility that says there is AGP, as it could be an AGP-supporting chipset with no actual slot on the board!


http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
Try Everest, see what that has to say about the motherboard

 

[ImanAzlan]

Hey thanks man! So, I can buy a 9250? Damn great!

 

[ImanAzlan]

Refresh! Thanks for the link, I guess my mobo supports AGP 2.0 which means 4x So yeah, I just found some ATi but runs on 8x, can I use it aswell?

 

[VIPER_1069]

Refresh! Thanks for the link, I guess my mobo supports AGP 2.0 which means 4x So yeah, I just found some ATi but runs on 8x, can I use it aswell?

YES you can use an 8X IMAN but it will run at 4x by default as thats all your board can handle and use

but .....if its cheap enough for you than other cards then buy it ... you maby able to upgrade your motherboard at a later date with 8x and you will already have the 8x board to use with it

 

[ImanAzlan]

Well, upgrade mobo? You mean buy a new mobo And yeah, Can you suggest me the Cheapest ATi/nVidia AGP 8x (128MB RAM)

 

[scarecrow]

You can buy an Nvidia FX 5XXX series AGP videocard with 128M RAM for less than $60. Performance wise it isn't spectacular, many modern games will have a tough time running on it (if running at all), but for any other task than gaming they are fairly adequate. Not many things to report about ATI cards- I'm mainly a Linux user and until fairly recently the ATi drivers for Linux were plain horrible, so I always avoided buying ATi hardware.