AGP backwards compatible?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sparky
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Sparky

I have an older MB with a first generation AGP slot. I want to replace
the old card with a relatively newer video card. Can I use an 2x AGP or
x4 card? Are they backwards compatible? Any help appreciated.
 
Do you mean are your slots backwards compatible or is the card going to be
backwards compatible? Your slot will not be. The card you buy might possibly
be, but you are several generations behind. You have already been left
behind by the 4x, 8x, and now the PCIX16.
 
Sparky said:
I have an older MB with a first generation AGP slot. I want to replace
the old card with a relatively newer video card. Can I use an 2x AGP or
x4 card? Are they backwards compatible? Any help appreciated.
Click to expand...

There is a nice article here:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp.html

If you buy a real expensive card, most of the performance of
the card will be wasted, as your processor won't run fast enough
to keep it busy. This is even true today of processors like 4000+,
so your motherboard is not the only one with this problem. A
high end card would allow you to run the monitor at a large
resolution without penalty, so that would be an advantage. It
is also possible, if the texture memory on the new video card
is large, that most of the textures needed by a "level" in a game,
could be stored in the card, which might avoid short "hangs" during
game play.

If your motherboard has a 3.3V only AGP video slot, then according
to the playtool web page, either a "Universal AGP card" or a
"Universal AGP 3.0 card" could be used. Both of those have the
option of operating at 3.3V, and both of those cards will have
the 3.3V slot cut in the edge connector of the card.

You can get some other info about video cards here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20041012...ykuly/zestawienie_GPU_2/skala_wydajnosci.html

and this list is a bit more up to date, in terms of naming them
all.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/graphicscards-names.html

Knowing what chipset is on your board, might make it easier to
speculate on what is the best choice.

Paul
 
I have an older MB with a first generation AGP slot. I want to replace
the old card with a relatively newer video card. Can I use an 2x AGP or
x4 card? Are they backwards compatible? Any help appreciated.
Click to expand...

Many first generation slots had lower power supply
capability and will not support a modern card even if it
logically and mechanically would fit. With such an old
board, you're also not likely to need the performance of a
modern card either, the CPU or memory, etc, is a large
bottleneck.

A low-end 2X or 4X card will usually work, but with some
(like Super Socket 7 (socket 7 with 100MHz FSB support))
motherboards, the chipset was quite picky and you're best
bet would be a PCI card or a Voodoo 2 AGP card.

What features or performance do you need from this card? If
nothing in particular you might see if a local mom-n-pop
computer shop has something lying around that they'd sell
for $5.
 
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