PCI or AGP?

[gazzaman]

Hi all, first i'd like to this forum is really helpful and has lots of good advice and tips posted on it, keep it up.

I'd like to ask how can i tell what sort of connection my graphics card port has, as in how do i tell if it is a PCI or AGP (i think thats the right abrev.)?

Any tips or advice would be appreciated as i want to buy a new graphics card, the graphics card that came with the computer is a NVIDIA GeForce 420 MX

thanks

gazzaman

 

[KGB-911]

There is only one AGP slot on a motherboard, and it has some kind of way to secure the card when it is in, maybe a pin or a latch.

there are many PCI slots on the motherboard.

hope this helps identify which port it uses.

 

[Belloni]

The AGP slot is usually a brown colour ... lol

Also the slot that it goes into is shorter then the PCI slot i think :S

 

[KGB-911]

None of the motherboards i have seen have a brown AGP, they are all green or gray for me.

 

[G~MAN]

well how old is your computer or motherboard as pci is quite new

 

[gazzaman]

Hi thanks for the advice, I'll pop it open and have a look, does anyone know where i can buy a good value graphics card, I'm not a hardcore gamer, but do play a bit things like call of duty and unreal 2004, I may also be playing online soon.
Any suggestions, I dont really want to pay a fortune for one, I heard the Geforce 5200 or 5700 are quite good .... what do you think????

 

[gazzaman]

I bought it in 2002, what do you think agp or pci?

 

[G~MAN]

a good card is the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. You can get it at www.overclockers.co.uk quite cheap...

it can handle alot of games well

 

[G~MAN]

agp i think

pci came out this year

 

[gazzaman]

i'll take a butchers, is radeon better than nvidia?

 

[KGB-911]

that is a matter of opinion

 

[G~MAN]

ati maufacture radeon cards...

and there is a war and always will be a war with the two companies nvidia and ati...

i was in the same situation a few weeks ago...search it on the forum search...

i opted for the ati card but theres not much in it...

i would say the radeon is best for your needs cheap and a very good card

 

[gazzaman]

There are alot of manufactures of these cards both nvidia and radeon such as sapphire, novatech etc is there much difference in these? Do you think cards around the £50 mark any good?
cheers

 

[Me__2001]

post a link to the cards you are thinking of getting and we will try to tell you the best card

 

[G~MAN]

a card of £50 wont be much good at playing current games...if you want to play call of duty and want it to look good you should be thinking about £100 - £120 maybe...and the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro will play unreal and call of duty well and it is in that price range...

also it will be good for half life 2 and that.

you'll be able to notice the difference between a £50 to a £100 card how much would you be willing to spend on a new gfx card??

 

[gazzaman]

here are a few i'm interested in, to tell the truth I dont know anything about the specs but you'll have a much better idea than me, bear with me I'm very new to 'upgrading' my PC.

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=308428&cks=PRL
http://usa.asus.com/products/vga/v9570le/overview.htm
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a340_t_2.html
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=FX5500-TD256&class=vga
http://usa.asus.com/products/vga/v9570td/overview.htm

any other suggestions for radeon card that doesnt cost as much as the 9800 Pro, I probably wont need a card this good ie expensive!!!

ps I'm not trying to cut corners but, at the moment my geforce 420MX, does an ok job for my standards but I wouldnt mind the option to get more detail, frame rates etc because i may try some online gaming in the near future

 

[gazzaman]

thought it would also help to know what i have.... Compaq Athlon Xp 2200+ 1.79ghz 512RAM 40GB HD

 

[Me__2001]

i would recommend getting a 5700LE, you can get an XFX one form overclockers.co.uk for about £50 and it would be good enough for playing most games on the normal settings. chris did a review on a PNY version which can be found here

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-10159.php

card can be found here (11th one down)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/FX5200_Series.html

 

[gazzaman]

thanks for the quick advice I read chris' review earlier and the 5700LE sounds like it will fit in nicely. Will my setup get the best from this card?

 

[Me__2001]

what OS are you running? 98 ? also did you check if you have an AGP slot ?

you have 512MB of RAM which is good for gaming, the only thing that may be a bottle neck is the CPU but upgrading that may be expensive.

overall you have a reasonable system and with the new graphics card you will be able to play more games