Riser cards exist for both PCI & AGP:
o Sometimes they can help cooling - or impede it
o Depends on the case cooling layout, graphics card heatsink design etc
Keeping the slot next to the AGP slot clear is a very good idea.
Remember the fan on a graphics card is just to blow air on the heatsink
o You still have to get that heated air out of the PC
o Until the heated air is removed, the grfx card fan recirculates its own hot air
---- the delta-T between case-ambient & grfx heatsink becomes less
---- the card will run hotter, and the cheap fan typically will have a shorter life
o Some cards have better heatsinks than others
---- but getting the heat out of the case is important too
The BTX case design did have some benefits:
o It allowed a blow-thro direct airflow path thro inlet - CPU - Grfx - outlet
o Unfortunately it suggested a single (cheap) fan solution for all of them
---- Prescott P4 is a short-term architecture, future architecture is P-M
---- however Graphics Cards ramped very quickly in thermal output
o Passively cooled high-end graphics cards requires high airflow
---- otherwise case temperature suffers, and eventually so will the card
nVidia seen to have fewer problems than ATI.
ATI seem to be favoured by some reviewers, perhaps for reasons of
advertising or some particular application (multi-function graphics cards).
Well worth reading some reviews of the prospective cards - and there are
other branded suppliers of cards like Crucial to consider re driver quality.
Since you are looking at the non-bleeding-edge of the market, you may
want to consider a PCI card - it may offer easier fitment or cooling etc. It
has lower bandwidth than AGP - but is another option you may consider.
Driver quality does matter.
