Can someone Please help?

[DaCalebMan]

Hi guys,

I'm upgrading my PC's video card, which is currently running on Intel integrated extreme Graphics 2.

Because my PC doesn't support PCI express, I have only PCI, and AGP...
I know that AGP is a bit older, but is it slower than PCI?

I found this nice card on New Egg, it's a really fast ione with lots of memory, but would it be too much of an overload for my compaq?

My PC is an HP compaq D330 DT (Business) I'm currently running on...

Intel ecxtreme graphics 2 (Integrated), Soundmax (Analog devices) soundcard, Intel celeron 2.4Ghz, 504MB RAM...

If you need any more information, don't hesitate to notify me...

Thanks,

~Caleb

[HROAdmin26]

Google is your friend - Wikipedia / AGP:

Advantages over PCI

PCI came first, then AGP (just for video cards), and then PCI Express.

As long as the motherboard supports the AGP revision of the card (read Compatibility section on Wikipedia), the card fits physically in the slot, and the power supply can handle the power draw, the card will work.

Based on your system specs (Celery, 500MB RAM), you will likely have a CPU/memory bottleneck in any games once a newer video card is installed.

This is probably near the "fastest" AGP card you can get now.

[DaCalebMan]

Hey,

Thanks for the advice on AGP! Here's what I found, I don't want something too fast for my computer to support, and especially not too expensive...

What do you think? (Click here)

~Caleb

Do you think that I should upgrade my memory or CPU, in other words, which is most limiting of the Graphic card speed.

[DaCalebMan]

P.S, the AGP graphics card I listed uses DDR2 memory...

Is that supported by my motherboard?

[coopstah13]

that won't matter, as long as the card's interface is AGP it will work

[D-cat]

Note, look carefully at the slot and where the split is in the AGP board... there's TWO AGP standards, the older 1X-2X standard and the 4X+ standard. They operate at different voltages so the cards/slots are not compatible. The slot is actually the same (cost measure I'm sure) except the 4X (split in back*) is mounted 180 from the 1/2X configuration (split in front*) so they still will not physically fit in eachother... when designed sane. Some cards (like the nVidia you're looking at) have two splits so in theory it'll fit in either slot, but be forewarned that inserting an 8X card in a higher voltage 1/2X slot could fry it... depends on how it's designed.

I only bring this up since most AGP cards out there now are 4 or 8X, but you might have an older MB that only takes a 1/2X card. My best advice would be to a) find out what slot you have on your MB, and if its a 4/8, you can ignore my post, but if it's a 1/2, read up very well on any card you get before plugging it in.

* relative to the slot opening in the back of the computer