Re: motherboard and video card question

RR wrote:
I have a K8N motherboard and nVidia Geforce FX 5200 video card and minimum video requirements for this computer game I just bought is a geforce 6600. When I start the game a window comes up and my video controller doesn't support separate alpha blend. I just updated my drivers but still no luck.

My question is... since my K8N motherboard only seems to have "PCI" and AGP video slots, how different is PCIexpress and would I be correct to assume that my motherboard would would not support the PCIe video card?

I think I am going to have to get a new video card and I'm looking at my options.

You can get X1950Pro AGP cards. They draw a fair amount of power,
and also perform pretty well in DX9. (There are both PCI Express x16 and
AGP versions, and both cards have the same clocks.) You could check here
for some benchmarks.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html

There is a claim that some day, the HD3850 or HD3870 may become
available in AGP, but that hasn't happened yet as far as I know.
Nvidia has made some pretty fast AGP cards in the past, but for
the most part, has given up on that market segment, which is
why they're not mentioned in this answer. (Ebay may have some
of their products though.)

The K8N doesn't have PCI Express, and instead has PCI slots
and an AGP slot. So there is no opportunity to use a PCI
Express card there. To use a PCI Express would require a motherboard
change.

PCI Express is an entirely different protocol. It is a bunch of
high speed serial lanes, that are "teamed" together for additional
bandwidth. A single lane is 250MB/sec and 16 lanes gives a
max of 4GB/sec. AGP 8X on the other hand, is 2.1GB/sec.
AGP (and PCI) use parallel busses, with a common clock shared for
clocking all the bus signals. In fact, there is nothing wrong
with AGP (as AGP only has one device on the end of the bus, which
is a good architecture). But once PCI Express was invented to fix
the issues with the low speed PCI slots, it was a no brainer to
scratch AGP.

Paul
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: AGP Graphics Card?
    ... The mother board does not have on-board video. ... best I can see the card currently in the machine is a TNT A 16 MB SDRAM, ... The local Micro Center computer store has a FX5200 AGP card for about $50 ... has 5 fans in it to keep things cool enough. ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: about PCI video cards...
    ... You want your AGP sized predicament to resolve, Get An AGP slotted MB! ... The money you save on the AGP card will offset the extra you'll have to spend to get the exact same card in PCI format. ... because i have a built in graphic card and i dont have a video card ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)
  • Re: USB flash drives and graphics cards
    ... got no idea what it is but it seems that her existing graphics card isn't ... I think she currently has some sort of AGP card in her machine but can ... Fortunately, the FX5200 is available in AGP and PCI versions, so if there ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: installing new video card
    ... Nvida digital drivers and the shutdown, restart, sleep mode and icon issues ... 2.>Remove PCI card from system thru device manager ... 4.>HOW DO I GET INTO BIOS to make CHANGES or DISABLE ONBOARD Video (if it ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: Any New Asus Boards With An AGP Slot?
    ... cards and I don't want to spring for a new card. ... Intel is fully committed to PCI Express, ... AGP well, and some manufacturers still seem to have some ... ULI has a chipset pair uses on an Asrock board, ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
Loading