what is the difference????

[arcada833]

ok, what is the difference with pci v-cards and agp? i dont know if my comp has an agp slot. it says that my current v-card is a 3d graphics intel direct agp. how do i tell if i have an agp slot or not? and if i have to get a pci card, what are the ones to get that are good? thanks.

[Gregoshi]

I think the AGP port (bus?) communicates faster with the CPU, thus your PC runs faster graphically. The easiest way to check would be to look at the manual that came with your PC and find a picture of your motherboard. It should label all the various key places on the motherboard, including the AGP and PCI slots.

I'm sure a techno-wiz will show up and give you more precise answers.

[Qilue]

Quote[/b] ]ok, what is the difference with pci v-cards and agp?

A highway analogy. Imagine a 2 lane highway which represents the data flow through the PCI/AGP slots (this includes data to and from your HDs). 1 lane is for PCI traffic and 1 lane is for AGP traffic.

Now imagine there's 1 car for each type of data. The AGP data has the road to him/herself whereas all the other data types have to share the road with others.

Quote[/b] ]i dont know if my comp has an agp slot. it says that my current v-card is a 3d graphics intel direct agp.

That sounds like your motherboard has the graphics adapter built onto it which is AGP. Usually, on board extras like graphics and sound tend to be inferior to what you can get with an adapter card.

Quote[/b] ]how do i tell if i have an agp slot or not?

As gregoshi said, your computer's manual should have this infomation. Otherwise, if your computer is still under warrenty, you could call the ship where you bought it and they can supply the infomation.

Quote[/b] ]and if i have to get a pci card, what are the ones to get that are good?

I can't really help with this.
You could try here -
http://www.pcnineoneone.com

I'm not sure if they have what you're looking for though.

[Kraellin]

well, you're right in seeking a new card. the intel onboard stuff is junk, poorly supported, and doesnt work with a lot of games.

if you've got an eMachines computer, the chances are you dont have an agp slot and the other chance is, they're not going to tell you about this little omission...even in the manual. and even if you go to their site and look up the specs, you'll prolly have to be pretty cagey and notice what's NOT listed there.

best thing to do is simply open up the computer case (with the power cord pulled out, of course) and look inside the machine. your motherboard will be that big circuit board hidden beneath all that wiring. on that motherboard will be a row of long black ports with slots down the middle of them. those are the pci ports for plugging other devices into. these things are about 5 or 6 inches long. the agp slot, if you have one, will most likely be colored brown. it's also a long slot like the pci slots, but it will be offset from the pci slots, most likely. the pci slots will all be in a nice side by side row with each other. the agp slot wont be in that line. it will also be a slightly different size.

there likely wont be any card plugged into the agp slot. the intel onboard card is usually mounted on the motherboard, soldered in. so, if you have one, it shld be absent of any cards.

as for pci cards...anything but a gf4 mx 4xx series card and preferably of a later vintage. the difficulty may be in finding one of a later vintage. pci vid cards are starting to become a bit harder to find, as almost all manufacturers of boards and cards know that agp is the better choice. but they do still exist.

now, just ignore the rest of this for now, but tosa informs me that there is a new high speed pci buss and format coming out that will not only replace the old pci stuff, but will also eliminate the agp cards. not sure when that's coming down the pike, but we'll see.

K.

[Aurelian]

Hey Arcada,

I had similar questions when I was looking into video cards, so I can help a bit.

If you've opened up your PC case, look around inside for a bit. PCI slots are usually shorter than AGP slots, and there should be more of them. If you have a modem, the phone line probably sticks into the back of the case into a modem card. That card is probably in a PCI slot. If all the slots are the same size you may not have an AGP slot at all.

When I got my current computer I got it at an IBM warehouse sale. Decent computer, but it was custom designed for a business so it only had three PCI slots and no AGP slot. Needless to say, I was peeved when I discovered this.

However, there are decent PCI video cards out there. I've used the GeForce2 MX 200 and the GeForce4 MX 420. They both work well and run MTW without a hitch. They also have lifetime warranties if they blow up. You can probably get one at a Circuit City or Best Buy.

One thing to note. My computer has a wimpy power supply. Both cards probably strain my computer a bit, and I did have to replace the GeForce2.

The toughest thing for me when installing the cards was turning off onboard video. This may just be a problem with my wacky machine. I had to start the machine in safe mode in order to disable the onboard video. It wouldn't let me do it in ordinary Windows 2000.

Hope that helps