AGP issues - advice needed

latimerj · 9 Mar 2006 at 10:21

Firstly - apologies, i'm a total noobie and just starting to take bits in and out of my system.

Secondly - I've got a 2nd hand Dell Optiplex and looking to get a new graphics card so that i can make the most of the P4 2gHz and the 1/2gig RAM (modest, but a great improvement on my old P3 400mHz and 128mb RAM).

Anyway, The AGP on the newer system is in the opposite direction to how it was on the old system :confused:

(the shorter bit towards the outside and the longer bit towards the inside, or vice versa i can't remember). So this means I can't use my old graphics card (not that I'd really want to because it's shyt). But is this not a bit strange that they can exist on both orientations?

...or am i just being stupid?

please advise.

Thanks

J

ajgoodfellow · 9 Mar 2006 at 13:32

Hi

Welcome to the forums

They are both AGP slots - it's just that the slot on your PIII is an old 3.3V AGP1x/2x slot and the slot on the new P4 is a 1.8V AGP4x/8x slot

All of the new AGP cards will work in your new AGP slot - even if it's an AGP4x slot agains an AGP 8x slot they are backwardly compatible

What budget do you have for a new card? Do you play many games?

latimerj · 9 Mar 2006 at 14:05

thanks

thanks for the quick reply.

that's good news then. I was thinking a maximum of £40 for the card. I play games but, having had the old PIII for so long I'm a bit out of the loop as far as new games are concerned. What would you recommend?

ajgoodfellow · 9 Mar 2006 at 14:20

New I'd get the HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon 9550 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (R9550-TDW128-C) (GX-009-HT) or the 256MB version for an extra £5. Just don't get the SE version - this only has a 64-bit memory interface which really cripples performance

Second hand I'd get the 9700Pro - this is a fair bit quicker than the 9550

latimerj · 12 Mar 2006 at 13:20

good price?

Thanks for the reply.

ajgoodfellow · 12 Mar 2006 at 15:14

You aren't allowed to even mention competitors on here, let alone link to them so I'd remove that link asap before a mod sees it!

I can't tell you about anywhere else either unfortunately