Steve Scrimpshire Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 I have this MoBo: http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/JABI...4000646nv.shtml and I'm looking at this video card: http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=111891...at=521&scat=522 The specs on my MoBo mention nothing about AGP as far as I can see, but this PCI card says it requires an AGP 2.0 compliant slot. Will this card work? Will other cards that specifically say 'AGP' work? How do I find out? TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtweidmann Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 Virtually every motherbaord sold today will have a AGP port. Its a special version of the PCI port, just for graphics cards. It is generally better to get an AGP card if you can, as it should give slightly better performance and you can't use the slot for anything else. From the picture on the site you posted shows the AGP port on the board. Its the shorter brown slot next to the PCI ports. The graphics card is a PCI card so it should work fine with the board, but you won't be able to use the AGP port. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qnr Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 I haven't read the specs, but it looks like it has an AGP slot. See the brown slot to the right and slightly lower than the five off-white PCI slots? That should be your AGP. Edit: and just to expand on mtweidmann's comment - you can use both, but you'll have to tell your BIOS which one to initialize first. I Have used three at a time in the past: onboard video, PCI with two heads, and AGP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtweidmann Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 For some strange reason many (not all) motherboards default to PCI rather than AGP. :? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ndeb Posted March 20, 2003 Report Share Posted March 20, 2003 Buy the AGP card instead, since ur motherboard surely has an AGP slot: http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=112062...at=521&scat=522 but this PCI card says it requires an AGP 2.0 compliant slot.Thats because bestbuy folks are dumb. A PCI card needs no AGP compatibility as PCI and AGP are physically different slots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Scrimpshire Posted March 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2003 Thanks everyone. There certainly is an AGP slot (or the shorter brown one) and my nVidia card currently occupies it (and I always thought my video card was PCI...go figure). I may be postponing the purchase, because I was planning on putting my old nVidia card in my fiancee's computer, so she could run Linux as dual boot, but her computer has no AGP slot and just the crappy 4 MB onboard video. So, I'll have to buy her a PCI video card...hmmmm...maybe I'll get a second monitor and have two video cards and two monitors.... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonMage Posted March 20, 2003 Report Share Posted March 20, 2003 Definitely get the AGP card. I think the number of PCI Video card has become so rare nowadays that it becomes more expensive than AGP. I have to ask you why to buy this particular card. Is it because of the dual analog video out? I mean, you can get a similar card for about half the price at http://www.newegg.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdg Posted March 20, 2003 Report Share Posted March 20, 2003 I second what Dragonmage said. Cards of this type are going for about half that price on average. Take a look at http://www.pricewatch.com/ and click on the "GeForce 4 MX440 64 mb" category, just to give you an indication Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Scrimpshire Posted March 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2003 Well, I was going by the 'you get what you pay for' theory. They even had cards for less at BestBuy, but this one comes with a lifetime warranty for $79.99 after mail-in rebate. I orignally thought I was getting one with TV out, but it does not have it (it does have TwinView capabilities, though). I'm impatient and paranoid by nature when it comes to buying online, too. Thanks for the helpful advice. Here's what I wound up getting: http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=111891...at=521&scat=522 and, since my fiancee's computer had no AGP slot, so I could not give her my old one, I got her this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=111860...at=521&scat=522 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Scrimpshire Posted June 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2003 I figured I would add this to this topic to avoid starting a new 'dumb hardware question'. I have these two old network cards that I am assuming are ISA, since they don't fit in my PCI slots. Apparently, my MoBo has no ISA slots. I've been having trouble with my phoneline network card not playing nice with ifplugd (a new piece of software added to 9.1 that is not really a daemon, although the name implies that it is....it's hard-coded into the initscripts). I've hacked the initscripts to disable ifplugd and still I get kernel panics every once in a while. Getting to the point: I was thinking about testing these cards to see if they do better (one of them is supposed to be compatible with Linux...my other box is a Windows box.). Is there an inexpensive way to go about this, like an adapter of some kind that allows me to plug ISA cards into my MoBo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalee Posted June 22, 2003 Report Share Posted June 22, 2003 Hi, Years ago there was (when PCI was shiney and new), but no more. They didn't work very well and no advantage was gained. I would think that PCI would be better because of faster bus speeds. Perhaps try different PCI nics? Sorry, not much help I know, dalee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted June 22, 2003 Report Share Posted June 22, 2003 If the mb has no isa, forget about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted June 22, 2003 Report Share Posted June 22, 2003 Also check out compusa as that same board goes for 59 there with a 1 year guarantee for 4.95. Best Buy seems expensive.. and who needs a life time guarantee? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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