So yeah, I'm looking for a new video card. It's annoying.
A. There's PCI, PCI Express, and AGP ports for video cards (apparently). I ran a search on my cpu and I'm about 98% sure I have a PCI port.
Question 1: Are PCI-Express cards compatible with my PCI port?
If the answer to that is yes, then
"Horray!"
...if not...
B. Do 512MB video cards exist for PCI ports? If not, is it possible to outfit my PC with an Express port?
I need an upgrade to run Oblivion (I have a 128) and was hoping to upgrade to a 512 so that I'd be well beyond what I need and set for a while. A 256MB will do, but I really loathe the idea of a mediocre upgrade like that.
...
If no one can help, that's cool. But thanks for any input/info that anyone might share. The Best Buy guys figured out I'm not buying a card from them, and I don't want to pester them if I don't have to (the drive is kinda out of my way), and they also sometimes have annoyingly vague answers for me. So I figured I'd try here first.
Gender: Male Location: The Utah of Australia ~haermm~
Nope. You can have both PCI and PCI E slots on your motherboard, but a PCI E card will only work in the PCI E slot. Not sure if you can get 512mb PCI cards, but nowadays its pretty standard for PCI E cards to have the bigger oomph power. Also, dont buy a card just because its 512mb, theres plenty of good 256mb cards that can outperform a 512mb. The speed of the card is probably more important than its memory, cause then you can push out polygons faster and have less lag/higher framerates.
Just so we can see what kind of direction you're heading in, what cards are you looking at/what have you got now?
Oh yeah and lastly, if your motherboard doesnt have a PCI E port, its probably worth upgrading Probably the highest I would pay for a good motherboard is around $200AU, and they're really good gaming mobos, so if that fits into your budget, definitely try and work with it. But, the downside is, your CPU might not match the new mobo, so you'd have to get a new one Very confusing, but once you work out what you want/how much you're willing to spend, run down to a PC store and see what they can do. Im not sure what Best Buys is like...are they a retail store? Its better to duck down to a local PC warehouse supplier, they'll tell you everything you want to know and recommend better options.
Between the video card purchase and my low budget, upgrading to a PCI-E slot probably isn't in the cards (pun intended) for me. And none of my searches have turned up a 512 PCI card, so it looks like I'll be going the 256 route.
But I'll look for the higher processing speeds when finding a 256 card, so thanks for that advice. I don't have any picked out right now, since I've been looking at 512's, but hopefully I will soon.
My current is an Nvidia Geforce 5300 128MB. I don't know the exact specs because it came with my system.
And yeah, Best Buy is a big-business chain store deal for tech-related stuff. We're woefully bereft of a good small-time PC store in my area, but hopefully I got all the info I need here.
...back to Ebay then, I guess....
-DM
P.S. In a year or two, I'll likely have my own place and enough cash to buy my own (extremely high-end) computer, since I game a lot. So maybe the 256 is better, since my family doesn't game, so the 512 would be more expensive and would probably just be overkill....and I wouldn't get too much use from it anyway before I ended up with a new one. ...gotta find the silver lining, I guess.
...I think I'm obligated to disbelieve this in order to keep hope alive. Noted though...and thanks for being honest.
My cpu itself is more than fast enough for the game. And with a high-end 256, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I've gotten it to run on my 128, and when it's darker on screen it's actually smooth-running. It's just when it gets lighter that it slows down considerably. So I'm at least relatively confident that I can get something out of it.
don't think a lot of PCI 256 exists, heck I have trouble finding an 512 AGP I know upgrading to PCI-E would prolly help me a lot but I don't have the money to buy a new mobo, graphics card and processor so..
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Your forgetting the most important thing.. what Motherboard do you have? If you dont know what MOBO you have what good is it to buy a Video Card that wont connect to your MOBO.
The most easiest way is to download this program called EVEREST which will tell you everything about your PC. Then all you have to do is either tell us or post a pic.
Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 3000 MHz (15 x 200)
Motherboard Name Dell Dimension 4600i
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale-G i865G
System Memory [ TRIAL VERSION ]
BIOS Type Phoenix (05/17/04)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (128 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Monitor Dell E172FP [17" LCD] (J180646JAAEZ)
Well I just checked your motherboard online and your best choice for a video card would be an AGP card. PCI cards are no longer in use otherthan whats already out there and they are not as good as an AGP or PCI-E card. Every motherboard comes with PCI slots for other pieces of hardware such as a sound card or tv tuner.
KMC Community Forums
Jul 17th, 2006 01:57 AM
Probably the highest I would pay for a good motherboard is around $200AU, and they're really good gaming mobos, so if that fits into your budget, definitely try and work with it. But, the downside is, your CPU might not match the new mobo, so you'd have to get a new one 
Very confusing, but once you work out what you want/how much you're willing to spend, run down to a PC store and see what they can do. Im not sure what Best Buys is like...are they a retail store? Its better to duck down to a local PC warehouse supplier, they'll tell you everything you want to know and recommend better options.
-- Laughing is good 
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