Thread: PCl or AGP?

I am a big fan of your magazine. I have been reading'it since August and I sim¬ply love it! I have a query regarding my motherboard. The 'Everest' software on your DVD tells me that there are three PCI and one AGP slot on my motherboard. Please tell me where can I install a graphics card - the PCI slot or the AGP slot? And also can I install the ATI 4670 on the required slot? Please tell me about some good AGP graphics cards within the budget of and the price of the GeForce 8600GT.

RepLy: Graphics card exist in three varieties - cards for the PCI slot are the oldest and usually the least powerful, AGP slot based cards are fairly bet¬ter, and PCI-E (PC I Express) based cards are the most powerful and are the current mainstream standard (since mid¬2006). You could still buy AGP cards at second hand shops, but we won't recommnd that because their prices are likely to be higher than comparable PCI-E cards. Just to be sure, please verify whether your motherboard is indeed AGP-based, because Everest could sometimes display a wrong diagnosis.

In case the motherboard has an AGP slot, chances are that the processor is from an older generation, so you should probably not spend more than today on an AGP graphics card. Most games would ask for a similarly matched processor along with a graphics card which means older games would work just fine with a card, and new games wouldn't work anyway because of the old processor. The ATI Radeon 4670 and GeForce 8600GT are PCI-E cards - there is no new card on the market that would support AGP. The best case is if you find someone willing to sell off his old GeForce 7800GT, else a new GeForce 7300GT can be bought for around. Any higher graphic card would be priced at a point where it would make more sense to just buy a much more powerful new Pc. If you have the budget to spend any more, a decent new motherboard, Processor, RAM, and a graphic card such as a Radeon 4670 can be had for barely.