upgrading my video card 1

[sweetlew]

I have pentium III-650 computer with a ATI Rage Pro 128(16mb of ram). It is a 2x AGP card and motherboard. I would like to upgrade to a better card but not something too much. I have no need to get the lastest and greatest. I've heard stories about not having the right card (voltage wise) installed and possibly frying the motherboard. The current card is a 3.3v(I think) and 2x speed. Could someone please explain what upgrade options I have. I want to be sure I get the correct card for my computer. Thanks

 

[lesgray]

Pretty much any TNT2 chipset card, Geforce 2 chipset, or better yet Geforce 3Ti should work fine. Also ATI Radeon (older ones, plain Radeon) will work. If you can get the specs of a card, just see if it support AGP 2x, if it does, it should work in your board. Check to see if there is a local store in your area that carries some used cards and ask if you can bring in your box and install the card before buying if you want to be absolutely sure.

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[sweetlew]

So a 8x would work if the specs says it supports 2x??

 

[cdogg]

This site should help some, although it's a bit outdated:

http://www.ertyu.org/~steven_nikkel/agpcompatibility.html

Video cards are keyed so that you should not be able to force the card into the wrong type of AGP slot. There are some exceptions however, particularly with Universal AGP slots, so be careful.

If you know the motherboard make/model, we can verify the voltage requirements for you. It's either an AGP 2x slot (3.3v) or an AGP 4x universal slot (1.5v or 3.3v). 8x cards can run only at 1.5v or 0.8v. They cannot run at the 3.3v, which is why it's important that you check your mobo specs.


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
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[sweetlew]

I'm pretty sure my motherboard is a Gateway Jabil BX Motherboard R4. It uses 3.3v for the current Rage 128 GL card if that helps.

So what you guys are saying is I should get a compatible card that is in there now? No current 8x cards would work?

 

[sweetlew]

Maybe PCI is another option?

 

[cdogg]

Current 8x cards will work if the slot supports 1.5v (because 8x cards can run at either 0.8v or 1.5v). Even though the card you have now runs at 3.3v, there are slots that support more than one voltage.

However, after looking up the specs for your system, it appears that you only have a 2x slot that cannot run at 1.5v. Take a look here:

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/INTEL/m00402/m0040212.shtml

Therefore, you might want to consider upgrading to a PCI GeForce4 MX card which are pretty cheap and should give much better performance than the card you have now. Remember though, that a lot of slowness issues also stem from slow hard drives, CPU, memory, etc.


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[paparazi]

sweetlew
I've just spent a few minutes googling and The intel BX chipset motherboards I saw were all just plain AGP, not 4x.
This would indicate to me a least on the face of it that it is unlikely this motherboard would support 0.8v/1.5v 8x cards.
just older 3.3volt 1x/2x/4x products.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[paparazi]

sweetlew
Just occured to me that there is another issue here as well.
Because of the age of this motherboard any newer card beyond a Geforce2/original Radeon, would be so sevierly restricted by other components, it would only be operating at a fraction of it's potential (bottlenecked)
I remember at the time, many remarks by users that their "NEW" GF3 Ti500's for example, weren't performing any better than their older TNT2's, the platform simply can't keep up with the GPU's processing power.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.