AGP Backwards compatable???

[Pendragon]

Hi Peeps,
My Dad has an old PC (Slot A), It is equiped with a X2 AGP slot. He would like to upgrade his graphics card, there are plenty of cheap (£40-£50ish) cards avalable. Is ther any problem with fitting one of the newer, higher spec cards to his old machine??? In other words would a X8 card run in a X2 slot???

[TripleRLtd]

The most important thing is voltages with the AGP.
The new card and the motherboard: what are they?
See this:
http://www.ertyu.org/~steven_nikkel/...atibility.html

[NooNoo]

Besides there is little point in putting a 8x card in a 2x slot....

[ilovetheusers]

Besides there is little point in putting a 8x card in a 2x slot....

Yup, and the slot is farther back on the mobo so you can't even try to put it in. You might want to get a PCI card. Not going to degrade performance too much, or at least it will be better than it was before.

Best thing to do is to find out what sort of motherboard that you own and see what sort of AGP slot it has for sure.

[Radical Dreamer]

Yup, and the slot is farther back on the mobo so you can't even try to put it in. You might want to get a PCI card. Not going to degrade performance too much, or at least it will be better than it was before.

Best thing to do is to find out what sort of motherboard that you own and see what sort of AGP slot it has for sure.

I think you are somewhat confused, an AGP 8X card will work fine in the slot as long as the slot is AGP 2.0, not talking 2x but 2.0. The difference is in the voltage supplied to the card.

AGP 8x offers little to no performance gains over the 4x ones and the 4x offers only slight to moderate gains over the 2x. The main thing is, you dont want a card thats too fast for the system or you are wasting money. Depending on the CPU you might do good to get a 5200 Ultra from nvidia.

Post more specs and well come up with a good recommendation

[ilovetheusers]

I think you are somewhat confused, an AGP 8X card will work fine in the slot as long as the slot is AGP 2.0, not talking 2x but 2.0. The difference is in the voltage supplied to the card.

AGP 8x offers little to no performance gains over the 4x ones and the 4x offers only slight to moderate gains over the 2x. The main thing is, you dont want a card thats too fast for the system or you are wasting money. Depending on the CPU you might do good to get a 5200 Ultra from nvidia.

Post more specs and well come up with a good recommendation

That's what I meant.

Need to see if you have a 1.0 or a 2.0 slot. If he's got a 2x (which is almost guaranteed to use a 1.0 slot) he's not putting an 8x card in, or any of the newer 4x cards which have all adopted the 2.0 slot. That 5200 is not going to work if he has a 1.0 slot.

[Radical Dreamer]

That's what I meant.

Need to see if you have a 1.0 or a 2.0 slot. If he's got a 2x (which is almost guaranteed to use a 1.0 slot) he's not putting an 8x card in, or any of the newer 4x cards which have all adopted the 2.0 slot. That 5200 is not going to work if he has a 1.0 slot.

I've seen plenty of AGP 2.0 Slots that are 2X.

Pendragon, the easiest way to tell is to look into the slot, if it has one "key" or notch, then its 1.0, if it has 2 "keys" then it is 2.0. But some cheaper mobo makers sometimes do not key them right, but this is few and far between

[confus-ed]

Besides there is little point in putting a 8x card in a 2x slot....

Mmmm but the 8x card is gonna have much better processing power than a 2x card, generally, that'd be one reason even if the bandwidth is restricted ever by the interface ...

Normal destop apps never require more than 1x agp bandwidth !, games pretty much might need up to 4x, but mostly (for lower resolutions certainly) less than 2x, only the very latest greatest stuff at high res so 1600x1200 and beyond need an 8x interface.

Usually the circumstances where I'd fit a high end card are where someone might later want to upgrade other stuff to match, so that'd be another reason, but if neither of those apply/are required then yeah ...

[Radical Dreamer]

Mmmm but the 8x card is gonna have much better processing power than a 2x card, generally, that'd be one reason even if the bandwidth is restricted ever by the interface ...

Normal destop apps never require more than 1x agp bandwidth !, games pretty much might need up to 4x, but mostly (for lower resolutions certainly) less than 2x, only the very latest greatest stuff at high res so 1600x1200 and beyond need an 8x interface.

Usually the circumstances where I'd fit a high end card are where someone might later want to upgrade other stuff to match, so that'd be another reason, but if neither of those apply/are required then yeah ...

Agreed 100%, you said it better than I did earlier. The 2x,4x,8x, is just a selling point for the most part. Benchmarks between a card like the GF 4 Ti series at 4x when compared to the 8x is usually less than 1fps difference, so the extra bandwidth is wasted

[acidburn88888888]

so, if the mfg Specifications with 8x,4x,2x, that's mean I can put in any mb with AGP slot right? what about the BIOS setting? or anything I need to change? or just let it be?....

[Radical Dreamer]

The 8x,4x,2x stuff doesnt matter its whether its AGP 1.0 or 2.0, they are keyed different and also have dif voltages (3.3 to 1.5 - I believe)