"New" AGP port?? Help!!

I bought a new Gigagbyte mobo at the weekend, and a nice new P4 CPU.

I was gutted when I found that my old (but still very good) Voodoo II AGP card doesn't fit the AGP port on my new mobo.

What's this all about then? Did I miss a revolution in AGP? Has my new mobo got a "new" AGP port??? Is there such a thing as "old" AGP and I have to buy a new AGP card?! What's going on?! Please help - I'm stuck with the cheapest, nastiest, dirtiest PCI card you can imagine while I sort this out!!

(I was already a bit gutted to find that my chasis doesn't properly support the P4 CPU and heatsink, and that I needed all new RDRAM instead of the SDRAM that I've already got. A much more expensive upgrade than I at first thought!)

There has been no change in AGP. There ARE however 2 standards of AGP, AGP and AGP Pro. AGP pro is a card that is longer at the conector than a standard AGP. The catch is, Standard AGP will fit into an AGP Pro slot, but AGP pro cards will not work in standard AGP. <a href="http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket370/tua266/overview.htm" target="_blank">Here</a> is a link to a board with the AGP pro slot.

I that's not the issue, you'll have to tell us why it won't fit, what's hanging catching etc..

So far as I can tell, the port is AGP Pro. And as far as I know both AGP cards I've got are standard AGP. So both card should fit the AGP Pro port...?

The deal is that the slits are in the wrong place. My old (standard?) AGP cards have a long strip then a gap, and then a shorted strip (like a PCI card if you like).

The new mobo has 3 sections to the main slot. It's got a long strip (inside of which is a small lug) then a large lug, then a small strip then a large lug, then finally a small strip and the end. It's longer than the AGP port I used to have on the old mobo (Intel AL440EX or BX).

So the lugs in the port don't line up with slots in the card. I've had anopther look in the cold light of day, and notice somehing a bit odd....

If the output connectors were at the other end of the card, the card would fit into the mobo! A crazy person might even suggest that the port is the wrong way round on the mobo!! But you'd have to be crazy to suggest that....

I'm totally puzzled!

The new board is a Gigabyte GA-8TXC. There's nothing on the box to indicate non-standard-ness. The manual lists "1 Universal AGP Pro slot 4x 1.5V device support". And like I said, both my old AGP cards fit nicely into the AGP port on my old mobo...

What's going on??!

dammit - check this out

<a href="http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/products/products.htm" target="_blank">http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/products/products.htm</a>

If the card can slide in fully and can be attached to the case you should be OK. If you want the complete info on the AGP connector, look <a href="http://www.agpforum.org/downloads/apro_r11a.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> it will give you everything that you need to know.

The reason the slots are in different places is becuase of different voltages. Look at page 12 of the PDF link in the previous post.

Think I've sussed it. I *do* need a new graphics card.

The P4 chipset *apparently* only supports specific cards. Most AGP cards run on 3.3V - if these were plugged into the board, they would burn it out. The mobo only supports 1.5V devices. The slots are a bit different, it seems.

I've now got a list of about 15 cards that will fit.

Brilliant. That will teach me to buy stuff without researching first.

[quote]Originally posted by gutted:
<strong>Think I've sussed it. I *do* need a new graphics card.

Brilliant. That will teach me to buy stuff without researching first.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Look at it has a chance to upgrade to a nice Geforce3 Ti500

:) Thanks, Matridom.

Will have to wait till next month, tho... Blown all my cash on a flashy new mobo and CPU.

But cheers for your advice though. Am currently checking prices of said graphics card....