One short agp card question

[DRUNKEE]

will any agp card work on any agp card slot? i ask this because i had a card that is an agp 4.0 and another that has 8.o/4.o on it. i installed but got a black screen. computer & cards r old and im not an expert on these so if anyone can help i would appreciate it. thanx in advance

 

[hang-the-9]

Not always, and you may have a power supply issue as well. AGP 2/4/8 are pretty compatable though, I'd look at the power requirements for the card first. Is the card itself good? Does it work in another PC?

 

[DRUNKEE]

its refurbished. got it from a small computer repair store. it should be working maybe its my installation that was faulty. thanx for the tip though i will look into it

 

[DRUNKEE]

its a radeon xt9800 256mb
my old one was an nvidia something lol. its a legacy now i know that much i think its geforce4 ti or something like that

 

[hang-the-9]

Well you got 2 things to look at, one is the power supply requirements for the card and your power supply, the other is that the card actually works. Those are more likely than some incompatility between the motherboard and card.

 

[megamanx00]

No. AGP 4x uses a different voltage than 8x and the older 2x uses yet another voltage. Some cards like a few X1950 AGPs only work at 8x and won't work on 4x voltage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port

 

[bucknutty]

I have never seen an 8x card not work on a 4x board. Normally they work fine, just at the lower speed. I actually still have a atix1650 8x running on a gigabyte p4 board that is only 4x. Runs fine.

 

[megamanx00]

@bucknutty

There are some exceptions. I remember there were some Radeon X1900 series AGP cards that only operated at 8x. I think one was made by power color but its been a while ^_^. I've also had problems with a board not properly conforming to AGP standards, like Epox 8KHA+ based on the KT266a which broke when I put in a Radeon 8500. There were problems with early AGP 4x motherboards (up to KT333) not properly conforming to AGP standard and thus dying when a card drew too much power even if it was within AGP specifications.

Anyway, make sure to update your BIOS just in case.

 

[JDFan]

According to Wikipedia :

Compatibility
Compatibility, AGP Keys on card (top), on slot (bottom)

AGP cards are backward and forward compatible within limits. 1.5 V-only keyed cards will not go into 3.3 V slots and vice versa, though "Universal" cards exist which will fit into either type of slot. There are also unkeyed "Universal" slots that will accept either type of card. When an AGP Universal card is plugged-into an AGP Universal slot, only the 1.5 V portion of the card is used. Some cards, like Nvidia's GeForce 6 series (except the 6200) or ATI's Radeon X800 series, only have keys for 1.5 V to prevent them from being installed in older mainboards without 1.5 V support. Some of the last modern cards with 3.3 V support were the Nvidia GeForce FX series (FX 5200, FX 5500, FX 5700, some FX 5800, FX 5900 and some FX 5950) and the ATI Radeon 9500/9700/9800(R350) (but not 9600/9800(R360)). Some Geforce 6200 cards will function with AGP 1.0 (3.3v) slots.

AGP Pro cards will not fit into standard slots, but standard AGP cards will work in a Pro slot. Motherboards equipped with a Universal AGP Pro slot will accept a 1.5 V or 3.3 V card in either the AGP Pro or standard AGP configuration, a Universal AGP card, or a Universal AGP Pro card.

It is important to check voltage compatibility as some cards incorrectly have dual notches and some motherboards incorrectly have fully open slots. Furthermore, some poorly designed older 3.3 V cards incorrectly have the 1.5 V key. Inserting a card into a slot that does not support the correct signaling voltage may cause damage.

There are some proprietary exceptions to this rule. For example, Apple Power Macintosh computers with the Apple Display Connector (ADC) have an extra connector which delivers power to the attached display. Additionally, moving cards between computers of various CPU architectures may not work due to firmware issues.

So according to the Bolded section --- the 9800 (r350) should work but the 9800(r360) will not !!

 

[DRUNKEE]

is there a quick way to check which agp slot i have. or is there a difference in appearance of the 1.5 slot and the 3.3 slot? or card?

 

[DRUNKEE]

Best answer selected by DRUNKEE.