Advice on Video/graphic card upgrade for older computer

If you have a PCI-E Generation 1.0 or 1.1, MOST video cards will work on it. PCI-E specifications are backwards compatible with a FEW exceptions, see this recent posting:

http://www.overclock.net/a/the-final-answer-to-the-cont...

UNLESS your board is still AGP. In which case, it is a lost cause.


What is the make and model of your board ?

you can get old cards from newegg. do you know what kind of motherboard you have? or do you know if it has pci-e or agp slot?

give us the make/model or the computer specs and we can see what will work best.

I have a Pentium 4 cpu 2.40 GHz (two of them) with 512 MB ram. The motherboard is a GBT AWRDACPI. I am not sure if this is an AGP board or not. Thanks for the help.

Ahh, okay. Then it is most definitely AGP. None of the AGP based video cards I know of can play any modern games. The last of the AGP cards were from AMD, and I think in the HD4000 series. With those, you can play some source based games, but in games like Left 4 Dead 1/2, your CPU will be limiting your performance a LOT.

I'm not sure if it is wise to invest in an AGP card these days. Particularly as P4, 2.4 Northwood based computers are typically sold for a few dozen dollars (or tossed out, or given away) these days...

Tell me about it! I not looking to play the high end video games. This is for my son who plays mostly the mediocre kids games on his desk top. Is there any place where I can find AGP card that wont cost a small fortune? I not ready to give up my new laptop so he can play computer games on it!!!! Thanks for the advice.

the 'bay. I don't know what your budget is but you could probably grab something from the 'bay for maybe $80. a cheap AMD CPU/mobo combo and a semi decent PCI-E video card. I saw a 7800GT there for about $18. $30 might get you something like a GT440.

When looking for an AGP video card, does the core clock speed have to match my computer's processing speed?

No. Not at all. One caveat though, you need to look at which AGP revision you have on your computer. You either have an AGP 4x (or earlier) or AGP 8x slot, if you have an AGP 8x slot, you can put in any late model AGP card. There is a voltage keying for later cards that will not operate on the higher voltage earlier AGP buses.

See:

http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/agpcompatibility.htm...

You can try ebay, but don't bank on the cards having a high reliability. They are all used and old.

This I think is going to be one of the best cards you are going to find. Right now its about time to upgrade the system. GL to you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I agree, both the card is about the best you can get, and the system is worth less than this card.

Thanks everyone for all of your helpful advice. I know what I need to do now and what to look for. I just hope my plug and pray is still functional on this machine! Have a good weekend.