AGP problem

[hexanE]

I want to install an ATI Radeon Sapphire 9250 128 mb video card. It says my motherboard has to be AGP compliant. Using a program that shows some system info, it says i have an AGP bus. I took off the side panel of my computer, and where the AGP slot should be, theres a blank space, 3(maybe more) holes, and it says AGP slot.... what should i do?

 

[mwmorph]

what? do you he pics? also do yuo have onboard video? onboard video usually uses the agp bus and some cheapo manufacturers omit the agp slot because onboard id built in(som hps,dells,compaqs,etc have no agp slot but onboard agp video so the mb is fooled into thinking that there is a agp card.)

 

[hexanE]

yeah, i'm pretty sure i have onboard video. it's just it says AGP slot...and then there's nothing. same for someone else in my household's computer.

 

[exar333]

mwmorph could be right, whats your system specs? we need more information...

 

[Mrvile]

Ahh onboard video...usually in this case there won't be any real AGP slot. When shopping for computers or motherboards make sure you get one with a video card or a real AGP slot, so you don't run into this kind of problem.

 

[hexanE]

ok that sucks. what should i do? i paid around 50 dollars for the card...

here are some more specs.
Mainboard : Intel Corporation D845GVSR
Chipset : Intel i845G
Processor : Intel Celeron @ 2800 MHz
Physical Memory : 768 MB (2 x 512 DDR-SDRAM PC2700 @ 166 MHz)
Video Card : Intel Corporation 82845G/GL/GV/GE/PE Integrated Graphics Device
Hard Disk : ST380011A (80 GB)
CD-Rom Recorder : HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4481B CDR, CDR-W (48x ) (48x )
Monitor Type : Gateway Gateway EV730 16 inchs
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.01.2600 Service Pack 1

Manufacturer : Gateway
Mainboard : Intel Corporation
Bios : Intel Corp.
Chipset : Intel i845G
Physical Memory : 768 MB DDR-SDRAM
LPC bus : Yes
PCI Bus : Yes
AGP Bus : Yes
USB Bus : Yes
SMBus/i2c Bus : Yes
Bus HyperTransport : No
Bus CardBus : No
Bus FireWire : No

Processor : Intel Celeron
Frequency : 2800 MHz
Support : mPGA-478
Data Cache L1 : 8 KB
Trace Cache L1 : 12 Kµops
Cache L2 : 128 KB
Voltage : -1.000 V
FPU Coprocessor : Present
Processor activity : : 52%


need any more info?

 

[Ze Mad Doktor]

This is why big computer manufacturers suck. They make the computer as unupgradable as possible forcing you to go shopping if you want even the simplest of upgrades.

Here is the link for your mainboard specs. You do not have an AGP slot.

I would say the only solution that is going to allow you to use the video card is to upgrade your motherboard and probably the case too. Then you could keep all your existing components and you would have an AGP slot.

 

[hexanE]

do you recommend me trading the card for a PCI compliant one?

 

[Ze Mad Doktor]

It's up to you really. That would certainly be cheaper than a new mobo/case. However, if you were to do that I don't know that there would be much of a point to a PCI video card over your onboard AGP one. In which case I would think you should just return the AGP card and keep using the onboard Intel

 

[hexanE]

here's the thing though. im not much of a gamer, but that's what i wanted the card for. any kind of upgrade wold help me, seeing as how my current video card is 8 MB....

 

[Ze Mad Doktor]

Well I don't know how you look to upgrade in the future but if you get a PCI card that is going to be something of a waste of money because whenever you upgrade your overall system you are going to want AGP or PCIe.

I don't know what games you want to run, but with any of the video cards you have mentioned you aren't going to have very good performance. For performance your best choice, since you already have the AGP card would be to upgrade your mobo/case.

For cost your best choice would be a PCI graphics card.

 

[hexanE]

the game i want to run mainly would be wolfenstein:enemy territory (it's free, but i heard it uses up a ton of unneccesary resources)
money is an object right now....i used to be able to run it with my 8mb card, it lagged a bit, but it has gotten significantly worse...my brother has a 64 mb card that came with his computer, (its an emachines, but the only thing i know about the card he has is its nvidia geforce 4 or something like that.)

 

[rise]

i think i'd bite the bullet now and get a cheap pci-e board and pci-e card.

edit-my bad, didn't see the money is an issue.

 

[hexanE]

ok can someone recommend a card that will DEFINITELY work on my computer

 

[hexanE]

i posted it in the for sale/trade section. i hope something good comes up.


what's the difference between pci and pci-express? anything?



edit: nevermind, thread was locked b ecause i guess i didnt read the rules

 

[mwmorph]

a small warning. most big companies use mATX mbs. not normal atx(all 3 ofmy hps do, as well as my dell) so your choices will probably severely limited. an easy way to check is that mATX has a maximum of 2 mwmory slots while full ATX have 3 or 4 ram slots.