Compaq AGP

[DJFuji]

ok i got a friend who has a Compaq PIII 800MHz, 128 ram, 15 gig drive. He asked me if he could upgrade to a GF3/4 card with his "AGP" slot. I took a look at his mobo and did not recognize what the hell compaq uses for video. He has integrated video and it looks like he has this sort of pseudo-AGP slot with VIDEO RAM plugged into it. I dont think it was slotted to fit AGP, but my memory is not all that great; could be wrong. Does anyone know about the upgrade capabilities of this? I know, i know its a compaq, but it was his first computer and he made a mistake. I seriously doubt it can be upgrade to an AGP card, but i wanted to check up on it first. We don't have documentation on it and i cant seem to find any online either. Any ideas?

 

[Rogue]

If it's a Compaq with integrated ATI video, chances are, the slot you see is in fact a video memory expansion slot. In that case, you can only hope that he has a standard ATX case (please tell me he didn't buy the microtower) and get a new mobo for it with new vid card to boot. If not, you're gonna have to go PCI card with him, although I haven't seen a GF3 or GF4 card in PCI form factor yet.

 

[DJFuji]

Ahh...yes that's what i told him. Junk the compcrap and just build a new system from scratch. I think he probably has like a 230w PSU so theres no point in even keeping that. Thanks for the input.

 

[AndyHui]

I'm guessing that the system CAN take a GeForce.

Your description of the system leads me to believe that the chipset may be an Intel i815E with integrated i752 video. What you are seeing in the AGP slot is an AIMM....AGP Inline Memory Module, that is used to a frame buffer for the onboard video, rather than having to allocate part of system RAM (and suck up a huge amount of system bandwidth).