If i had a default Agp card and if i wanna upgrade to pci can i? | Forums

[Mozilla2006]

I currently have Gforce4 mx agp i wanna upgrade to Xmdia GeForce 6600 LE / 256MB DDR / PCI Express / SLI / DVI / VGA / TV-Out / Video Card. Will it be compadible. My pc is an Emachine t 3395. amd sempron 3000+ 512mb. All i want to know is if it will be compatible.

[big_perm]

Nope. You need a new motherboard. Youre stuck with AGP cards until you upgrade.

[TWL.Agent]

u can always buy the new AGP card released....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143046

Last AGP card to be made ever

[ZeN1985]

Doh, its pointless. AGP is old technology. No match for PCI-E 16x. Its 4 Gb bandwidth to both sides. And AGP has less then 1 Gig to one side. So I suggest you to buy new motherboard something like ASUS A8N-E, or A8N-SLI(if you will install 2 videocards).

[phantom110565]

Actually, there is no need to write off your machine yet. You can get a current AGP card and it will serve you just fine.

Here is a chart with the bus speeds.
Bus Types, throughput, and data transfer rates.

PCI - 33MHz, 32-bit, 133MBps

PCI-Express x1 - 250MBps

AGP 2x - 533MBps

PCI-Express x4 - 1,000MBps

AGP 4x - 1,066MBps

AGP 8x - 2,133MBps

PCI-Express x16 - 4,000MBps

Just make sure your machine supports AGP 8x.

But don't throw your PC away just because someone tells you it's worthless to try and upgrade it.

Yeah, it would be best to upgrade if you can. But if you can't, don't give up.

Your PC has the Nforce 2 chipset on it, so it supports AGP8x, which you can get a decent AGP card for that will last ya a bit.

But, if you haven't upgraded your RAM yet from 256 MB, you need to do that, and I would get 2X1GB sticks of PC3200, for a total of 2GB of RAM.

Then get a video card for AGP. Get the best one you can afford though, or it will be a waste. The one TWL referenced to ya is a good one to go with. Just make sure and get the RAM upgrade as well, or it will be a waste. You don't even have enough RAM to play the game. That is barely enough to run Winblows XP.

Sometimes others forget what it's like to be on a budget, and not be able to upgrade every time a game comes out.

Here are your system specs:

CPU: AMD Sempronâ"ž¢ 3000+ Processor
(512KB L2 cache, 2GHz, 333MHz FSB)
Operating System: Microsoftâ® Windowsâ® XP Home Edition
Monitor: Includes eMachines 17" Flat CRT (eView 17F3)
(16" viewable, 0.25mm dot pitch)
Chipset: NVIDIAâ® nForceâ"ž¢ 2 chipset
Memory: 256MB DDR (1 Ó” 256MB) SDRAM (PC3200)
Expandable to 2GB
Hard Drive: 80GB HDD (7200rpm)
Optical Drive: CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
Video: NVIDIAâ® GeForce4â"ž¢ MX graphics
64MB DDR shared memory
Sound: AC '97 audio; 5.1 audio (6-channel)
Network: 10/100Mbps integrated Ethernet LAN
Modem: 56K ITU v.92-ready Fax/Modem
Peripherals: Standard multifunction keyboard, 2-button wheel mouse, amplified stereo speakers
Ports/Other: 6 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front, 4 in back), 1 VGA External Connector, 1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 2 PS/2, 5 Audio ports (2 in front, 3 in back)
Dimensions: 14.25"H x 7.25"W x 16"D
Weight: 22.5lbs (PC only, no packaging)

[phantom110565]

Originally posted by ZeN1985:
Doh, its pointless. AGP is old technology. No match for PCI-E 16x. Its 4 Gb bandwidth to both sides. And AGP has less then 1 Gig to one side. So I suggest you to buy new motherboard something like ASUS A8N-E, or A8N-SLI(if you will install 2 videocards).

You're mistaken on your bus speeds. See the chart in my above post. AGP 8x is 2Gbps., NOT less than 1Gbps.

[DoubleArd]

Originally posted by TWL.Agent:
u can always buy the new AGP card released....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143046
Last AGP card to be made ever

Although that would be a great card to have, a 1.8g Sempron would bottleneck it & it would be wasted. He also only has a 280w PSU so he'd need to upgrade that too just to power it up. Mind you, even most 6600s need a min. of 350-400w so if he does get a new GPU a new power supply will be needed too

[phantom110565]

Originally posted by DoubleArd:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by TWL.Agent:
u can always buy the new AGP card released....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143046
Last AGP card to be made ever

Although that would be a great card to have, a 1.8g Sempron would bottleneck it & it would be wasted. He also only has a 280w PSU so he'd need to upgrade that too just to power it up. Mind you, most 6600s need a min. of 350-400w so if he does get a new GPU a new power supply will be needed too </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

My bad.

I didn't even look at the CPU or PSU.

Man, I need some sleep. Been fighting an ftp issue with my webhost all night.

You're right. This machine would be better off being turned into a secondary machine for whatever. He needs to get a better rig for gaming.

By the time he upgraded this one, he would have an entirely new PC.

Thanks for catching me on that one.

[buddhiraja]

If I want 1 GB of ram then which is the better option ?

-- 1 stick of 1GB

-- 2 sticks of 512 MB

-- 4 sticks of 256 MB

If I have 4 sticks of 256 MB then would it still be dual channel ram ? Would there be any other problems ? I currently have 2 sticks of 256MB and want to utilize them if they do not make my machine slower.

Thank you.

[Spike.]

Originally posted by buddhiraja:
If I want 1 GB of ram then which is the better option ?

-- 1 stick of 1GB

-- 2 sticks of 512 MB

-- 4 sticks of 256 MB

If I have 4 sticks of 256 MB then would it still be dual channel ram ? Would there be any other problems ? I currently have 2 sticks of 256MB and want to utilize them if they do not make my machine slower.

Thank you.

It all depends on the rest of your system. With AMD systems you can run 4xDIMMS in dual channel mode, but it won't run at full speed (333Mhz as opposed to 400Mhz) unless if you have a venice core and use single sided memory modules.

Best place to check if 4x256 modules would run as dual channel would be on your mainboard makers website (or in the mainboard manual), they usually provide charts detailing supported memory configurations.

Generally speaking, it's more than likely going to be better to run 2x512.