More video card woes.

[BaconIsGood4You]

Before puchasing a GeForce 6600 GT my father emailed gateway customer support and recieved the following email

Thank you for your e-mail. According to the information you have provided in your email, your son wants to upgrade the video card and increase the memory of your desktop computer. I checked the informatin of your computer and found that the specific memory is compatible but the video card is not. The AGP slot of the motherboard of your computer can only support a speed of 4x. I suggest you to purchase the video card and the memory only from Gateway. With your purchase of Gateway Certified Products, you recieve the following benefits:

1. Many hardware upgrades come with a one-year limited warranty.
2. 24 hour award winning Technical Support.
3. Knowlegeable Sales Consultants trained to help you get the best possible performance from your Gateway.

Is this BS? How can I check my motherboard's speed? Could I upgrade my motherboard to support this card and is it worth just getting a new one? If the card is not compatible, what other similarly priced video card do you recommend (something that would run next-generation games, as the 6600GT is supposed to be a model for)?

 

[duffers20]

If you download Everest, it will tell you the supported AGP speeds, from there you will know what speed of card you can get. Everest can be found here:

http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=3

I think that gfx cards are backwards compatible, ie they will work in AGP ports that are slower than the card supports, so I would imagine that it would be ok to run a AGP8x card in a AGP4x port as the card would simply run at 4x. Can someone else verify this, thanks.

 

[giant384]

its should ive seen lots of ppl use 8x in 4x slot gateway is just suggesting that but it can work

 

[BaconIsGood4You]

Is it still worth it (assuming that the performance will be halved)?

 

[Asus]

performance won't be halved. An 8x AGP card should work in your 4x slot.

I would go ahead and buy the 6600GT (AGP version). If you are worried about it not working then make sure you buy from where you can return it.

 

[Killing2Live]

Isnt it sayed that current games don't even use the bandwidth of the 8x AGP slot let alone 4x? So I think you are perfectly fine and I say go for it.

 

[BaconIsGood4You]

Ok, I've been doing some research and I've found a couple (kinda) conflicting articles. One (http://www.directron.com/15agpguide.html) says that a 8x will work ok in a 4x slot, just at that speed; while the other (http://www.neoseeker.com//Hardware/faqs//view.php?action=r&faq_id=63&answer_id=62&cat_id=10&cat_name) says that it could not work or might malfunction.

How can I find if the 6600GT is a universal 1.5V capable AGP3.0 card? Haven't been able to find this...

 

[Asus]

You must have missed this in your 2nd link.

The connectors on AGP video cards are keyed in such a way that you can only install equipment that have compatible Voltage keyed connectors.

Meaning you can't fit an incompatible card in your machine, only ones that should work.

And yes, an 8X card in a 4x AGP slot will run at 4x. But you won't notice a difference.

 

[JoeMan05]

I have a 6600gt with a 4x agp slot, and it works great. So yes, you will be able to install it

 

[BaconIsGood4You]

You must have missed this in your 2nd link.

Meaning you can't fit an incompatible card in your machine, only ones that should work.

And yes, an 8X card in a 4x AGP slot will run at 4x. But you won't notice a difference.

No, that is only for <4x, which are not backwards compatible. I did see that, but saw pictures of the card and verified that it would indeed work.

I have a 6600gt with a 4x agp slot, and it works great. So yes, you will be able to install it

Oh thankyou! This is what I wanted to hear !!


Can anyone verify this?

 

[WaryWolf]

i've got a 6800nu in a 4xagp slot, it works fine also. you really won't notice the difference between 4xagp and 8x, seriously.

 

[BaconIsGood4You]

Thanks guys, I just wanted to be certain.