motherboard and video card question

RR wrote:
> I have a K8N motherboard and nVidia Geforce FX 5200 video card and
> minimum video requirements for this computer game I just bought is a
> geforce 6600. When I start the game a window comes up and my video
> controller doesn't support separate alpha blend. I just updated my
> drivers but still no luck.
>
> My question is... since my K8N motherboard only seems to have "PCI" and
> AGP video slots, how different is PCIexpress and would I be correct to
> assume that my motherboard would would not support the PCIe video card?
>
> I think I am going to have to get a new video card and I'm looking at my
> options.

You can get X1950Pro AGP cards. They draw a fair amount of power,
and also perform pretty well in DX9. (There are both PCI Express x16 and
AGP versions, and both cards have the same clocks.) You could check here
for some benchmarks.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html

There is a claim that some day, the HD3850 or HD3870 may become
available in AGP, but that hasn't happened yet as far as I know.
Nvidia has made some pretty fast AGP cards in the past, but for
the most part, has given up on that market segment, which is
why they're not mentioned in this answer. (Ebay may have some
of their products though.)

The K8N doesn't have PCI Express, and instead has PCI slots
and an AGP slot. So there is no opportunity to use a PCI
Express card there. To use a PCI Express would require a motherboard
change.

PCI Express is an entirely different protocol. It is a bunch of
high speed serial lanes, that are "teamed" together for additional
bandwidth. A single lane is 250MB/sec and 16 lanes gives a
max of 4GB/sec. AGP 8X on the other hand, is 2.1GB/sec.
AGP (and PCI) use parallel busses, with a common clock shared for
clocking all the bus signals. In fact, there is nothing wrong
with AGP (as AGP only has one device on the end of the bus, which
is a good architecture). But once PCI Express was invented to fix
the issues with the low speed PCI slots, it was a no brainer to
scratch AGP.

Paul
 >> Stay informed about: motherboard and video card question 

Thanks for the reply. I see a few new AGP cards I think might work but
are only 256MB. I would assume that they would still make some of my
other games move faster then my geforce 5200... right?

Paul wrote:
> RR wrote:
>> I have a K8N motherboard and nVidia Geforce FX 5200 video card and
>> minimum video requirements for this computer game I just bought is a
>> geforce 6600. When I start the game a window comes up and my video
>> controller doesn't support separate alpha blend. I just updated my
>> drivers but still no luck.
>>
>> My question is... since my K8N motherboard only seems to have "PCI"
>> and AGP video slots, how different is PCIexpress and would I be
>> correct to assume that my motherboard would would not support the PCIe
>> video card?
>>
>> I think I am going to have to get a new video card and I'm looking at
>> my options.
>
> You can get X1950Pro AGP cards. They draw a fair amount of power,
> and also perform pretty well in DX9. (There are both PCI Express x16 and
> AGP versions, and both cards have the same clocks.) You could check here
> for some benchmarks.
>
> http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html
>
> There is a claim that some day, the HD3850 or HD3870 may become
> available in AGP, but that hasn't happened yet as far as I know.
> Nvidia has made some pretty fast AGP cards in the past, but for
> the most part, has given up on that market segment, which is
> why they're not mentioned in this answer. (Ebay may have some
> of their products though.)
>
> The K8N doesn't have PCI Express, and instead has PCI slots
> and an AGP slot. So there is no opportunity to use a PCI
> Express card there. To use a PCI Express would require a motherboard
> change.
>
> PCI Express is an entirely different protocol. It is a bunch of
> high speed serial lanes, that are "teamed" together for additional
> bandwidth. A single lane is 250MB/sec and 16 lanes gives a
> max of 4GB/sec. AGP 8X on the other hand, is 2.1GB/sec.
> AGP (and PCI) use parallel busses, with a common clock shared for
> clocking all the bus signals. In fact, there is nothing wrong
> with AGP (as AGP only has one device on the end of the bus, which
> is a good architecture). But once PCI Express was invented to fix
> the issues with the low speed PCI slots, it was a no brainer to
> scratch AGP.
>
> Paul
 >> Stay informed about: motherboard and video card question 

I do have a 400W power supply as well



> You can get X1950Pro AGP cards. They draw a fair amount of power,
> and also perform pretty well in DX9. (There are both PCI Express x16 and
> AGP versions, and both cards have the same clocks.) You could check here
> for some benchmarks.
 >> Stay informed about: motherboard and video card question 

RR wrote:
> Thanks for the reply. I see a few new AGP cards I think might work but
> are only 256MB. I would assume that they would still make some of my
> other games move faster then my geforce 5200... right?
>

The X1950Pro would make your games scream. I cannot give you an
exact figure, because FX5200 is no longer on modern video card
benchmark charts. But it would be a lot faster, at least
as long as the game is not bottlenecked by CPU. A game can
either be dependent on CPU or on GPU, and the X1950Pro would work
best in situations where you needed more GPU.

The X1950Pro draws roughly 65W when loaded. Note that this
power measurement is for the PCI Express x16 version. The
AGP one needs several more watts for the Rialto bridge
chip on the back of the card.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/x1950pro-gf7900gs_6.html

Hmmm. I just checked a couple web sites, and the AGP version
looks to be gone. I hope you can find one. I wanted to check
the box accessories, to see what was included, but now all the
pictures are gone.

More pointers here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/11/06/amd-set-capture...0-agp-m

Paul
 >> Stay informed about: motherboard and video card question 

This might be worth a look:
The Best Gaming Graphics cards for the Money: December 2007
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/03/best_graphics_card/


"RR" <yourspam.DeleteThis@blocked.com> wrote in message
news:67KdnYDr1M6yV-TanZ2dnUVZ_qCunZ2d@comcast.com...
>I do have a 400W power supply as well
>
>
>
>> You can get X1950Pro AGP cards. They draw a fair amount of power,
>> and also perform pretty well in DX9. (There are both PCI Express x16 and
>> AGP versions, and both cards have the same clocks.) You could check here
>> for some benchmarks.
 >> Stay informed about: motherboard and video card question 

thanks for the link. nice article.



Supernews wrote:
> This might be worth a look:
> The Best Gaming Graphics cards for the Money: December 2007
> http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/03/best_graphics_card/
>
>
> "RR" <yourspam.RemoveThis@blocked.com> wrote in message
> news:67KdnYDr1M6yV-TanZ2dnUVZ_qCunZ2d@comcast.com...
>> I do have a 400W power supply as well
>>
>>
>>
>>> You can get X1950Pro AGP cards. They draw a fair amount of power,
>>> and also perform pretty well in DX9. (There are both PCI Express x16 and
>>> AGP versions, and both cards have the same clocks.) You could check here
>>> for some benchmarks.
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: motherboard and video card question