Video cards : need advise on USED cards...

[ZIYAD A. M. AL-BATLY]

On Thu, 2005-06-02 at 14:00 -0700, Kreg Schlosser wrote:
> Hey Vincent,
> Most new AGP 8x cards will work in you AGP 4x slot.
> ...
Hi everyone... About the above: Sorry to say this, but that's not true!
***Be warned***!!!  You must have a VGA adapter with an AGP *version*
that's compatible with (or supported by) your mainboard.

Don't confuse AGP “version” with AGP “speed” or “rate”.

>From a mainboard point of view:
      * AGP v1.0 support speed rates of 1x only or 1x and 2x and operate
        at 3.3 Volts.  Those found on very old Pentium 2, K6, and Cyrix
        systems.
      * AGP v2.0 support speed rates of 1x, 2x, and 4x and run at 2.5
        Volts.  You'll found those in Pentium 3, early Athlons, and
        VIA's C3 systems.
      * AGP v3.0 support speed rates of 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x and run at
        1.8 Volts (I think, I'm not 100% sure).  You'll find this on
        newer systems.  Most _new_ AGP cards are *only* AGP v3.0, so be
        careful.

Depending on your mainboard specifications, it may support, say, AGP
v1.0 and v2.0.  This specific mainboard will not accept an AGP adapter
that's AGP v3.0.  Likewise, some AGP VGA adapter support more than one
version of AGP specification.  I have been beaten a lot by this
confusion in the past thinking “I'll just lower my mainboard's AGP rate
from the BIOS and this AGP card will work like a charm”.  Needless to
say, I was wrong.


(Sorry for this long (unhelpful) post.  One more thing, I'm not sure
about this but it's almost impossible to ruined your mainboard or VGA
adapter if you used two non-compatible parts despite the difference in
the voltage.)
Ziyad