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[Bree]

I finally figured out that my computer has a PCI slot, so I now know what kind of graphics card I need to get. Unfortunately, I have never bought a single graphics card before, so I don't know which card is good. All of those numbers just make my eyes glaze over, and I'm not really interested in playing Crysis or anything like that. I just want to get a solid card that I can play games on, ideally for less than a hundred bucks. Any suggestions?

[team_q]

Waaaaaait, do you mean pci-e, because Pci have been the standard slot for about 15-20 years.

[Bree]

I honestly don't know- I think it's just PCI. Like I said, I'm totally new to this whole graphic card thingamajig, so I honestly have no clue what I'm doing. I swear, if it weren't for indie games keeping the 2D dream alive, I don't think I'd be able to play a single damn thing on this bucket.

[team_q]

yeah, I don't know if they've made a PCI card for about 8 years, since AGP became standard and now that is dead, its PCI-e.


NINJA EDIT:

Turns out that they still do, but still a couple generations behind.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=319

[Terry]

How old is the computer? If it's more than 3 or 4 years old, it probably uses the older type of PCI slot. In which case, I'd look at something like the GeForce 4 Mx. If it's the new type, then you'll have to look at more recent (and probably more expensive) graphics cards.

[Smithy]

If it's just PCI you shouldn't have a problem finding a card for a hundred bucks or less.

Newegg it.

[Bree]

TeamQuiggan: When you say it's a couple generations behind, what does that mean? Is that like console generations, of about five years each?

Terry: I'll give it a look, thanks a bunch.

Smithy: Will do.

Everyone: My PC is over four years old, and it's just plain-old PCI. I know Source is a pretty scalable engine, but are there any cheap graphics cards that could run Portal? That seems to be the only modern (non-indie) PC game I really care about.

EDIT: Looked on eBay for the GeForce cards- found 'em for super cheap. Like, under ten bucks cheap. Don't wanna get too greedy, but I may start looking to see if there are any more powerful cards up for grabs. Even so, I am still confounded by these companies' naming schemes; it baffles me as to how this ever came to be, and how it has persisted for so long. As such, I have no idea as to which card is more powerful than the other. *sigh*

[team_q]

I don't know much about radions but how Nvidia works is, there are 4 numbers, the first two are significant, the first number is the class/year, the second number is the power/version of that class/year, so generally the higher the number the better features, but not necessarily more power. like a 7800 would out preform a 8400, but you wouldn't get Direct X 10 features.

When looking for a card, keep this in mind, look for cards with direct X 9 and openGL 2.

[Tasoth]

Before you invest in a graphics card, make sure your PSU can power it. That's my problem as of now. When I run to much, everything starts lagging horrible as everything is vying for power.

[Alevice]

Check if you got an AGP slot. Given your computer age, I'd be incredibly surprised if it doesn't. You could open your box and check if there is a brown slot next to the cream colored slots.

[Bree]

@Tasoth: What's PSU stand for? And how do I know how well it can power it?

@Alevice: What is an AGP slot? Is that for a specific type of card? I'm gonna try and peek in the box later this afternoon, so I'll see if it's there.

[Sar]

@Tasoth: What's PSU stand for? And how do I know how well it can power it?

"Power Supply Unit". The bit that the power cable plugs into at the back of the PC. In a tower it's usually at the top of the unit; somewhere on the PSU box it'll have a wattage rating, which tells you how much power it can supply. Well, it tells you how much power it draws from the mains, but the two are fairly closely related.

(Note: It's probably an unnecessary warning, but just in case - volts (V) are different from watts (W). There may well be a switch on the back of your PSU to switch between 110V and 220V; this doesn't make your PSU draw more power to supply bigger graphics cards, it makes it explode if you have it on the wrong setting. It's there to allow the same PSU to function on US (110V) and European (220V) power; don't fiddle with it.)

Computers used to come with 200W or so PSUs, but if you want to run a power-hungry graphics card you probably want 300-400W just to be safe. If you have lots of hard disks, or a power-hungry cooling fan, or a watercooling pump or something and also want to run a power-hungry graphics card you may want more. If you're sapping power off the computer's PSU to run your christmas tree lights and start your car, you may want to go higher still.

@Alevice: What is an AGP slot? Is that for a specific type of card? I'm gonna try and peek in the box later this afternoon, so I'll see if it's there.

An AGP slot is just a different kind of expansion card slot - if your PC is more than four years old than it more than likely won't have PCI-E, so if you have a single one of those plastic card-socket adaptors which are different to the rest - nearly always the top one - then it's probably AGP. Most motherboards will write "AGP" next to it somewhere in tiny white painted-on writing on the circuit board, and "PCI-0", "PCI-1" etc. next to all the others.

I seem to recall that AGP slots are slightly shorter than PCI slots. If you have a really old PC and have slots which are significantly longer than PCI slots, or are at the bottom instead of the top, then those are likely ISA slots and you don't want to put anything in those, ISA is the work of the devil.
I've never seen a motherboard with more than one AGP slot (although I'm sure they exist, you would have had to buy one on purpose) or only one PCI slot, so if there's more than one of both different sizes of slot, then you probably have ISA and PCI.

If you have a non-tower case, then for "bottom" read "nearest to the edge of the motherboard" and for "top" read "the end of the row of slots which isn't nearest to the edge of the motherboard.

[Alevice]

@Alevice: What is an AGP slot? Is that for a specific type of card? I'm gonna try and peek in the box later this afternoon, so I'll see if it's there.

Sar explained it far better than I would ever do, but he forgot to mention that back some years ago, AGP was designed specifically for graphic cards, so it is far more optimal in performance than PCI. PCI-E, however, is superior to AGP, but older computer do not even include it.

I'll rather give you some handy tips:

To know what does your motherboard support, download Everest (free trial version), and run it. It would show up a window with detailed summaries about your PC, one of them is your motherboard; there is a section in there giving you information about your expansion slots, even telling you how many of each type (ISA, PCI, AGP, etc) you have.

If you want further specs, you can search for your motherboardas brand and model, that would probably lead you to a tech specs page or something.

[Bree]

All right, just checked the computer's receipt- we have integrated AGP graphics. Does that mean that we have an AGP slot as well? And should I look into an AGP card over a PCI card, or does it matter?

[Sar]

All right, just checked the computer's receipt- we have integrated AGP graphics. Does that mean that we have an AGP slot as well? And should I look into an AGP card over a PCI card, or does it matter?

"Integrated" typically means that it's on the motherboard itself... so you may not have an expansion port of the same kind. It's worth a check, though.


If you do have an AGP slot, then it's going to be worth getting an AGP card over a PCI one, 'cause as Alevice says, AGP is superior. The bus throughput is higher meaning that it takes less time to shunt data to the graphics card - textures and geometry and rendering instructions.

[Bree]

Never mind, talked to the Dell dudes, and we have 3 PCI slots. Upon their recommendation, I'm currently looking at a GeForce FX 5200- is this a good card?

[Melly]

Whatever you get, make sure it has pixels shaders, cause god forbid is a developer doesn't use them nowadays. Maybe the world will end or something.

[team_q]

oh no, do you have the only dell micro tower?
I had that computer, its a heat hell, and hard to fit different cards into.

That is why they only came out with the one, they timed it wrong with pci only and its terribly cramped.

[Smithy]

I had a 256MB Geforce FX 5200. It was a decent card, managed Counterstrike Source at about 40 fps. Was creamed fairly quickly by all the expert addictsplayers, but it wasn't choppy.

Definitely has limits on newer games though.

[Bree]

Newer games, huh? Any suggestions for a better card, then?