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About Rider
Expertise
With 20 years experience I can answer almost any question about Intel computers ror build, restore, backup, configure, OS problems, Hardware issures. Setup of hardware components, repair, remove and replace. Trouble shooting hardware/driver issues. Qwner of DIY Computer Repair and autor of the DIY Computer Repair E-Book

Experience
I have been a hardware/os tech for over 20 years, I also own a web site for the do it yourselfer with over 170 articles.

Education/Credentials
AAS Electronics Engineering Technology, MCSE, A , HP/IBM/Compaq hardware repair ceritfications
You can visit my site here: DIY Computer Repair or visit my swickie DIY Swickie
 
   

You are here:  Experts > Computing/Technology > Focus on PC Support > PC hardware--CPU & Motherboard & RAM > upgrading

Topic: PC hardware--CPU & Motherboard & RAM



Expert: Rider
Date: 1/17/2008
Subject: upgrading

Question
Hello

I have a 5 year old computer with a S3   64 meg AGP video card. 2 Ghtz, 1.5 Gig of Ram.   I want to upgrade my current video card that supports only 800 x 600.   The monitor is CRT 19" Princeton with only VGA connection  supports up to 1600.  .

I am looking at 2 cards here

1  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102410

2  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102073

and I read some reviews of purchasers, that it did not work at all, maybe was not designed for old motherboards... eventhough, the majority were happy with these card.    I want to stay with this pc till the next Microsoft OS, not Vista...

What would you choose between these two, and would you have any other suggestions, please?

  Anything I should know regarding compatibility to this relatively old AGP slot?    I do not play games, so this will be just to update for regular work and video watching.

Any opinions and recommendations would be very appreciative.

Thank you,  Gabe


Answer
Your problem is that both of these cards are 4/8x (speed) and your motherboard being that old may not be able to accept the speed of the cards, you should look for a AGP card that will go lower to 1/2x. You need to check your BIOS settings, under Advanced there should be a setting for AGP Apature. What is the max you can set it for?

What will happen is you will get a very low resolution because the apature setting is to high for the bus on your computer to reconize. It may well give you 800x600 but your color will be at the default which is proabably 16 colors, that is not 16 million but 16.

Does this make sense?

HTH

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