PCI, AGP & PCI Express Battle It Out

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Do you know which expansion slot your motherboard supports?

PCI, AGP & PCI Express Battle It Out

So it's time to upgrade to a new video card. Your natural instinct is to go out and buy the best one you can reasonably afford. You look at the video cards online, find the most expensive one that is still within your price range, and pull out the credit card.

That is an example of what not to do. Before you jump online to shop, you have to know what you are looking for. The first thing you should do is find out what expansion slot your motherboard has. There are three main types, and this will dictate what type of card your computer can support.

The PCI slot was the first one developed and has the most limited graphics capabilities. You will not find this type of expansion slot on new computers, but if your have an older one with this type of interface there are still PCI video cards available for you.

The next one developed was the AGP. Now the AGP video cards can do 3D graphics, provide a better transfer rate and also create a direct link between the CPU and the graphics processor. Over the years there have been improvements made in the AGP slot, leading to the AGP 2.0 and 3.0. These video cards will be the mid-tier for performance.

The third type of slot is the PCI Express, the predominant expansion slot today. In the last few years PCI Express has replaced AGP as the standard. PCI Express slots are up to four times faster than the best AGP slot. PCI video cards and slots are separate from PCI Express and are not interchangeable. They are different physically and use different data transfer methods. These are designed to be the high performance graphics slots and cards.

Check out TigerDirect.com for detailed information and affordable options in all categories.

   

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