Agp Graphics Card

I went to Staples today and was looking for a graphics card. I found the one i wanted, but there were two options, PCI and AGP. I asked the nice man at the counter what the difference was, and he didn't help at all really. He said the AGP was better, but I'd have to see if i could use it with my computer... Well he didn't tell me HOW to check. And he just kinda left.

So my question here is, how can i see if my computer supports an AGP Graphics card? I googled it, but I'm a bad searcher, and just got reasons why PCI is now obsolete. So if anybody could give some info about AGP, how i can check, maybe what i could search for to find info about it, or anything else, i would appreciate it.

Thanks

 

see that dark slot on top? thats agp.

the white slots are pci.

see how the agp slot is pushed to the right a bit? thats how you tell.

And yes, AGP is better than PCI. AGP is on a faster "bus" than PCI, so AGP is faster

 

Wow, a picture and all. Thanks a whole bunch, this is gonna help me a lot!
I'd Plus rep, but i don't have 150 posts. When i get to 150 ill rep ya, you helped me a lot, thank you.

 

Its also called PCI Express, and most Graphics Cards are PCI Express nowadays anyway so... =P

 

Most graphics card nowadays are PCI-e, which is different from regular PCI and much faster, AGP is alot faster than regular PCI.

PCI-e> AGP> PCI

If you have an AGP slot you probably do not have a PCI-e slot so an agp card is the beast choice

 

not really..there is pci..which is much older than pci-express...pci is x1..pci-e is x16..big difference performance-wise

 

If the guy said AGP was faster, then its probably an AGP 2x/4x card or a low 8x and normal PCI.

 

actually there are three options.

PCI
AGP
PCI-express

bandwidth wise PCI-e is the fastest and the newer cards are beginning to need the bandwidth. lowerend cards (GeForce 6800, Radon x800 and lower) tend to have slightly better performance on AGP though.

your choices on PCI are limited to overpriced crap.
AGP is sem i overpriced midend stuff
PCi-e 8x and 16x(same physical connector) lets you go with more or less everything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

pretty much just find out what your computer houses and order a card for it online. and FYI the guys at best buy circuit city etc. dont' know crap and those stores overprice atleast 90% of the time.

 

Yea, i read about the PCI - Express when i was searching, but it said its only compatible with newer computers, and my computer is about 3 years old, so i highly doubt it would work.

Thanks a bunch for all the info guys, you've been a lot of help. I can always count on the people at Game Renders to help me. =)

 

what motherboard do you have or if it was prebuilt which model did u get

 

aspick, i think he can figure it out himself...

 

my mobo had a agp, x3 pci (slots) and pci-e slots

I always thought agp was slower than the pci. Glad I read here!

 

PCI-e came out in 04 so as you said probably wouldn't be applicable.

heck to see if you ahve an AGP port, just pop off the case and look...

and again, AGP is much faster than PCI in terms of both latency and bandwidth(infact AGP is just a modification of PCI). it's just that it only has 1/4th the bandwidth of PCI-e 16x