Will my motherboard support Graphic card

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Karthikv

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Hi what graphic card will my motherboard support?
I have a Mercury PI865D7 mainboard. P4 processor. DDR2
Here you can find the specification.

http://www.mercury-pc.com/product-spec.php?productid=684

I just wanna play some old games like Company of heroes, and may be some other low to medium requirement games.

Also I have a DDR2 config. I m interested in buying this graphic card->Zotac NVIDIA Geforce GT 520 G....This has a 2 GB DDR3 memory. Will this be compatible with my board.

I am a newbie to these .. Any help would be good.....



 
Solution
This is legacy PCI:
PCI_Slots_Digon3.JPG


Here are various PCIe slots with 1 legacy PCI on the bottom:
PCIExpress.jpg


In order from top to bottom they go: PCIe x4, x16, x1, x16, Legacy PCI. Modern graphics cards use PCIe x16. The x4, x8, and x1 slots are used for sound cards, network cards, and other expansion cards. The flexibility is nice too. You can stick an x1 card in an x8 or even x16 slot and it would work.

Vettedude

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You only have an AGP slot for graphics. AGP is older and the cards will be more expensive than their PCIe brethren, but it's still cheaper than upgrading the whole system. We need to know your PSU though, the wattage and brand.
 

sykozis

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No, it will not work.

Your motherboard has an AGP slot. The graphics card requires a PCI Express slot, which your motherboard does not have.
 

Vettedude

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Its legacy PCI. PCIe is totally different: PCI-Express. Only shares a similar name because the same Special Interest Group designed both (PCI-SIG). PCI-Express is much, much faster than both PCI and AGP. A 350w PSU will be fine for almost any AGP or PCI card.
 

Vettedude

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This is legacy PCI:
PCI_Slots_Digon3.JPG


Here are various PCIe slots with 1 legacy PCI on the bottom:
PCIExpress.jpg


In order from top to bottom they go: PCIe x4, x16, x1, x16, Legacy PCI. Modern graphics cards use PCIe x16. The x4, x8, and x1 slots are used for sound cards, network cards, and other expansion cards. The flexibility is nice too. You can stick an x1 card in an x8 or even x16 slot and it would work.
 
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Karthikv

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Hi thanks again. Should i buy a new motherboard. So if i buy a DDR 3 Intel Motherboard. then i guess I ll need to change my Processor to DDR-3 supported.. So it kind of become costly.

Could you suggest a cheaper alternative. to play some games.. which when i tested in System requirements lab provided results like -> Lack of H/w T&L, Lack of Pixel shader. So Any suggestions would be very helpful..
 

Vettedude

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This is one of the best price/performance AGP cards left on the market: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161308

This is the best, just a higher clocked version of the previous card with a better cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161337

Both support Dx 10.1 and OpenGL 3.2 and could play most games, even modern games, just not on high settings at all. If would play your older games great.

If all you want is cheap and would work better than your Intel Extreme Graphics, get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187043 It has HW T&L and supports Dx9, which is all Windows XP uses anyways. Don't expect to play modern games on it though.
 

Karthikv

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Hi thanks for ur reply..

HIS IceQ H467QS1GHA Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Video Card

So Can u tell me what is with this DDR3 ... will this be compatible with my mother board... DDR2

 

Vettedude

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DDR2 is only your system RAM. My Core 2 Quad that I'm typing on has DDR2, its still fine. DDR3 uses less power and is slightly faster, but DDR2 works fine for system RAM.

The DDR3 on the HIS is VRAM--Video RAM framebuffer. Its totally separate from your system RAM. GDDR5 is the best, used on most cards today. GDDR3 is slower but works. DDR2 is slower still, and DDR is the worst for framebuffer. It has no effect on your system RAM though. Plus that IceQ has a 128-bit bus for the memory, which is pretty good for an AGP card these days, means your framebuffer bandwidth will be higher.

HOWEVER, the IceQ requires a 4-pin Molex connector to plug into the card. Does your PSU have a free Molex connector? This is a Molex:
800px-Molex_male_connector.jpg

The HIS also requires one. If you don't have a free one, you have to choose a lesser GPU or upgrade PSU (which will increase the cost a lot)
 
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