AGP 8x, 4x and AGP 2.0, 3.0?

[Country Boy 13]

When looking at video cards to buy, some say AGP 8x, some say AGP 4x and others say AGP 8x/4x. Whats the difference and how do i tell if my AGP slot has 8x or 4x. Also, when i look at the side, it says needs an "AGP 2.0/3.0 compliant spot". what does that mean? Im a little confused, can anyone help me a little?

 

[LesterofPups]

If you'd mentioned which motherboard you have, I could've pointed out which cards would work. In the meantime, here is a rundown of agp specs:

http://www.directron.com/15agpguide.html

HTH

 

[Arcanum]

Your MoBo is probably AGP 8x compatible.
When a card says AGP 8/4x - it means it will work either at 8x agp or 4x agp, depending on your board - if your board is 8x AGP compatible, the card will run a 8x - it's that simple.
The (#)x denotes the bandwidth of the AGP interface...

AGP 2.0 is a 1.5V AGP slot capable of 4x,2x and 1x speeds.
AGP 3.0 is keyed like a 1.5V AGP 2.0 slot, but it only uses 0.8V of power. It supports 8X, 4X, 2X and 1X speeds.

Don't worry, since you're probably AGP 8x compatible - you have AGP 3.0, that means that all AGP cards will be compatible and will run fine.

If you can give me the MoBo chipset version I could check to be sure that you can run the card at 8x, however, even 8x cards will work if you dont have an 8x AGP board, they will just work at 4x.

 

[Country Boy 13]

mobo

Sorry, i dont know how to figure out what type of mother board i have, all i know is it is a Planar. Its the one that came with my dell when i bought it.

 

[Arcanum]

I'm sure the mobo supports at least AGP 4x, but I'm not sure about 8x - however, as I said all of the AGP 8x cards will work fine in an AGP 4x slot, just a little slower cause they're working at AGP 4x, thats all...

You have listed a radeon card in your profile - so you must have catalyst drivers installed - go to display properties -> advanced -> smartgart and see whats the max agp speed there.