APG 4X or 8X or both

[jfink12]

HI,

I have a 2 year old Sony Vaio PCVRx860 that the guy at Circuit City told me I would have to pay them $40.00 to install a GeForce 5500 graphics card that would need to be tweaked ( $20.00 more ) by them to run my World of Warcraft game. He said my computer needed an APG 4X compatible graphics card. SO the PCI's are not for me. He also said I could not use the APG 8X cards either, but I could use the APG 8X/4X graphics card.

At Best Buy, their floor saleman said that was BS and that I could get the GeForce 6600 graphics card withthe APG 8X interface(?) and that the APG cards that say they are for 8X are "backwards compatible to the 4X." Is that true?

Who should I believe? And What should I do. What about a NVidia GeForce 6800GT card?

Jeff

 

[iss]

Virtually all newer video cards support 2X 4X and 8X AGP speeds.

 

[Tedster]

Your motherboard has integrated graphics according to the web - SIS651 integrated graphics to be exact. The saleman is an *****. You can not use either. The graphics on this board are not upgradable. Unless your motherboard has an AGP slot (which I doubt) you can't use an external graphics card on this computer as it is a super budget system.

If you could AGP 8X is fine. AGP cards are backwards compatible. You can run an 8X in a 4X system at 4X speed.

 

[jfink12]

Tedster,

Here is the info I got by using my Sony's User Guides Specifications. It lists that it is expandable to PCI slots (2) and APG. SO does that mean there is an APG slot I can use for a graphics card? Or that I can add an APG slot to my motherboard?

My SIS 650_651_740 integrated graphics card is located in PCI slot 1 according to Device Manager...

Jeff


Model PCV-RX860

Processor 2.40B GHz1 Intelฎ Pentiumฎ 4

Hard Disk Drive 80 GB2, ATA-100

C = 16 GB, D = 64 GB

Standard Memory (RAM) 992 MB PC2100 DDR-SDRAM, expandable to 1.5 GB

Graphics SiS 651 Integrated Graphics

Video Memory (VRAM) 32 MB (Shared with system memory)

MPEG “Sony Tuned” MPEG Digital Video supports full-screen video playback

Sound Capabilities Yamaha YMF-753

Floppy Disk Drive 3.5" 1.44 MB

DVD-RW Drive 2X max. DVD-RW/DVD-R reading3
6X max. DVD-ROM reading
24X max. CD-R/CD-ROM reading
20X max. CD-RW reading
8X max. CD-R writing
4X max. CD-RW writing
2X max. DVD-R writing
1X max. DVD-RW writing
CD-ROM Drive 40X max. CD-R/CD-ROM reading4

24X max. CD-RW reading

Modem V.90 data/fax modem5 (REN 0.8B)

Expansion Capabilities
Hard disk drive bay
PCI slots (2)
AGP slot

 

[Tedster]

you can't "Add" an APG slot to your motherboard, it either has it or it doesn't. If your manual says it has one, I am willing to bet it is 8x.

Everything I saw online said you had integrated graphics only.

if you can add an APG card to an APG slot, then you have to turn off integrated graphics in BIOS.

 

[FynexFox]

hmm

Well heres some stuff to make it easier. If your specs say you have an AGP(advanced graphics processing) slot on your mother board then adding an AGP graphics card is possible. It wont matter if you use 2x 4x or 8x casue it either excepts whatever you put it, or whatever you put in goes backwards compatible to work. You don't have to turn integrated graphics off, as soon as you hook in your agp gfx card into the slot and switch vga(or dvi for that matter)cables, it will automatically run of your external card, not onboard card.

I hope that cleared it up, if you need help were all here.

 

[Tedster]

that's not accurate - SOME motherboards require integrated graphics to be turned off.

 

[FynexFox]

Sorry for that, thank you Tedster. I was unaware of that.

Though im sure since its a massed produce computer, so it's ***** proof, it turns off automatically.

 

[jfink12]

HI Guys,

Thanks for all the input.

I picked up a GeForce 6800 GT AGP 8X card tonight and am about to try and install it.

Wish me luck.

Jeff

 

[Vigilante]

Oh and not to be picky, but AGP can stand for "Advanced Graphics Processor", but more commonly "Accelerated Graphics Port".

Don't fret it, word use bugs me. But not my words lol

 

[FynexFox]

Alrighty then. Good luck jfink, if anything goes wrong Im sure plenty of us can help.

 

[Ruder]

The mobo in that machine has a AGP 4x slot.
Rather get a 6600 GT card.

 

[Merc14]

jfink12-
Plugging a 6800GT into what seems to be a 4xAGP slot is a complete waste of money on your part. AGP4X will be unable to handle the throughput that a 6800GT will produce. Don't get me wrong, it will run but t is akin to putting a porsche engine in a Kia Rio. Way big time overkill. A FX5200, at 25% of the cost, would not be fully utilized in a AGP4x port. Also, a budget sytem is unlikely to be able to provide enough power to run a 6800GT. You may even damage the GT. My advice is don't even open the box. Just return the card and get a 5200 or its equivalent.

 

[mokaboy]

The 6800gt will not get damaged and you will only see about a 10% difference between running it in AGPx4 and AGPx8.

I say open the box

 

[Tedster]

I agree with merc14. Putting an AGP card in a budget system is a waste of time. You'ld be better off upgrading your entire system.

 

[Merc14]

Mokaboy-
In the very best of circumstances he'd see a 10% to 20% loss in performance. Given his system's FSB speeds and RAM as well as the CPU, a 6800GT is overkill in a big way. It will be bottlenecked to hell. Also , it is recommended that you use a 300 watt PSU with a GT. Do you honestly believe he has more than a 180 watt PSU in that budget OEM rig? This is where the damage my occur. A cheap PSU may not just switch off when radically overloaded, it could die in a flash of sparks.