I know very little about hardware and I was wondering if someone could tell me about what AGP is all about. I have a x4 slot and want to know whether x8s will work in it. Also, what does x4/x8 mean?
If you can help me with this, please could you also tell me a good suitable card that I can get for less than £50. Thank you so much for any help you can give me, as I'm so stupid.

Thanks
Moffat

Hi guymof,
Nope........... a 8X card will not work in a 4X slot. sorry.. You run the rick of burning out the slot.. your card..or both.
RGPHNX

Incorrect. An AGP8X card will work fine in an AGP4X slot.

Ok, thanks for your help, but could anyone else give me an opinion as I have two different views on the matter!
Thanks
guymof

Well, let's look at the page for ATI's 9600 Pro chipset which utilises the AGP8X bus.
http://www.ati.com/products/radeon96...pro/specs.html

And then the 9800 chipset.
http://www.ati.com/products/radeon98...pro/specs.html

Both happy to run in an AGP4X slot (see requirements - Intel® Pentium® 4, AMD® Athlon® or higher with AGP 8X (0.8v), 4X (1.5V) or Universal AGP 3.0 bus configuration (8X/4X)).

Ok, thanks, can you recommend me a graphics card which I can get for about £50? I would prefer an Nvidia card.
Thanks for any help
guymof

check out www.overclockers.co.uk for a selection of decenty cheap graphics cards.. nvidia or ati..

On www.misco.co.uk for around £50 you could get this FX5700LE 128MB.

Is it for gaming? if yes, wouldnt recommend buying a less performing card than a 6600GT 128MB (£97).

In my opinion the Radeon X700 256MB (£68) has best value for performance. I would go for this unless I would find a better deal somewhere else.

Thanks Belama, do you think that the x700 would be good enough to run battlefield 2 etc? I don't want to spend too much
Thanks
guymof

If you want to have your system capable enough to play the latest and greatest (and upcoming) games I wouldn't settle for less thana 6600GT.

The display card is the most important component for games performance, and skimping on it can only end up with a system which will leave you disappointed. Lesser cards will cetainly RUN the games, but if you find yourself having to cut back on image quality just about from the get-go, then it's a real ****-off! In all seriousness, cutting corners elsewhere inyour life to scrape up the extra quids is something you won't regret, if it's at all possible.