AGP voltage compatibility question

[Paul881]

I have an old ASUS P4PE MoBo with an AGP graphic slot that runs at 1.5volts.

Will an AGP 4x or 8x card work in this slot as far as the voltage is concerned? I am aware that I won't get the enhanced 8x speed of the card.

I am currently looking at a used XFX GeForce 7800 GS, 256MB DDR3, AGP 8x card or similar on eBay. At the prices they are going for, its a no brainer.

I should say that the reason for changing from my ATI Sapphire Radeon 9550 is that my music software creation program has problems with the card so the alternative is the nVidia chipset. I'm guessing that when I fitted this card, I wasn't even aware of the voltage compatibility issue and so I surmise that all 4x & 8x cards are backward compatible with 1.5volts on the MoBo?

[zapionics<alt>]

The P4PE was a nice board, although I skipped it at the time and jumped onto Granite Bay... which means I dont have any direct experience of it... however, while you're waiting for someone to reply with some actual experience with the P4PE I have these thoughts to offer...

AGP 3.0 is backward compatible. That means that you should not damage the system putting an AGP 8X card into a AGP 4X slot ... *but*... the card may not work unless the chipset supports it.

I believe the P4PE is based on the 845PE chipset which Intel say is compatible with AGP 8X so I expect that means the card might run happily at 4X but you would need to check with Asus. I tried searching Asus's website just now but their search engine doesnt work at the moment, you might like to try it and see if you can find any information about whether the board will accept and run an AGP 3.0 card.

A further factor is the video cards themselves... there was a "universal" form factor versus the standard... essentially each AGP spec has a keyed slot so that you cannot insert the wrong card into the wrong board... this was to prevent AGP 1.0 cards being inserted into AGP 2.0 boards which have different signal voltages... the universal AGP 3.0 card is supposed to be fully compatible with the AGP 2.0 slot...

[edit] this post over here seems to suggest it will work

[Paul881]

Thanks Zapionics; as my existing card is an 8x AGP, I feel I am fairly safe in buying an equivelent Geforce model. I guess there's only one way to find out......

[ctal]

I believe Zap's answer is fully correct, and I don't think you'll have any problems, although I have no experience with that particular board. This may be of additional help:

Accelerated Graphics Port - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regards,
-- Al

[Paul881]

Thanks Al, that a great link, I learnt a lot.

I can feel an eBay bid coming on............

[Paul881]

One other question I wanted to ask was that if I buy another card, is it best to delete all the ATI software that I have installed (Catalyst Control Centre) before loading the GeForce card - or should I just leave it and take out my Radeon 9550 and just replace it with the GeForce 7600GT?

[zapionics<alt>]

If you decide to install a non ATI card, then uninstall the Catalyst drivers and CCC from your control panel first.

I also recommend that you run driver cleaner and clean out all the remaining ATI stuff.

Driver Cleaner

[Paul881]

Originally Posted by zapionics<alt>

If you decide to install a non ATI card, then uninstall the Catalyst drivers and CCC from your control panel first.

I also recommend that you run driver cleaner and clean out all the remaining ATI stuff.

Driver Cleaner

Okay will do, thanks for the advice

[fischbitz]

I hope this helps

First thing is install the driver cleaner sotware, however, do not run it yet.

Then go into control panel and uninstall your video drivers, but do not reboot when requested.

Next uninstall the Catalyst Control centre. After this is completed then reboot the computer.

Make sure to reboot into Safe mode, press F8 during bootup to select.

Once system is fully booted into Safe mode run driver cleaner and be sure to select all of the ATI soft ware that ran with your ATI Card ( Drivers, CCC etc) If there are any vestiges of ATI software left when you install the nVidia product, there could be trouble.

After driver cleaner is finished shut down the computer.

Next, remove the ATI card and install the nVidia card, Boot up the computer and install the nVidia drivers.

I can appreciate this is not the most detailed guide, however it should get the job done.

Also if there are problems with your system after installing the nVidia card, you may have to do a full format. This was the once recommended practice when changing brands

[fischbitz]

I should have mentioned in my post I have an ASUS P4PE and it is running an ATI 9600XT @1.5v - AGP X4 and has done so for several years without issue. The card is also capable of AGP X8, however, as we both know the P4PE is only capable of AGP X4.

[zapionics<alt>]

Originally Posted by fischbitz

... The card is also capable of AGP X8, however, as we both know the P4PE is only capable of AGP X4.

The performance difference between AGP 8X and 4X is negligible and in most real world cases completely undetectable. Wouldnt worry about it.

[Paul881]

Fischbitz, many thanks for your help; I'll be trying the installation maybe this evening to tomorrow sometime and I will let you know how I get on following your advice. I have C.Cleaner software already installed so I will be using that program to clean all the ATI stuff out.