AGP or PCI?

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My PC is configured as follows:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 SP1
Dimension 8200 Series, Pentium 4 Processor at 2.0 Ghz
200 Gigabyte Hard Drive
250 Megabyte Iomega Zip Internal Drive
24x/10x/40x CD-RW Drive
48x CD-ROM Drive
4x Sony DRX510UL DVD-RW Drive(USB 2.0)
256 Megabyte PC800 RDRAM
SB Live! 1024 Digital Sound Card
64 Megabyte GeForce4 MX Graphics Card with TV-Out

My question concerns the Video Card mentioned just above. How can I tell
whether the card is "AGP or PCI"? I need to know so that I can replace it
with a better quality card. I'm playing World of Warcraft using the card and
it is deficient in the "FPS(Frame Per Second)" category. Thanks in advance
for your help.
 
Go to dell's support site and plug into the support assistant or plug in
your service tag, whichever they want you to do. It will have an option to
see what hardware was delivered with your pc and will tell you which card
you have.
 
A AGP card is the way to go if you have an AGP slot,that slot is given
its own connection to the board,where PCI slot shares with others.
 
I'd bet my entire bankroll it's got an AGP card (or free AGP slot, and the
graphics could be onboard as it's a GF4MX.) Most large OEM systems like
Dell have boards with onboard AGP (i.e. you can't remove it) but also have
an AGP expansion slot for you to add a new vid card; while a few others that
have onboard AGP do _not_ have an AGP expansion.

The system is way too new to have a PCI card shipped from Dell :P unless one
was added after the fact by someone for whatever reason; and the system
doesn't appear close to being new enough (or nearly high end enough I should
say) to have PCI Express. It's AGP for sure, just a matter of figuring out
if there is an actual slot in there. You can always tell by opening the
case :P

One can try to do the service tag online but if you go for drivers you'll
likely get a list of 12 things that *could* be in your system, as Dell
usually does, though you should be able to tell for sure if there is an AGP
slot by looking at the system specs/manual in print or online!
 
John Shaw said:
I'd bet my entire bankroll it's got an AGP card (or free AGP slot, and the
graphics could be onboard as it's a GF4MX.) Most large OEM systems like
Dell have boards with onboard AGP (i.e. you can't remove it) but also have
an AGP expansion slot for you to add a new vid card; while a few others that
have onboard AGP do _not_ have an AGP expansion.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you can work it out by looking on the back panel to see where the
video connector is..

Assuming you have the case upright/tower..

A vertical video connector => motherboard VGA card

Horizontal in top case slot => AGP

Horizontal but lower slot => PCI

....but it's not always that simple.
 
Open the PC case and look. You're going to have to anyway in the event it
is a substitute replaceable item.

Follow the monitor cable from the monitor to the PC. If its connected to a
card inserted into the motherboard, you're in luck as its replaceable. If
the monitor/display port is connected to the motherboard, it MAY be
replaceable, but not always the case. If there is no facility for disabling
the onboard display adapter, or PCI or AGP first in the bios, you cannot
provide a substitute.

If its an AGP card in an AGP slot, it will be furtherest inside the
motherboard from the edge. The AGP slot has different appearance than a PCI
slot. There will be remaining cards in a row in PCI slots, or that and some
empty PCI slots to the edge I'm referring to. To make things worse, there's
more than one type of AGP slot. The 1X/2X versions use the same type AGP
slot. The 4X versions use a different type slot, but allows use of the
slower cards. But not vice versa. That said without any internet search
for the info you're asking about.

Then I searched the internet at various forums. Then, the common sense
thing, went to the Dell website.
One forum I found said you have 4X AGP slot (per the Dimension model's
manual), and uses a video card. No onboard video. The video card in this
model vary.
http://support.dell.com/support/top...kb/en/document?dn=1066535&c=us&l=en&s=gen&cs=

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8200/9p915bk0.pdf

Should answer any question about how to replace hardware on your model PC.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8200/replace.htm?c=us&l=en&s=gen&cs=
 
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