which is the best AVG/PCI-EXPRESS

computerwoman

Hi guys,
ok which is the best a graphics card that goes into a pci slot or the other that fits into an avg slot, I am at a lost, they seem to be alot of grahpics cards out there, I want one for gaming, at present am using a xfx nvidia 5200 256mb avg slot card, by why are they different, and which one's are the best to buy,
thanks hope someone out there can help.
cw

gaming_guy

i thought AVG was an antivirus program, not a graphics card slot. :rotfl:

i think you mean AGP. also, PCI-Express is different to PCI slots.

pci express is faster than agp, and agp is faster than pci. also make sure that your motherboard supports PCI-Express graphics cards

f1charlie

You mean AGP, not AVG.

Article here about the different standards:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6349_11-5975520.html

BillScarab

If you have a PCI-E slot use that, if you don't use an AGP slot. If you don't have AGP or PCI-E you don't need a new graphics card you need a new computer!

The best graphics card depends on your budget. Currently the best is one with an Nvidia 8800GTX chipset but you're looking at around £400 for one and to really be the best you'd want a pair of them!

Monitor size is also a factor, no use having a card that will do high res graphics on a 30" monitor if you only have an old 15" monitor.

So to be able to answer your question properly, do you have PCI-E or AGP? What is your budget? What size monitor so you have? What games do you want to play?

computerwoman

Hi and thanks everyone, I am in the process of buying my son a new pc, which I am building myself, and just noticed that the xfx geforce agp graphics cards were more expensive than the pci-express ones, which looked alot better than the others, as a 6100 agp card was more than a 7300 pci-ex card, so I just wondered which were the best, but yep its sorted alot out for me, as now I can get DDR2 ram which is cheaper than DDR ram and the motherboard is AM2 socket so is the processor, and there is 1 pci-ex slot on the mobo as well as 1 agp slot, so I'll just use the pci-ex slot, and they all support DDR2 ram its going to cost me around £200 to get the bits, £50 for the case, and £100 for the 19" widescreen monitor, someone said why dont I just but one, but they dont seem to have any that are as good as I can build the cheapest I have seen is £350 with a !!!!!! case and no monitor, so building this will be less expensive, as I only have £400 tops, we already have a 160gb HDD 3 months old and a dvd+-rw lightscrib, 3 months old, so I am going to get another dvd-rw DL and obviously I will have to get some more ram as the ram he currently has is ddr so it wont go with anything, I will save all the bits and make a test tower so I can test software on it,
thanks again for all your help
cw

computerwoman

ok
I have been looking at least let me know if anything is wrong with these, as I could have missed something,
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=119712
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=121817
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=64183
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=112169
can you let me know if there is any incompatibility with these.
thanks
cw

mint

Depends on what want to do with your newly built PC, but if you're going to use it for gaming, the components you chose are not fit for purpose (i.e. you can't run the latest games on them very well, let alone future games). Depending on your budget, you should go for the most powerfull PCI-express GPU you can afford (e.g. an nvidia 7800, 7900, or even 8000 series, which by the way are vvv expensive) as well as the most powerfull CPU you can afford (an Intel Core 2 Duo preferably).

Then buy the RAM: 1GB at least, the make matters but not as much.

Then the Mother board, suitable to the soket of your CPU (so if you buy an intel processor ensure that the socket matches that of the mother board; same with the AMD processors). And make sure the board has a PCI-Express slot, but don't worry if it is not one of the latest boards out there.

computerwoman

Hi thanks for that,
I have already ordered the monitor/case/1gb ddr2 ram this morning off ebuyer with the £10 discount through google checkout.
my son plays the games,
world of warcraft
star wars galaxies
city of heros/city of villians
and they play very well on what he's got now which isnt a patch on what I am building,
1gb ddr ram
cpu amd 2600
xfx geforce 5200 256mb graphics
160gb hdd
dvd-rw lightscrib
so its pretty much had it,
those are the only games he plays and has done on and off for 4 years,
he has his playstation 2 and xbox 360 for all other games,
so I just wondered if I'd got anything wrong, as its got to be better than he's got now, it was just the compatibility of the 4 items would you think they'd go together, or not.
thanks
cw

tr3mor

There's not going to be much difference between the computer he has now and the one you are buying.

And I can tell you for sure that those games don't "play very well" on his current system.

computerwoman

tr3mor wrote: »

There's not going to be much difference between the computer he has now and the one you are buying.

And I can tell you for sure that those games don't "play very well" on his current system.

actually they play alright, the only problem he has ever got is lag when there are lots of people on the screen,
cw

computerwoman

Hi I am hoping some techie people out there can help me with this, in a graphics card spec's the CORE CLOCK SPEED is 550MHz what does this mean and if others say 400MHz and 450MHz which is the best, does it go up as the best or down as the best,
also what does RAMDAC CLOCK SPEED mean they are all at 400MHz, any advice on this would enlighten me as to what these mean,
thanks
cw