Hardware question; followup
Jerry Turba
From: "steven67@" <stev...@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Hardware question
Date: Thursday, March 07, 2002 4:50 PM
Jerry,
On 1.5V AGP cards, the key notch is closer to the front. On 3.3V cards,
it's
closer to the back. Universal cards, have a notch at both positions. If a
board only supports one type, the AGP slot should have a divider to match
the
notch. Boards that can support both, don't have a divider.
But, we can't always rely on these keys. There were a few 1.5V cards that
had
also had a 3.3V notch, and didn't support it, resulting in damage when
installed
in older boards.
Thanks to Ian Clark and yourself for the responses. The manual says my AGP
slot is AGP 2.0 and supports 4x mode.
If I understand correctly: The AGP cards with the notch closer to the front
(of the computer case and away from the back wall of the case) are 1.5v and
newer/faster ( AGP 2.0). The cards with the notch closer to the back wall of
the case are 3.3v and AGP 1.0.
The slots obviously must match the cards. Since my AGP slot has no
"dividers" it is supposedly "intelligent" and can use either card and give
the proper voltage. The card however, may not be intelligent and not support
the voltage the slot thinks the card is requesting, and get fried?
Are there cards with both notches, so called universal? Would these be
considered AGP 2.0?
Are there cards with no notches?
THe best card for my slot would be one with no notch, or the 1.5v version?
Please correct any misstatements.
Thanks again for the info.
Jerry
steven67@
On 1.5V AGP cards, the key notch is closer to the front. On 3.3V cards, it's
either 1.5V or 3.3V, have both notches. But, there were some cards that only
support 3.3V that were incorrectly notched as universal.
Since your motherboard's AGP slot doesn't have a divider (key), your motherboard
should support either, 3.3 volt cards or 1.5 volt cards. Since your motherboard
has this universal AGP slot, your board probably will support most AGP1X, AGP2X,
or AGP4X cards. But, it's always a good idea to check with the motherboard and
AGP card's manufacturers/vendors for compatibility information.
In the first message, where I stated that we can't always rely on the keys to
indicate if the card is compatible with a motherboard, I should have said, there
were some cards that only supported 3.3V that were incorrectly notched at both,
the 3.3V and 1.5V positions. The cards that I've heard about with this problem,
were SiS305 based. These cards should have only been notched at the 3.3V
position. Some newer motherboards such as those using the Intel 845 chipset,
only support 1.5V AGP4X cards. Motherboards that only support 1.5V cards, could
be damaged if one those incorrectly notched cards were used.
Jerry Turba
"steven67@" <stev...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:3C89242E...@mindspring.com...
Jerry