AGP 4x and 2x

[whatdoumean]

Can somebody tell me how agp 4x and 2x works? will an agp 4x card work on an agp 2x slot? how to decide the compatibility? can I use and old agp 2x bus type card on a agp 4x expansion slot?
help!

[hiredgoonz]

Generally, both situations will work. A 4X card will usually work at 1X, 2X, or 4X, depending on the slot, and a 1X or 2X card will work in a 4X slot (although you may need to change the BIOS setting to 1X or 2X to match the card)

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[bassvax]

The cards should work either way as it should be backwards compatible. The difference is the throuhput rate capabilities of the bus.

AGP explained briefly (http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=Articles%2FArchive%2FG0801%2F3 5x01%2F04g01%2Easp)

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[whatdoumean]

Originally posted by whatdoumean:
Can somebody tell me how agp 4x and 2x works? will an agp 4x card work on an agp 2x slot? how to decide the compatibility? can I use and old agp 2x bus type card on a agp 4x expansion slot?
help!

thanx for the info.so there is no way a card will get spoiled due to incompatibility rite?

[Paleo Pete]

Right. The main thing to pay attention to is what hiredgoonz pointed out, if you use a 2X card on a motherboard with 4X capability you will probably need to make sure the BIOS setting is right for it. The 2X or 4X designation means it can handle that type of card, not that it must.

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[Snodgras]

If you have not resolved this question yet, there are several motherboards that will only take AGP4x 1.5 volt cards. If you install a 3.3 volt AGP card in them they tend to fry the mobo. Just because the card is AGP4x does not mean that it is 1.5v. Many older AGP4x cards are 3.3v

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[Matt]

Not sure if this is some sort of myth or anything but I have also been told that on some mobos you sometimes need a 2X or 4X card (depending on the default settings of the mobo) to change the settings of the AGP slot. I know.. this does not make sense to me to, but I was told that this was the only way to really avoid frying the mobo or video card. Then again, I think my Abit mobo is supposed to automatically detect the voltage on the AGP slot.

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The first time I installed Windows it took only one try. When I tried re-installing Windows at a later date it took 30+ tries before I got it right... go figure. =P

[hiredgoonz]

That's the difference between AGP Pro and regular AGP, the voltage difference that is...on AGP Pro slots, there should be a little tab to prevent the AGP card from slipping forward in the slot and frying...

Unless you have an AGP Pro card, make sure that if the mobo supports AGP Pro, there is the tab in the front of the AGP slot. Also, on some old AGP cards, there were jumpers on the card itself that you had to put on to change it from AGP 2x to 4x

------------------
When all else fails, read the instructions.

Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;rid;kbinfo)

Drivers (http://www.driverguide.com)

Google (http://www.google.com)