Video Card For Asrock Motherboard

[jtpelnge]

Hi folks,

I have a PC using an Asrock 4coredual SATA2 motherboard and am looking for an upgrade to my video card. Asrock’s website lists several video cards which they claim they support and claim are compatible with this board, unfortunately the majority appear to have been discontinued. Is buying a video card that the motherboard manufacturer supports or states is compatable very important or is it safe to assume that most video cards will work? I’ve never heard of this being an issue before, but a lot has changed since the last time I shopped for a video card – I’m still using an NVIDIA GeForce 2 card that I bought in 2001. Can someone tell me whether buying from the motherboard manufacturer’s “compatable list” is a big concern or not? Also, where can I go to get a quick tutorial on what the various features I’m reading about are?

Thanks

John Plenge

[Silent Service]

Is this your board? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157115 if it is you'll be getting an AGP GPU what are you trying to do cuz if it's gaming, not gonna happen.

[jtpelnge]

That's the board. It has both an AGP slot and a PCI Express slot so an upgrade is feasible, in fact, the dual-slot feature is one of the reasons I picked this board. It allowed me to reuse all of my old parts (except CPU and memory) and upgrade the other parts incrementally. I'm not a hard-core gamer, but do like to play every once in a while and, so far, my GEForce 2 has filled the bill (I buy most games, etc off the bargain racks). I'm just looking toward having something with a bit higher performance because a lot of newer software may not run very well on the old card.

Thanks

John Plenge

[Silent Service]

It's a pci express x4 so you are still stuck with agp this is the best AGP card I could find http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125281 not a bad card at all it's an ATI 4000 series.

[jtpelnge]

Thanks. Are PCIE x16 cards not compatable with pcIE x4 slots? I thought most things were backward compatable. The card you recommended would very likely work for what I have in mind, but if I later upgraded my motherboard, I probably would not be able to get an AGP slot and would have to get another video card at the same time.

[jtpelnge]

Just did some looking and found out PCIx16 won't go in a PCIx4 slot. Glad I found out before I bought anything.

[jtpelnge]

I just checked the support list on Asrock's website and there are no Radeon HD 4650 cards listed which brings me back to my original question: Am I reasonably safe buying cards not on the support list?

[mjc]

You will either need a new motherboard and video card or be stuck with what is probably the last of the AGP cards.

Yes, the 4650 will work...unlike the x4 and x16 PCIe slots, the last iteration of AGP will take AGPx8. The 4650 is much newer than the motherboard you have, the chance of it being listed as 'compatible' is slim to none, but it will work, as long as your power supply is 400W or greater.

This is one of the reasons not to adopt a system that is based on trying to satisfy both an outgoing/dieing technology and one that is up and coming. You usually get stuck without any real upgrade path.

[Silent Service]

You will either need a new motherboard and video card or be stuck with what is probably the last of the AGP cards.

Yes, the 4650 will work...unlike the x4 and x16 PCIe slots, the last iteration of AGP will take AGPx8. The 4650 is much newer than the motherboard you have, the chance of it being listed as 'compatible' is slim to none, but it will work, as long as your power supply is 400W or greater.

This is one of the reasons not to adopt a system that is based on trying to satisfy both an outgoing/dieing technology and one that is up and coming. You usually get stuck without any real upgrade path.

Beat by the mod, ugh, lol, what he said.

[jtpelnge]

Thanks everyone. I'll think about getting an AGP card. I'm currently running a 2001-vintage Geforce 2 card, so just about anything currently being sold would be a quantum leap in performance. The answer may be to get a fairly cheap AGP card and, in a few years, upgrade both motherboard and card together. I did see an adapter that allows PCIE x16 cards to plug into an x4 slot, but it raises the height of the card a bit and we start running into problems with the topmost port on the card being obstructed by part of the case. Also, the card only runs at X4 speed, although it would be usable in a newer motherboard in a few years.