Monday, May 7, 2012

PCI and PCI Express Graphics/ Video Card?

I'm getting a new computer...



Specs:



Gateway - Desktop

Model: DX4300-15e



Processor.............................… Phenom™ II

Processor Speed.........................2.6GHz

System Bus................................4000M…

Cache Memory............................6MB

System Memory (RAM)................8GB

Type of Memory (RAM).................DDR2

Hard Drive Type............................SATA

Hard Drive Size.............................1TB

Graphics..............................… Radeon HD 3200

Video Memory..............................512M…

Audio.................................… support with 7.1-channel surround sound capability

Available Expansion Bays..............3 (3.5"), 1 (5.25")

Available Expansion Slots..............1 PCI, 1 PCI Express x16

USB 2.0 Ports...............................8 (4 front, 4 rear)



And I'm wondering, because I know I'm going to get a graphics card no matter what, that since it has both a PCI Express and PCI slot, if I install both will the computer run both? If not I'll just put in an AMD PCI Express card by itself.|||Unless you plan to have 4 monitors attached to your computer at once, no, there isn't any point in having a PCIE and PCI graphics card at the same time.



Only one card does the actual work of processing graphics, the other idles. Using that setup (1 PCIE and 1 PCI) the best your PCI card can do is to just provide 2 additional ports for you to plug monitors into, but it is useless in gaming.



If you want dual graphics cards, you need a motherboard that supports Crossfire or SLi, with a minimum of 2 PCIE 16x slots. The 2 cards will also need to be identical and linked together using a bridge.



PCI graphics cards are ancient anyway, you won't be able to play any recent games on a PCI card.

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