Monday, May 7, 2012

Will this video card work with my PCI slot?

I'm looking for a video card to upgrade from the integrated graphics on my motherboard and I only have PCI and PCI-X expansion slots. On ebay and other places I keep seeing PCI video cards that have 3 tabs on them and my PCI slot only has 2 tabs. The video card is here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-Radeon-9250-PCI-256MB-Dual-VGA-DVI-TVOut-Video-Card-/380253323379?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item5888dd4073#ht_1528wt_1139



And my PCI slots look like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PCI_Slots_Digon3.JPG



So can I use that video card with my PCI slots or do I have to try and find a different one? Thanks!|||The best card for a PCI slot is the GeForce 9500GT.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…



However, it's still inferior to a $45 PCI-Express x16 card. If your computer has a PCI-E x16 (or even a PCI-E x1) slot, a card of that type is far preferable to a PCI card.|||You do not want to buy a card for PCI if you have PCI-X slots available.



PCI-Express is a slot specifically designed for higher bandwidth devices like video cards, PCI on it's own, like the picture you linked, are designed for things like sound cards, network cards and other devices that do not require a large data pipeline.



So assuming you have PCI-X 16x, you are going to want to get a PCI-express video card. Which is likely the three-tab cards you were talking about.

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