Question about Video Card.. PCI-E 1x or 16x?

[karling07]

Hi,

I have a d945gtp Intel Desktop Board.

http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d945gtp/

Could someone please tell me what video card I can buy for this? Because it doesn't fit AGP, and I think the slot it does have (that isnt pci), is PCI-E, but Im not sure which ones I can get for it.

It says:
The board provides one of the following:
Two PCI Conventional* bus connectors
One PCI Express* x1 bus add-in card connector
One PCI Express x16 bus add-in card connector

So can I buy any PCI Express x16 from newegg? If so, could you all reccommend one for under $50. Im not doing any gaming, I just want to be able to view at 1024x768 with highest quality color, no lagging, and use photoshop.

Thanks!

 

[Cabbs]

If it has it, then yes, anything PCI-E 16X will work

 

[kchi55]

you'd be hard pressed to find a decent pci-e videocard for under 50 dollars.. most people spend atleast 150+ on one. but if that is really all that your budget will permit.. try this..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143050
it's 10 dollars more, but it has some decent reviews..
or if 50 dollars is really the most you can afford.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010380048+1069609641+4025&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=48
heres a bunch of cards under 50 dollars..

 

[karling07]

Ok the first one you posted says

required:
A 350 watt PCI Express compliant power supply

What does that mean?

 

[kchi55]

that means... your power supply must have a minimum wattage of 350. to check for this, pop open your computer and look on your powersupply, the power is usually indicated on the side of the psu.

 

[karling07]

ok so if it is 350W, im good, but is it saying it used all 350W of it? Because if the the vid card uses up all 350W of the 350W PS, then no other hardware can get power... And "PCI express compliant" doesn't mean anything special, does it? Like i dont need any special power cords or anything, right?

Thanks again

 

[kchi55]

uh... it's not going to use all 350watts... the requisite of 350 includes power given to the rest of the computer.

 

[lhuser]

That usually means to maintain system stablility, they would suggest you to use a 350W PSU.

 

[karling07]

Ok thanks much both of you I realize the card is absolute crap; a bit of background info... For Independent Studies in PCs, our school lets us use their old computers to scavenge parts for our IS PCs. So I got some nice parts, (a socket 939 mobo, 2.66Ghz Pentium 4, 1GB of DDR2 RAM), but the reason I got those parts was because the onboard video on the mobo was dead, hence the mobo not being reused in the computer lab. Currently Im using an 8MB PCI card from 1994 that honestly I do not think can handle XP and doesnt even allow me to go 1024x768 with 32bit colors... And i dont mean to be picky but 16bit is ugly...

So this should do fine; just want 32bit colors and the ability to play a game or two (+ photoshopping)

 

[lhuser]

Well, that 8MB should let you go into 1024x768 with 32-bit fine. 2MB cards, like the one you are using, I'm sure would be like this.

The 8MB cards are going to display 1024x768/32 fine. Not the 2MB ones.