Does PCI Express=PCI?

[UrDead]

ok for a will now i have not been playing pc games becuase my computer is a mid end computer. But game like painkiller, doom 3, and half life 2 got my attention. So yesterday i ordered a new high end computer .
P4 3.6 GHz
1 GB of RAM
160 GB hd
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
128MB PCI Express ATI Radeon X300
now the thing i dont understand is what is the PCI thing . Is this card not a AGP card. Or is PCI Express something new that came out will i was out of the scene, and if its not do i need to upgrade my video card or will i be find with this 128mb one. Someone please help and i know i should have looked more carefully at what i was buying the first time around.

[Ace]

Moved to computer tech, thanks to Nima .

[Nima D'Graven]

First of all, free 4 all was the wrong place to post something computer related Which is why a moderator moved this .

Secondly, no, PCI is not an AGP card. They're both completely different ports on the mobo. Not exactly sure what this PCI express stuff is about though. The AGP is the Advanced Graphics Port.. PCI is basically where you plug your soundcard, network card and anything else into.. A PCI graphics card goes into one of these ports too.

EDIT: You won't have to upgrade your card as long as it comes within the minimum requirements of the games that your playing. You may notice a small performance drop though. So you should be fine.. I can run DooM III quite well on a GeForce 3 ti200 (which is 64MB and AGP). It isn't great, but it works.

[UrDead]

thanks for fixing the error and i know that PCI and AGP are two different ports in the motherboard but I what to know where does a PCI Express card go in the PCI port or in the AGP port, and why is it call PCI Express?

[Gospel]

It's going to a new port entirely I think.

It's just for an assload of bandwidth, and fast transfer speeds. It's going to be how we hook out graphics cards to our motherboards in the next few years.

Currently, the video cards we have right now don't really need PCI-Xpress, but there are PCI-Xpress to AGP converters.

[Nima D'Graven]

PCI express is a kind-of upgraded form of the PCI port, I believe. It probably increases the bandwidth capability of the card. I think usually (And don't quote me on this) buying a PCI Express GFX card is more expensive than an AGP one, especially if they're brand new.

As for the port, I -think- it'll be where the AGP port is usually situated.

[gibb]

PCI express is totally different from just PCI. PCI express is much better and its even better then AGP 8x. But your x300 card is not high end. it is the lowest end of that series of graphics cards. if your gonna go all out and get a 3.6 ghz cpu then you probly have the money to afford the high end x800 pro or x800xt

[polobunny]

A x300 card is actually an ATI Radeon 9200 in PCI-Express. Nothing incredible for gaming there.
PCI Express doesn't deliver such a great performancegain BTW, the gfx card makers only upped a bit the frequency of their PCI-Express, not a huge difference between it and AGP 8x. It's like a "tweaked" agp.

EDit->PCI Express do give great results, i'm not denying this, just not so incredible results with this card.

[UrDead]

oh thanks guys so PCI Express is slightly better than AGP from what i understand and the card that i bought is not that good. I had the chance to buy the x800 instead of the x300 but since they where both 128 mb i did not see the difference. I will try to call the company before they start building and testing the machine to see if i could get the x800 in instead of the x300. thanx for the help guy i appreciate it.

[polobunny]

Heh, no problem. The X800 will give you a small boost.

[Borman]

Make sure your new MB supports PCI express too

[Norgus]

Heh, no problem. The X800 will give you a small boost.

Wouldnt that be "an assload of boost"?

And pci express is equiv of AGPx16, right?

[Gospel]

Sort of.

Maybe faster than that.

[Borman]

It is 16x, but theres no games out really that take advantage of PCIe

[Josh]

There will be though in the coming years. It will give a pretty good boost.