Is my video card PCI or PCIe?

My video card took a crap on me today and I just popped it out, getting ready to buy a new one. I was looking online, just for the heck of it, at the same video card, a Nvidia FX5200. The card seems to match up to the standard PCIe slots, and that looks like what my computer has, but I cannot, for the life of me, even find the existence of a Nvidia FX5200 PCI express card. One place said that it doesn't exist. Am I just totally wrong and actually have a PCI card...? I have three PCI slots sitting next to it and they've got the separated part on the other side, as if it was flipped, with the AGP style hammer you lift to lock it into place... I'm so confused. Any help is appreciated.

Edit: Just tried an AGP card and it did not fit. I don't have any other cards around to try.

Edit again: The card looks just like this: http://www.unitedsale.com/Asus-EAX3...o-Card-with-256-MB-of-video-memory_p_131.html

 

Yup, it's PCI-E, at least it seems to have the same pinout as with my dead 9800GT. Just to be sure, what's your mobo model? http://img.zdnet.com/techDirectory/PCXSLOTS.GIF eBay or a computer shop nearby is your best bet, might be time to start thinking of an upgrade of your machine. It is getting on in years though. How's your power supply doing, those usually die a slow death, especially the crap they put in pre-built machines and may take components out along with them.

 

Well, this certainly was a hard one to find.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GeForce-F...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1320611396&sr=1-1


That is the card. I've never had to replace a PCI express card, I'm very outdated, will any PCI express card work with this?

augiedoggie: My computer is way over the specs of all the games I play and they're the most resource intensive things I do, so I think I'm fine until my needs change. It is mainly just for using the internet. I did replace my power supply though a while back, so I think I'm good to go for a while, unless there is some other reason to upgrade. I'm on kind of a tight budget right now, considering I'm a student with no job.

 

Well, I waited too long to edit my last post, so I guess I'll make a new one.

I am going to buy a new video card then, and I can spend about $50, but the card cannot require a power supply with more than 350 watts, because I don't have money to upgrade my power supply. I would like at least 256 MB, preferably something good for overclocking, if anyone has any suggestions.

 

I can understand the lack of cash flow. What's your PSU rated at? Even a lowly N6200TC(which sucks on your main RAM)(I had one and liked it) needs a 350W PSU and most models above that the cards also need a 4-pin connection to deliver an extra max of 75W from the PSU. I wish I still had my old cards, I'd give it to you just to keep it out of the landfill. You're between a rock and a hard place I'm afraid.

 

Here is a link to my power supply: http://www.impactcomputers.com/fsp350-60umdn.html

A friend gave it to me when I showed him that his PSU wasn't dead, he just plugged the cable in backwards :banghead, so I can't really complain about it.

 

$90 for a 350W!:eek LOL I didn't think that anyone could screw up any cable connection these days as they're idiot proof unless you have big biceps. Poor guy.:-D

Seriously though, you can't go much farther than I posted with your current PSU. If you want a stronger GPU then there are more powerful cheapo PSU's for like $30. Up to you.

 

I'll probably just see if I can get something similar to what I had. This computer, like I said, isn't really one I'm using for gaming, but I'm now curious about something. The one game I play is Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, which has specs way below what I currently have - here are the requirements

At least Windows 98
PIII 600 MHz processor
128 MB of ram
32 MB video card w/ OpenGL
DirectX 8.1 or higher
271 MB free hard disk space for game files
500 MB free hard disk space for swap files

I have one computer that I play it on with 1 GB of ram, an ATi Radeon 9250 256MB card (AGP), and a single core non hyper-threaded 3.0 GHZ processor.

The computer the graphics card just went out of has 1.5 GB of ram, and a hyper-threaded 3.4 GHz processor.

The one I play it on runs it with 76 FPS stable on the highest settings. I'm wondering if the inferior video card in the computer I'm working on would run it just as well (or better) considering it has a better CPU and more ram. I have a lot of old parts laying around that I could swap around and possibly get a better computer while still having a computer to use the internet. What are your thoughts on that?


Also, he didn't pay $90 for it, and he actually ruined the SATA connector - he heated it up to make it fit LOL. I had to put a new one on it.

 

Ask the same question in the gaming forum but you might have to wait 'til next weekend for a qualified person to answer you. Maybe you'll be lucky as I'm not a gamer. I know volts/ amps/ heat very well though.

OMFG!roflmao That's the best belly laugh that I've had in quite a while!:-D LOL, heat it 'til it oozes. It'll fit anything then! He's worse than 'Tim the Toolman Tailor', 80's or 90's show.

 

Alright, thanks for all your help. I'll post it in gaming and see what they say.