PCI or PCIe?

I'm thinking about getting a video card for my computer and while browsing the web I noticed that there are two types of PCI's. (PCI and PCIe)
I looked in my Device Manager and it just says I have a PCI slot. Can I assume that you can not install a PCIe card in a PCI slot?
Thanks

 

That is correct, the PCIe, or PCI-Express as it is formerly known as, is a larger slot and runs a lot faster than a standard PCI slot, thus giving a better performance.

PCI graphics cards are still available, but the performance is nowhere as near good as that of PCI-Express or even AGP.

 

Even on AGP there are several different standards (incompatible with each other of course), you need to have a pretty good understanding of your machine before getting video, and what your going to use it for.

 

Thanks, I want to put a graphics card in it to play some games.

 

Tell us what type of machine you have and include it's model number and we may be able to help further. Or if you happen to know the type of motherboard and or chipset you have installed? What OS you have installed and version e.g Windows 98, XP.

What is your budget for a graphics card, what type of games do you want to play on it?

 

I have a Dell Optiplex GX150 Pentium III 1 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, 19GB Hard Drive with about 7GB free, Windows XP Pro SP2, DVD ROM, DSL connection. As far as the type of motherboard, I'm not sure.
As far as games go, I've had my eye on LOTR Strategy game or maybe World of Warcraft.

 

I doubt you'll have a pci-express slot as I don't think they were around when the pentium 3 was around!

 

I thought so! Thanks for your time

 

If what I've read on the dell site it appears to be correct you have a compact system with the PCI BUS as your only real expansion means.

You could look here on Newegg for a PCI graphics card but most if not all PCI cards won't hold up in recent games..even those that might would be limited by the PCI BUS. Even if you had AGP Slot on your motherboard your CPU won't be able to hold out either with newer games, even games from last year. 512MB RAM may not be quite enough not for current games.

My advise is if you want to play some games is, get a new machine or build yourself a machine.

An idea might be if your on a budget.. for under $500 you could get something like this (I'm sure there might me better deals, this is only a suggestion) add an extra 1GB RAM and add a decent PCIe Graphics card and use your current monitor.

Good Luck!