Video Cards: Is AGP Dead?

If you've been looking to upgrade your computer video card you've probably heard a great deal about PCI Express and SLI. Don't run out and buy a new computer just yet and take that AGP motherboard you just threw away out of the trash. The truth is you can probably make some simple upgrades to your current computer to get a couple more years of gaming out of it. Of course if you have an extremely slow processor and/or less than an 8x AGP motherboard, you will need to do more than upgrade your graphics card. However, in most cases people's computers are only a couple of years old and really have plenty of processing power.

The three things to look at are your memory, motherboard, and video card. To get the most out of the more recent games you want to have at least 1GB of RAM. This is a very simple upgrade and only takes a couple of minutes. For more information on upgrading your memory you can visit my website. Second, check to be sure your AGP slot on your current motherboard is 8x. If your memory and motherboard meet these standards you're in luck. A new video card will probably float you for at least another year, likely two if you get a top of the line card. The thing to remember is that PCI Express is new technology and not nearly as widespread as AGP is. Game companies want to make as much money as possible from each game. For this reason, they will try to make the games play well on the widest array of platforms. When you think about it like this, it is easy to see how AGP will be useful for a while longer. For more information on AGP video cards visit the Video Card review section of my website.

If your motherboard isn't up to par or your processor is outdated it is time for an upgrade. If you are a do-it-yourselfer like I am, you should look into building your own computer. It's not as difficult as you might think and can save you a good deal of money.

Nathan Holsing is the editor of Gaming-Computers.net a website about building and upgrading computers.


The Newest Thing in Lighting - LED Lighting and What It Can Do

The other day my son said to me, what else... Read More

Surge Protector: A Simple Mechanism Description

A surge protector [AKA surge suppressor] is an electrical plug-in... Read More

How To Choose The Best Student Laptop?

How To Choose the Best Student Laptop?Merchants are singing those... Read More

A Review of Samsung Laser Toners

Samsung laser toner is just as popular as its Hewlett-Packard... Read More

Used Laptop Computer: Your Quick Purchase Inspection Guide ? Part 3

Used laptop computers are everywhere these days. How can you... Read More

What Can You Do With A Mac Mini?

If you have not seen the newest addition to the... Read More

A Review of Refurbished Toshiba Laptops

Toshiba offers a few of their refurbished laptops in the... Read More

How To Take Care Of Your Laptop Computer

As the proud owner of a laptop computer, you'll want... Read More

Testing Diode -The Accurate Way on How to Test Semiconductor Diode Using Multimeter

Testing diodes is different from testing a resistor because you... Read More

Digital Camera Prints - Getting the Most for Your Money

Digital cameras have really taken off in popularity in recent... Read More

RFID for Beginners

RFID technology is used frequently today and has been around... Read More

Choosing The Right Bar Code Reader

The importance of a bar code reader in this day... Read More

Nvidia Geforce 7800 GTX Review

Nvidia has done it again, with it's newest video card,... Read More

Flyback Transformer-How to Locate the ABL Line

Whenever there is a complaint about monitor contrast problem I... Read More

Rackmount Computer Keyboards

The other piece of vital equipment to accompany the rack... Read More

Buying / Selecting Computer Components

This is the step takes the most time and consideration.... Read More

ESR Meter - The Capabilities To Check Beyond Electrolytic Capacitor

There is something good about esr meter because besides electrolytic... Read More

Computer Components for Idiots

There are many fancy add-ons for computers, but the basic... Read More

Build Your First Computer from Hardware Scratches

Wow- if you do it first time and have some... Read More

Introduction to Dedicated Servers

A dedicated server is a single computer on a web-hosting... Read More

Expansion Cards Part 1: (of a 3 part series)

PCIThe expansion slots available on motherboards allow for a variety... Read More

Looking for Information on CD Duplication and Replication?

Time is one of the most important things we have... Read More

At War With The Internet

When it comes to sales of technology products over the... Read More

USB Drive Popularity

So many people have small USB drives today, but what... Read More

An Introduction to HD-DVD

High density digital versatile disc is a digital optical media... Read More