AGP voltage dangers

This one really gets me.....Never has retail been so slacking in its informing the consumer. Bla blah... beach, beach.. whine, etc...... All AGP slots not created equal. They slipped 2.0 and 3.0 architecture with different Voltage requirements in on us. I've been shopping for a Graphics card for my P4pc with intergrated video VIA chipset MOBO.
It has a 4xAGP slot and only by reading the owners manual did I discover it to be 1.5v only. Not one product description contained info about voltage requirements for their card. Some stated the architecture to be 1x,2x,4x,8x compatible. Am I correct in assuming the cards claiming this have jumpers for the smaller voltage of the 8x cards. Most 128Mb DDR AGP cards I've looked at are 8x interface and my MOBO is for sure 1.5v only. Am I restricted to finding the rare 4x type that will work correctly in my 1.5v 4x slot? Glad there's a place like this to find these things out. The retailers don't seem to care if the consumer buys the right product, just so long as we buy their stuff.

Disenchanted with geek folk sellouts,
sidermike

 

sidermike,

I don't think you need worry about the voltage. Electronics on the card take care of that. My mobo has 4X and my graphics card is 8,4 2 1X. No jumpers, no problem.

 

sidermike,

AGP can be a bit of a nightmare.

If you look for a card that is 8X/4X it should run in your m/b okay. 8X cards use 0.8v signalling but are supposed to support 1.5v signalling as well. Note that I said supposed.! If you can actually see the card you can look at the connector to get an of the voltage. This link
gives some good images about the keying of the AGP connector.

Have a look at this for more confusion on AGP.

Cheers,
ICE

 

Guaranteed.

This one will work on all voltages!

The manufacturer is the most important factor in the equation.

 

Any 8x AGP card should work in any 1.5v AGP slot. If it didnt' we'd have a gamer revolution on our hands. I'm not sure what happens if the slot is not certified for 8X AGP but voltage should not be a problem.

I did run into the reverse problem just recently - my mainboard was too modern for my video card! I tried to put a Kyro 2 (AGP 2X only) into a year-old Nforce2 mainboard from Shuttle and it would not work. It wasn't a voltage problem - the Kyro 2 can run at 1.5v or 3.3v - it was simply the fact that it was not a 4X AGP card. The board would only run with a 4x or 8x AGP video card. How retarted!...for lack of a better phrase. It's morning at work and I'm drinking coffee and blowing a fan on my face to wake up! So I'm not yet feeling eloquent.

Gary

 

Good Morning Gary, and Thanks for offering to help.
As far as I know all 8x cards are the AGP3 type and need a .9v or something like that. My Mobo book (Panacer P4VMM2 w/VIA VT8751 North and VT8233 Southg chipset) clearly states the slot is 1.5v only. Do the 8x cards have jumpers or pswitches to adjust the interface? It sounds like you know someone with the same setup that has used an 8x AGP3type card in a 4x AGP2type slot with no dissappointment in it's performance. Do you? I'd like to be sure before I spend the Hundred or so bucks only to burn out my system board!!!EEK
Park on Driveways....Drive on Parkways....
Sidermike

 

cold in the Dakotas ahy?
The site link on AGP keying said.... "AGP 3.0 devices must be tolerant of 1.5v signalling though, they won't necessarily work, but will not be destroyed if inserted into an AGP 1.0/2.0 slot." Therein lies the rub! will it work? Or more to the point, will it work at optimum acceleration with the maximum performance allowed by the 4x slot? Seems a waste to buy hardware that has twice the capibility the interface will allow. Basicly, a 8x card in a 4x slot is going to perform at 50 %, right? Why buy the 8x card at all?

Sidermike

 

Not new!

How about the fact that if you upgrade your mobo, you won't have to buy another video card?

Voltage can be controlled by software/firmware (a process invented by Abit) and now used by most manufacturers.

1996 Rocks motherboard industry with SoftMenuâ„¢, the world's first jumperless technology