PCI to PCI-E cards

Not without a motherboard change

PCI gfx cards are realy not worh spending too much on as the way the mobo handles the gfx is the biggest limitation
As for a good PCI gfx card

I'm afraid you have more chance of hell freezing then getting a PCI GFX to play FSX.

The only way is to either

1. Get a brand new computer
2. Get a brand new computer

There's no point in getting a new mobo and most of your hardware might not be compatiable.

If you can post your specs. Also google BELARC and run there little programe as this shows what hardware you have.

hi
if i have a PCI slot in my motherboard will an AGP card work?
i heard this from someone but wasn't too sure about it.
does anyone know??!!

If you want your computer specs, then SisoftSandra is the name, free from www.sisoftware.co.uk/sandra Belarc is good, but SiSoft is better, will show your slots and what they are, Belarc does not.

Oh dear, I've just checked SiSoft, and it's now payware. It used to be free. I've got Belarc, and it shows my two PCIex16 slots as plain old PCI, so don't rely on Belarc.

There must be another utility available to help identify your computers slots. If I find anything I'll get back.

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/browse.php?c=1

Download SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2007.SP1 (10.105) that will give you detailed information about your PC and what ports you have as well

Just to add it will give you your motherboard model and goggle it.

hi
i just downloaded sisoftware sandra and it still said PCI bus 1, device 0, function 0
but it also said ive got an NVIDIA Vanta/Vanta LT graphics card installed and it said that this is an AGP card.
so does that mean my motherboard can support AGP cards and PCI cards?

Open up SiSoftware Sandra Lite. Goto mainboard configuration and post the version. For example have a look at mine.

This will give you motherboard model. Which I need to find out what slots you have on your motherboard, and to help out further.

how do i post my mainboard configuration on sisoftware sandra lite on this forum

matt279 wrote:

how do i post my mainboard configuration on sisoftware sandra lite on this forum

You will need to take a screenshot. have a look over this on how to ➡

How to take screenshot & upload

It looks like you have an AGP port. AGP ports are getting abit out dated now. As most manufactours are looking at PCI-e cards.

You will be able to run FSX on a top of the range AGP GFX card but you won't be able to have all the eye candy.

You have two optoins at this time.

1. Get a good AGP card
2. Buy or build a new PC

Mind you though Nvidia & ATI haven't realsed any DirectX10 GFX cards as DirectX10 only ships with Windows Vista.

so can an AGP 8x work on my computer.
can a Sapphire ATI Radeon X1600PRO 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI 8x (AGP) graphics card work on my computer and is compatible with fsx

matt279 wrote:

so can an AGP 8x work on my computer.
can a Sapphire ATI Radeon X1600PRO 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI 8x (AGP) graphics card work on my computer and is compatible with fsx

Most GFX's are compatible with FSX. As it's a DirectX9 card you won't be able to have all the bell's & whistles.

Also you may want to check what sort of power consumtion it requires. When I upgraded my old PC, my PSU wasn't able to provide enough power to all my hardware.

Liono, I don't want to over-ride your wellmeant advice, but there something I haven't seen mentioned, and I would not like to see anyone damage their computer through well meant, but wrong advice.

First, I believe his AGP port has not been confirmed as X 8. The card he wants to get is a x8. Now as far as my knowledge goes, a x8 card runs on 1.5-1.3 Volts, the x2 and x4 run on 3 volts. If a x8 is put in a 3 volt slot, sorry, say goodbye to your graphics card.

Also many, not all, x8s have an extra Voltage input socket, to save overloading the motherboard. Again something to find out.

Sorry Matt279, I don't want to make you worry, but also I would not like anyone to make an expensive mistake. I've made many in my time, so if I can prevent someone from doing the same, I feel my experience has not been wasted.

And the longer this takes to sort out the better chance of getting it right first time, always an achievement. Just have patience.

so how can i tell if my motherboard is x2, x4 or x8?
plz help!!!

If you could only find the name and model of your motherboard. It should show in Sandra. Then I or Liono can follow that up and find the specifications. We can only help if we have enough info.

Belarc should do that, then look the card up on the net by feeding the model number into Google.
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

I just came across this, it should do the trick.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

hi
the manufacturer is compaq
model is 06E4h

OK Matt, I've done some searching, and it seems Compaq made several computers with the same motherboard as yours, but took it upon theirselves to modify it several times.

From what I've read, it's not really a high enough spec to run fs9 with good results. It's limited in the amount of RAM it can handle, the graphics slot is AGP, and if I've read it correctly runs at x4. I would not recommend you trying that high spec GFX card, just in case of damaging it.

Max cpu speed it can use, is around 1.4. Sorry my friend, I wish I had better news. If you want to read a topic on your board go to

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/9960/

cheers for your help everyone.
looks like i need a new pc
just what i was dreading......
can you recommend a good computer to me for about £500-£600 that comes with a good graphics card already installed and is PCI -E and has a decent amount of memory to run fsx. cheers

Don't know if you'll get everything you want at that price, but you should get something better than you have now.

When I get some time later I'll have a look, but if you want a few suppliers to view yourself, here are a few I've used myself in the past.

My favourite, not always the cheapest being Novatech. but their aftersales I have found to be very good.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/Home.html

http://www.cclonline.com/

http://www.eclipse-computers.com/

http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/

is the dell dimension 5150 a good pc that run fsx pretty well?its got a PCI-E and its only £499. what do u think of it

matt279 wrote:

is the dell dimension 5150 a good pc that run fsx pretty well?its got a PCI-E and its only £499. what do u think of it

Yes.

Two things to point out. It needs more RAM, around 3Gig. Also go for the 256MB DDR PCI ExpressTM x16 ATI RadeonTM X600 HyperMemoryTM and the intergrated card.
Upgrade the PSU.

im about to install a new graphic card, but before I uninstall the old graphics card in the manual it states " If previously installed graphics card has any additional software installed, they may also need to be removed at this point. For example DVD Player ot Multimedia applications". Does these mean I will lose some software such as recording software and any other programs I have, and then reinstall it after I put new graphic card in?

Anonymous wrote:

im about to install a new graphic card, but before I uninstall the old graphics card in the manual it states " If previously installed graphics card has any additional software installed, they may also need to be removed at this point. For example DVD Player ot Multimedia applications". Does these mean I will lose some software such as recording software and any other programs I have, and then reinstall it after I put new graphic card in?

I don't see why. I never have.
Download the new drivers to your desktop for easy installation when you need them.
Just go into the control panel (add remove programs) and delete the old drivers and control panel for the card, then go into the device manager and delete the old card (both entries if it will let you).
Shut down (not restart), remove the old and install the new card.
While your in the case clean all the fans and the heatsink also.
Restart the machine and install the new drivers and control panel.
Enjoy the new card.

If the new GFX card is the same make as the old one, I would only remove the graphics drivers. Unless the new card comes with similar programs, then I would think best to remove them all, as the replacements should be better with the new card.

I installed the new graphic card but theres just colored lines on the monitor when I boot up comp. I hope I didnt screw this whole thing up.

Before we go into a long discussion did you follow the step by step that I gave you.

If not redo it and post a screenshot of the problem.
Did you use downloaded drivers or the ones on the CD that came with the card.

What card is it.

I got the card to work. but im disappoint. I went from a radeon 9550 to a radeon x1600 pro and I hardly see a difference as I was flying around. You think I should get more ram? currently I have 1 gig ram.

Good card!

What drivers are you using.
Use the latest from ATi website.
After you install them go to the cards control panel.
Set the AA to 4X.
Set the AF to 16X
Make sure in the settings of the sim you don't have AA checked.

1 gig ram is fine, what are the rest of your system specs.

Turn down clouds and traffic.
Turn off shadows, water and textures (above water).

Press "Ctrl+Z" two or three times (when flying) and you'll get two rows of red text, that's where you can see how your FPS numbers are.

When you set the FPS slide don't go over 30FPS.
Set the sound on low, see if all of this helps.

Hi radarman, what you mean by drivers? I used the software cd to install the graphic card..isnt that good enough? Sorry I dont know much about comps...I figure the new card itself would be good enough. Ill try to download a driver if I can.

well i configured the card....looks a bit better but most of my sliders are medium (using the fsx demo). I guess I was hoping great frames rates on sliders maxed out. Hopefully the retail version wont suffer too musch fps.

The drivers that they give you with the card are as old as the card.
New drivers are continually coming out.
You have to go to their site and download the latest for your card.
Then go through the process again.