are radeon video cards compatible with hp pc's?

[T A-C]

:confused: are radeon video cards compatible with hp pc's?:confused:

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

I don't see why not.

[NightKnight]

If your pc has a mobo with an AGP-slot compatible with your card

[Neil]

HP, among other major computer suppliers (Dell, Packard Bell, eMachines etc.), are notorious for skimping on their motherboard features.

To install a modern Radeon card, you'll require what is known as an AGP socket on your motherboard. To find out if you have one, either type your computer model number into HP's site if they've got some form of tech support like Dell do. If not, take the cover off your case and look for a short brown slot, like the one in this image below:

http://www.vicepc.com/neil/uploads/agp.jpg

As you can see, the AGP slot is the brown one at the top. If you've not got this, it's possible to get PCI video cards which will slot into a cream coloured port as you see above. However, PCI offers far worse performance than AGP, due to a reduced data flow rate.

Hope this helps :)

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

The Radeon 9200 comes in PCI version, but as Neil said, the data transfer rate of PCI slots are crap compared to the latest AGP x8

[Olin]

Does replacing the motherboard require the processor to be changed along with it, or are they completely seperate? Also, around how much would a motherboard with an 8x AGP slot cost? I currently have a 4x.

[NightKnight]

Check if your processor type/speed is supported by the motherboard, they come in separate packages yes.

[Olin]

Thanks. I don't know when I'm ever going to be getting one, though. The most that's ever been upgraded on my PC was the videocard.

[NightKnight]

No problem. My pc is self-built :cool: hehe

[Olin]

Yeah, I regret getting this s***ty Dell. The tower is almost too small for my videocard and everything in there looks so crammed together. Dust is caked everywhere and the fan randomly begins rubbing against the plastic casing around it.