MSI motherboard - need to id the graphics card slot

SarasotaSlim

Got a desktop machine, running Win-XP, about 5 or 6 years old.

The motherboard is 'MSI' and does NOT have a builtin graphics chip.

The 'external' graphics card has died. It plugs into a special-graphics-card
slot. (Can't tell whose GPU it is, as
it's covered-up by a black fan.) One support chip has name 'AMIC'
and four other chips name of 'elixir'.
[I really don't care whether it was ATi, or nVidia or whatever.]

All I really care about is identifying the type of 'graphics card slot' that
the thing is plugged into, so I can order a relatively low-end replacement
that will work, from any vendor.

The slot is brown, with a black 'attachment tab' plastic thing around the
slot. I released that tab and removed the old (faulty) card.

There are three tabs with gold connectors on them, [and a fourth tab
that has NO actual electric connections, but is shaped like a boot, and
it interlocks with that black plastic attachment tab that surrounds the
slot.] Of the three tabs that DO have GOLD connectors, the two outside
ones have 21 gold-paddles, and the center one has 16 gold-paddles.

What do we call this kind of graphics slot?

(in advance)...

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sidux/KDE-4 and MEPIS rule!

SarasotaSlim

Ok, more info coming...

I took off the GPU-fan...it's nVidia RIVA TNT2.

But, I still think I need to identify the slot-type,
since (I'm guessing) that maybe RIVA TNT2's
could have been built onto various cards for various
graphic-card-slots, right?

I'm thinking it's AGP slot, but that's totally a guess.
Plus, aren't there AGP-4x and AGP-8x, etc!?
How do I tell one from another? Since I
can NOT operate this thing (to have Windows software
identify it), I need/want pictures/photos or whatever, so
I can figure out what I have.

[You'd think that there would be stickers/labels saying
AGP or whatever on the old one, but if you think that,
you'd be wrong.]

Maybe I should take it into a Best-Buy and have a
Geek-Squad person look at it?

__________________
sidux/KDE-4 and MEPIS rule!

bakuryu

All you need is to look up at the motherboard and see the model number printed on it and then you need to find out whether it supports PCI-E or AGP. A motherboard 5~6 years old most probably has a AGP 8x slot.

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bakuryu

ohh ... Riva TNT2 uses AGP 4x, but you probably won't find a AGP 4x card presently in market.

SarasotaSlim

If by 'market', you mean out at local retail stores, yes, you are correct.
Tho it baffles me...if I had taken this desktop in to the Best-Buy for repair, I'll bet
their geeks would have then just had to go to NewEgg.com to get one, like I did!?
Or, would they have just dragged out the job for a few weeks, waiting for
their supply-chain? Another guess is that they would 'miraculously' come
up with one, and of course, charged the $109 for the part. Bet the whole
bill, including the labor, would have been around $175.

Anyway, if you go to NewEgg.com, and look for an AGP-slot-compatible
graphics card, there are dozens to choose from. So, that 'market' is
alive and well.

And, if I was stupid enough to have tried to buy one from BestBuy, their
price (shown on the bin which has nothing in inventory) is $109.00

Whereas, on NewEgg, AGP-graphics-cards start at about $30.00.

[Which is why I've always referred to BestBuy as 'WorstBuy', to my
friends and associates. ]

__________________
sidux/KDE-4 and MEPIS rule!

bakuryu

Before you buy, make sure the card is compatible with your slot.

Accelerated Graphics Port - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia