Hardware

The only drawback with PCI video cards is that they are generally more expensive than their AGP mates. If the person is going to be using the PC for high end gaming, then he may well be dissappointed with a PCI card, as they tend to be a bit ordinary in the speed department, but if he is using the machine for "normal" (not to imply that gaming is "abnormal") operations, internet, email, Office and suchlike, he will find a PCI card will do nicely.

Get one with as much memory as possible - I don't know what is available in your area, but 32Mb would give pretty good performance, and 64Mb would be great. This would also depend on the actual machine he is using. If it is an old machine - say a 233MHz - any PCI card will be fast enough forthat. If it is a new machine, 1.5GHz or higher, then a PCI card will limit the video a little, but if it is a new machine, it should have an AGP slot.

Thus I feel it is probably an older machine and a PCI card will well and truly do the job.

Hope this helps,

Alan

Yes the PCI cards have improved since the release of AGP,depending on their intended use they provide good graphics.
The more memory on the card the better,check the following manufacturers sites for compatible cards
Matrox
Nvidia
ATI Radeon
http://www.unleash.com/picks/computer/topcomputerpcigraphicscard.asp

The best card I have found for older machines is the Nvidia TNT2 M64 32MB,it will do every thing you need for about $30.00.

Hope this helps.

PCI cards work just fine.

When AGP first came out, the benchmark test showed that the chip-set on the card was a better indication of performance than the buss type.

For AGP 1.0, the difference between an AGP and PCI card with the same configuration was less than 10%.

A good PCI card will be better than on-board video, or a poor AGP card.

I just had to install a PCI card on a system with a bad AGP connector.
The ATI Radeon 7000 that I bought works just fine.

Chas

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