BleepingComputer.com: Help me with this picture

I want to upgrade my graphics, I took my comp into geek squad to ask about compatibility for a better graphics card than i have. He pointed to a spot on my motherboard and said it was an AGP slot (in yellow on image).
- first question after i had time to sit and think, was why was there no card plugged in to begin with? does the motherboard have its own graphics built in for basic use?
- second that slot doesnt have space on the backside in plug in the recommended cards that i find online. meaning, the accesory patches (circled in lime green) seem to be where i would install the graphics card, that way i can plug my dvi input into it.

can someone clear this up for me? i dont know the correct lingo when saying "accesory patches" or "graphics card" and so on so for give me if i may be confusing. the image is the exact model of my motherboard so i am using it to help clear some of the confusion up. hopefully.

EDIT: Removed unnecessary quote from initial post. It's not necessary to hit the "quote" button when replying within a thread, may waste bandwidth ~ Hamluis.

First question, there might not have been a card plugged in, most computers that you buy from retail stores are big chains do not supply you with one and use on-board graphics built into the motherboard. In order to play higher end games or do more graphic intensive task a graphics card would be needed.

Second question, correct me in I am wrong (to the next person who post after me) but to my knowledge that looks like a pci or pci express slot that you circled. It is hard to tell because the motherboard picture is small. Please provide the model of your computer and/or the model of the motherboard if you have it and someone would be able to tell you what kind of card you take. That might be why the AGP cards you are looking at seem to not fit.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 26 August 2010 - 10:55 AM

Would you please post the make and model of this motherboard?

the motherboard is ASUS P4R800-VM. im pretty sure that the slot is AGP, the fitting issue is (circled in red on the image card) that there is no oppening for this piece to show up on the back of my computer. the green circled part on the motherboard image is the only place for that to show up.

Normally there would be a piece of metal that might have a screen on top of it covering the part that would stick out, feel free to remove it and install the card that way.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 26 August 2010 - 03:09 PM
Reason for edit: Again...removed unnecessary quote ~ Hamluis.

there are for the green circled slots, there isnt for the yellow

Can you take a picture of the back of your computer?

The three slots are PCI, the one alone is an AGP.

The specifications for this board can be found here/.

can i even get hd for pci

I did a quick search at Newegg, there are five PCI graphics cards there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....=1&name=PCI

Remember that AGP card essentially goes in upside down, heatsink will be on the bottom. The backpanel opening will be below the level of the AGP slot. Check again.

This post has been edited by dpunisher: 27 August 2010 - 06:32 PM

thanks for the link dc3

dpunisher- sorry man dont know the lingo too well what is "heatsink"? i checked again and realized there is a slot for it. ha its just taken because theres a moniter output or something that connects to the motherboard, if you were to look directly under the left side of the green circle on the photo above it is plugged into that blue section.

it is definitely an agp slot. you have ati integrated internal graphics, i can see the ati logo on the chip, near the pci slots in the pic. seeing that yo0u already have ati graphix, i would stick with ati, instead of nvidia. if you dont, you may have hardware conflicts between ati and nvidia.

acheleg, on Sep 6 2010, 04:22 PM, said:

Actually, they can add any card that is compatible with their motherboard. If the graphics card requires drivers that aren't native to the operating system, they generally will be provided by the manufacturer of the card. The integrated graphics that are part of the motherboard don't determine or relegate the use of any other dedicated graphics card.