What kind of video card do I have??

[Electrichead]

Can anyone here tell me how to find out what kind of video card I have in my box? I know it is a 3dfx Voodoo3 card w/16mb of RAM, but I don't know if it's PCI or AGP? Is there a way to find this out by using software on the computer? I think it's about to buy the farm, so I need to know what kind to pick-up to replace it.

I'm running Win XP Home Edition on a Gateway PIII. I know it's weak, but no cash to upgrade just yet.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Kid Ego]

Run "dxdiag.exe" in the \windows\system32\ directory.

Also the System Information shortcut to msinfo32.exe under Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools should do the job.

[Electrichead]

Thanks Kid, I already tried both of those. It says in one area the PNP device ID is PCI\VEN-----etc. then in another place it says that I have an Intel(R) 82845 Processor to AGP controller - 1A31 on the same I/O port as the graphics card.

I'm still not sure, but thanks for the help.

By the by, you can type those commands into the RUN command on the start menu if you don't want to hunt for them with windows explorer.

[Eyeball Kid]

Open your case and look. If it's AGP, it'll be in a slot that's kind of offset and smaller than the other cards in your box. If it's down towards the bottom of the motherboard in a larger slot next to a bunch of other cards in identical slots (your sound card, modem, NIC, etc), then it's PCI.

Also, go to <a href="http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html" target="_blank">http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html</a> and download the Belarc adviser. It'll tell you just about everything you could want to lnow about your computer, and it's output is a nice HTML page.

[Electrichead]

Thanks eyeball kid, I'll have to open the bastard up i guess. I already tried that Belarc utility and it tells me the name of the card, but no AGP or PCI info. I'll just perform some surgery on this sucker.

Thanks for the responses.

[Kid Ego]

Electrichead:

By the by, you can type those commands into the RUN command on the start menu if you don't want to hunt for them with windows explorer.No kidding. Considering the actual topic I presumed you had little to no knowledge of a working computer...so I opted for the simplest explanation.

[moovyphreak]

Kid Ego costs $847.63:
Electrichead:

By the by, you can type those commands into the RUN command on the start menu if you don't want to hunt for them with windows explorer.No kidding. Considering the actual topic I presumed you had little to no knowledge of a working computer...so I opted for the simplest explanation.Ego, with a name like Electrichead, what did you expect?

EH, like eyeball kid said, open your case. If it's AGP, the slot that the card is in is separate from the PCI slots, is shorter and is a brown color. Otherwise, it's PCI.

[Electrichead]

Thanks for the responses guys. Appreciate the help.

[CTDeLude]

Anyone know which sound cards decode DTS outputs?

[sorro]

I don't know if there is one. The Audigy 2 has Dolby Digtal EX, but no DTS. Since that is the most advanced mainstream card on the market, I don't know if there is anything that will do it that doesn't cost a lot of money.

[CTDeLude]

Bloody Hell!

[Electrichead]

You know CT, for the price of one of the high end audio cards, you can probably pick-up a low-end A/V receiver that plays DTS. Almost every receiver now decodes DTS. I think Pioneer even has one for about $300 that does Dolby Digital EX and DTS:ES.

Don't know if this helped you or hurt you.

[CTDeLude]

I'm looking for this in accordance with my computer. my hometheater system for my TV already has it. But I don't always watch the movies on the TV and will instead watch them on the computer.