The video card on your PC is largely responsible for what you see on the monitor.
It's not an item that you see when you look at your computer. However, your video card is responsible for the image that shows up on your monitor. A good video card is, in many ways, more important than having the right monitor. Understanding the different types of video cards, including AGP and PCI video adapters, is crucial when it comes to picking the right video card for your needs.
PCI, AGP and PCI Express
When shopping for a video card you will see terms like "AGP," "PCI" and "PCI Express." These designations are crucial for getting the right video card. They refer to the video bus on your PC. That's the interface where the output for the computer is sent to the video card. You will need to know which bus your computer uses because a video card built for one bus will not fit a different one.
PCI
The PCI bus was developed before either PCI Express or AGP. That means it wasn't designed with the most modern video needs in mind. For that reason, it's more limited than the other two choices. These cards are generally the least expensive, though. While most newer machines will use one of the faster video buses, older PC's (and perhaps some less expensive current ones) are likely to need a PCI card.
PCI Express
While PCI Express cards are technically not the same as "PCI" video cards, the similarity of the names causes confusion in the minds of many. The PCI Express card will not fit into a PCI slot (or vice versa), so it's important to be clear on which bus you have. PCI Express is actually the newest technology of the three and is more advanced than the others.
AGP
AGP arrived on the scene after PCI, but before PCI Express. Within AGP there are two types of buses (AGP and AGP 2.0). AGP 2.0 and 3.0 cards will only work with AGP 2.0 buses, while AGP 1.0 will not work with AGP 2.0. It is, therefore, important to be clear which type of AGP bus your PC utilizes. AGP is more advanced than PCI, but falls behind PCI Express.
Performance
It's important to understand that within different brands of video cards (and different bus architectures) there are variations in terms of performance. Some generalizations can be made, though. The PCI bus is the slowest of the three. That means it will work for general computing, but for those with high end gaming needs, it's unacceptable. AGP graphics cards can improve performance over PCI by as much as 800 percent. Comparing PCI Express to AGP, though, the improvement (depending on specific cards) can be equally impressive.
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