Upgrade your PCI card in one of several ways.
Though many companies produce video cards in Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) format, these cards can vary greatly in performance with multiple variables such as RAM, GPU speed and driver support. Although PCI cards can provide high performance, other formats such as AGP or PCI express video cards generally outperform PCI. Each different format of video card also requires a different physical connection. Thus, AGP, PCI and PCI express slots all have design differences and will not work in cross compatibility.
PCI Upgrades
Although PCI cards have limitations on the specific format, some PCI cards are much better than others. When deciding to upgrade your PCI card, look directly at your card's specifications, including video RAM amount and type, as well as GPU speed. Some PCI cards' video RAM will come in either double data rate 2 (DDR2) or DDR3. (DDR3 is superior to DDR2 in performance and speed.) Graphics processing unit (GPU) speed plays an important role as well: The higher the megahertz (Mhz) rating on the card, the higher speed the card will offer. You can also upgrade your current PCI card by installing a second PCI card. Since most computers have multiple PCI slots, this option is generally an effective way to upgrade---as long as the new card is compatible with your motherboard.
AGP Cards
Advanced Graphic Processor (AGP) cards are the next generation of video cards after PCI cards. They offer faster performance speeds because, unlike PCI cards, they can access system memory to help improve performance. (PCI cards can only use memory directly installed on the card itself.) AGP cards can also use pipeline performance, which means they can run multiple tasks at the same time; PCI cards can only perform one task at a time. Like PCI cards, AGP cards also come in a myriad of performance levels that vary greatly on RAM, GPU speed and driver support. Some low-quality AGP cards may be less powerful than high-end PCI cards, for example.
PCI Express
PCI Express cards are the third generation of video cards, offering the best performance as of 2010. PCI express cards allow for a much greater bandwidth for data transmission. AGP cards have a maximum of 2,100 megabytes per second (MB/sec) of data transfer, whereas the fastest PCI express cards can transfer up to 8,000MB/sec of data as of 2010. PCI express cards also offer some of the fastest specifications in RAM and GPU speed, along with the latest driver compatibility.
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