Most discussion of video cards (and associated voltage concerns) have mentioned only AGP cards. Is there any reason I cannot use a PCI card straight in the EFIKA PCI slot?

Regards,
Thomas Grzybowski

To be more specific, I have an ATI RADEON 9250 PCI card - I know folks have used the ATI RADEON 9250 AGP configuration, is there any reason to think that the RADEON 9250 PCI might not be equally suitable?

Thanks,
Thomas Grzybowski

Hello Thomas,

I've tried this with a 3Dfx, without any problem, so I guess you wouldn't have any on your side with your PCI Radeon.

I have used the same video card in my Pegasos2 and it worked fine.

It will be fine as long as it will run with 3.3V I/O - and pretty much, it should. Working in the Pegasos is not 'the same' - it has 5V I/O like most PC motherboards (and is keyed as such).

Most PCI graphics cards which have an AGP version should work fine, especially so with any "value" process-reduced versions of chips (9250 etc.)

If in doubt check the keying. Don't try and put cards in backwards just because they 'fit' that way; we've had a user try that already. It WILL destroy the Efika.

There is no reason why you can't use a PCI card, but we gave an AGP riser because

* most graphics cards are AGP
* most of them are guaranteed to work at 3.3V (anything which says it will run in an AGP 4X slot) since this is the base of the AGP spec
* using a PCI card will make your Efika very "tall" unless you get a riser

_________________
Matt Sealey