Confused about PCI

[rizay]

I am getting confused about these pci video cards. I want to add a second card so I can connect two monitors. I went to newegg, video cards, and selected PCI cards. Looking down the list, I see that the connection between the card and mb is different on some of them. Some have one gap, some have two. Here is the first one that comes up:

This is the: JATON VIDEO-118PCI-32DDR GeForce2 MX400 32MB 64-bit DDR PCI Low Profile Ready Video Card
This has 1 gap in the connection area.

The next one down is the: HIS H700H64-1TOPN Radeon 7000 64MB 64-bit DDR PCI Video Card. Here is the picture:

This has 2 gaps on the connector.

The only difference I could find was the first is low profile. I looked further down the list and some of the low profile have the 2 gaps too.

Neither say they are express or anything else that I can see.

Why do some have 1 gap while others have 2?
Can either be used in my PCI slot? I don't have express.

 

[lincsman]

If they are "PCI" cards, they will not be PCI-express. I have seen, simply because there is also such a thing as PCI slots, that video cards that are PCI-express say "PCI-Express."

This is a PCI-Express video card. The slot is much different, well, noticeably, anyways.

I personally recommend either an Nvidia card or the ATI Radeon 9250 256mb PCI video card. It has an RCA, s-video and VGA output, is reliable and performs well for a PCI video card. I know there are a lot of good PCI video cards but that is one that I used and it worked very well.
So to answer your question, those are PCI video cards. Most PCI cards will be older, so if it says PCI, and it is fairly low in power and capability compared to the latest and greatest, it will probably be PCI.

 

[Drenlin]

^ Actually, the one in that picture is an AGP card.

 

[spynoodle]

The gap doesn't matter. I would just like to ask, though, do you have an open AGP of pci-express slot on your motherboard? These cards will usually offer better performance, and the same card on PCI-e will be a lot more expensive for PCI.

 

[Flaring Afro]

I think I heard you can't add a second card and use both. The good news is you can get a card for dirt cheap these days that can handle 2 monitors. Do you know if you have a pci express slot? If not, do you have an agp?

 

[spynoodle]

I think I heard you can't add a second card and use both. The good news is you can get a card for dirt cheap these days that can handle 2 monitors. Do you know if you have a pci express slot? If not, do you have an agp?

Yes, you can use two cards. I currently use one Geforce 8400 GS and one ATI Radeon 7000 in one computer (the Radeon 7000 not for anything graphics-intensive, just for the second monitor ) and it works fine. Although, if you have an integrated intel chip then the new card, unless Windows already has the drivers for it, will disable the intel GMA drivers and force the intel card not to work.