Looking for a PCI (or PCI-E x1) GPU to play COD4

As the title says, the old man has gone and bought COD4 without doing his homework.

He doesn't want a new PC, but the current HP machine he's using only has two PCI slots and one PCI-E x1.

COD4 requires;

Min: Nvidia GeForce 6600 (128 MB) or ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (128 MB)
Recommended: Nvidia GeForce 7800 or ATI Radeon X1800

Any suggestions?

EDIT: - This is Scan's only PCI card - doesn't look too good - it'll probably manage on low settings

buy a pci-e graphics card and put it in?

Thanks for playing, but which slot would I put the PCI-E GPU in?

Perhaps you'd like to Google "PCI-e x1"

Sounds like another job for the
PCIe X1 to X16 converter board.

Only thing is, if they didn't put a graphics card slot on the motherboard then I guess that was to cost reduce the power supply down to something like 200W so please check what the PSU can cope with.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

Sounds like another job for the
PCIe X1 to X16 converter board.

Only thing is, if they didn't put a graphics card slot on the motherboard then I guess that was to cost reduce the power supply down to something like 200W so please check what the PSU can cope with.

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do they actually work those cards?

since i never understood the point off short x1 slots

Not actually tried one, but they make sense.

If an 9800GT with 128 shaders works fine on a x8 slot (which they seem to looking at SLI boards with a pair of x8 sockets), then 16 shaders should work fine on a x1 slot. Electrically, the x1 to x16 adapters make sense.

The x1 sockets are all about low cost, and are still faster than the old 32 bit 33MHz PCI cards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mycarsavw

Thanks for playing, but which slot would I put the PCI-E GPU in?

Perhaps you'd like to Google "PCI-e x1"

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Just dremmel out the rest of the connector.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

Sounds like another job for the
PCIe X1 to X16 converter board.

Only thing is, if they didn't put a graphics card slot on the motherboard then I guess that was to cost reduce the power supply down to something like 200W so please check what the PSU can cope with.

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Top man, thanks - I've just bought one of those, ~£5 can't be bad - I already have my spare 500w PSU and 7600GT, so once the board arrives, we'll see how it goes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kalniel

Just dremmel out the rest of the connector.

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I had considered that but didn't want to accidentally FUBAR anything. I'd read that you can tape off the pins on most cards to force them into x1, x4, x8 modes so assumed it would worth t'other way round.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mycarsavw

I had considered that but didn't want to accidentally FUBAR anything. I'd read that you can tape off the pins on most cards to force them into x1, x4, x8 modes so assumed it would worth t'other way round.

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Or dremmel off the pins on the card so it fits in the slot.

But if you can use the adaptor then that's easiest.

i doubt you will be able to secure the card using the bracket, may as well return cod4 until he is prepared to buy a new pc

Cut it down to 1x size and it will work fine.

Just drill, saw, file the end of the pci-e slot so it is open at the end is probably easiest. That way if you screw up you wont have a broken graphics card, just a broken pci-e slot that you weren't going to use anyway.

i just looked at my mobo (check left) and i noticed i got a whole load of components behind the slot, so i cant just make a slit in the slot and then fit the card :( oh well no extra vid cards for me.

just out of interest say i got about 2 off those x1 slots does that mean i can xfire or sli cards in them?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Georgy291

i just looked at my mobo (check left) and i noticed i got a whole load of components behind the slot, so i cant just make a slit in the slot and then fit the card :( oh well no extra vid cards for me.

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Then just cut off the connector on the card rather than the motherboard.

meh, i got enough slots to fit more vid power than i can ever use so thi was just theory

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mycarsavw

Thanks for playing, but which slot would I put the PCI-E GPU in?

Perhaps you'd like to Google "PCI-e x1"

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You could try searching Hexus for GeForce PCIe x1... :p

It wouldn't rock COD4's world, but it should cope on low settings. Your only *real* problem is going to be sourcing one...

EDIT: Product Googling "Geforce PCIe X1" turns up an 8400 from a number of suppliers as well. Product Googling "Radeon PCIe x1" turns up nothing, unfortunately. NVidia definitely have the win in the reduced-bandwidth graphics card stakes...