what is the difference between PCI and PCI express?

Question

I was looking at some new graphic cards for my dell and it only has PCI slots. Are PCI express cards compatable with PCI slots?

Answer 1

Serve you well for getting a Dell.
Your wont be doing any serious gaming there.

Answer 2

No, PCI Express is an entirely different animal from PCI. The reason the names are so similar is that they appear the same to the OS (Windows or whatever).

To round out the family, first there was PCI, then PCI-X, and now PCI Express. The first two were more-or-less compatible (PCI-X was just faster than PCI).

However, for graphics, before there was PCI Express, there was AGP. If your computer has one slot set slightly further from the edge of the mainboard than the others, then that's likely an AGP slot. AGP graphics cards are (still) perfectly reasonable pieces of hardware.

But you may have a card with a built-in video card, in which case you won't really be able to add a modern, fast graphics card.

Just for completeness, here's the performance of the various options:

PCI: 132MB/s (standard) -> 532Mb/s (wider/faster options)
PCI-X: 800MB/s -> 1GB/s
AGP: 266MB/s (1X) -> 2.1GB/s (8X)
PCIEx: 500MB/s (1X) -> 8GB/s (16x)

Answer 3

Here's what I found real quick on google.

For those who haven't heard of it, the short explanation of PCI Express is that it's a new interface that can go far beyond the speed of current AGP and PCI buses.

This new interface was designed to accommodate the ever-increasing speeds of PC input/output devices. Faster products and technologies on the horizon will enable advances like 10-GHz and faster CPU speeds, faster memory, speedier graphics cards, quicker storage, and other high-speed devices, plus networking beyond gigabit speeds. But current systems built with the aging PCI interface don't provide the higher bandwidth you'll need to run these faster products.

Answer 4

They are different sizes and have different slots, so no - PCI and PCI-E are not compatible.

If you've only got PCI slots, then its time to upgrade.

Answer 5

You can still get a PCI card for $50-100 and they range from 32 mg to 128 mg, try places like TigerDirect.com or CompUSA even Best Buy and Staples, if that is not possible try Ebay they have some, I buy them for my business and have had success, TigerDirect is the best for selection and they deliver!!

Answer 6

Here's a page to help out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express