I just bought a Soyo KT-400 Dragon Ultra Black Edition mobo as I'm building a new machine. The mobo supports AGP 2x/4x/8x and PRO AGP cards. I open the booklet which is written in broken English and it says, "This motherboard supports only 1.5 volt AGP CARD. Using 3.3v card could damage your motherboard!"

Im not sure what this means. Do I need to buy a special "1.5 volt" AGP card in order to run it at 8x? Can I use any "Universal AGP 3.0" cards?

I was planning on purchasing an ATI Radeon 9200, which the specs say runs at 3.3v 2x, 1.5v 4x, .08v at 8x. Does this mean I'll only be able to run this card at 4x?

Can anyone tell me what I need to buy to meet these motherbaord requirements? Am I missing something here or is the wording in the booklet just confusing. I would just like to know if I purchase this ATI card will I be able to run it at 8x, and if not what kind of card should I get? What are my options here guys?

Thanks!
-Stv

Frist of the mobo booklet is right but it's still confusing!

It has to do with the AGP standards. At the moment there are three standards:

AGP 1.0 -> 3,3V; all cards with AGP up to x2
AGP 2.0 -> 1,5V; all cards with AGP x4
AGP 3.0 -> 0,8V; all cards with AGP x8

Those standards are compatible one step up and down. So you can use a AGP 2.0 card on every board at the moment but you can not use a AGP 3.0 card on a AGP 1.0 board (same is the other way around!).

So you can use every AGP 2.0 (AGP x4) and AGP 3.0 (AGP x8) card on your board as they work either with 1,5 or 0,8V.

On a board with a universal AGP you can run every AGP card but I'm not sure if that goes the other way around. If you want to buy a universal AGP card for your board better ask the mobo or grafic card support!

After what you wrote about the Radeon 9200 it should work but ask your vendor to make sure!

I hope that helps!