AGP or PCIe?

[eaxs]

Hi everybody,

I've been using AGP graphic cards for the past few years and recently switched to PCIe because I thought it might be better?

Can anyone tell the difference between AGP and PCIe (I use PCIe 16x)?

thanks!

 

[-nocturne=-]

Key advantages of PCIe are mostly the higher available bandwidth plus the ability to run two or more graphics adapters (SLI/Crossfire). Though, at this point I don't believe there are any cards out there that utilize much more bandwidth than AGP had, not to mention PCIe gfx cards to this point only need PCIe 8x.

But, the true performance is with PCIe-enabled chipsets, which use a plethora of PCIe pipelines to communicate between hardware, instead old-fashioned layers of interconnects; not to mention native support for the current fastest hardware.

 

[MrQ]

Currently there is a new updated PCI-E 16x its referred to as 2.0. It is much faster and I think it utilizes more bandwdth than before. The new 9xxx series Nvidia cards are the only(I have no idea about ATI, nor do I care too ) as far as I know, cards to take advantage this technology. It comes on the latest nvidia 7xx chipset boards.

 

[HaloRacer]

The difference between AGP cards and the newer PCI-E ones will blow your head off. Really. O_O

 

[-nocturne=-]

[quote1206973759=MrQ]
Currently there is a new updated PCI-E 16x its referred to as 2.0. It is much faster and I think it utilizes more bandwdth than before. The new 9xxx series Nvidia cards are the only(I have no idea about ATI, nor do I care too ) as far as I know, cards to take advantage this technology. It comes on the latest nvidia 7xx chipset boards.
[/quote1206973759]

Actually, the ATI hd2600 and 2400 were the first released pcie 2.0 cards, and I'm pretty sure the rd780 was the first chipset that supported it... PCI-E adds more bandwidth and allows up to 300w through-port, but every card is still backwards and forwards compatible, in the same nature AGP was (4x could run in a 2x slot, and a 2x could run in a 4x slot). It's not really taking 'advantage' of anything... just making sure the bus specification is updated before it bottlenecks the bleed-edge performance range.

As modern GFX chips are pcie-native, it's obvious that they perform better than their AGP-brothers (which use a host chip to run PCIE on AGP, which takes off about 3%), not to mention that modern chipsets with modern cpu's would definitely outperform an old AGP-based system. But if your talking about the actual speed of the bus, there's not a single chip out there yet that uses more than AGP 8x could provide, but with AGP you have no choice of multi-gpu's.

So basically it all comes down to the basic fact if you want to run a modern gaming pc, with support for the newest processors and fastest memory, you have no choice but to go with a pci-e chipset.

 

[Lafinass]

More importantly, AGP is obsolete and it will be come harder and harder to locate upgrades.

 

[eaxs]

Wow, thanks for your replies. Good thing I switched to PCIe then.
Most mobo's I saw supported it anyway
[quote1206988560=-nocturne=-]
Actually, the ATI hd2600 and 2400 were the first released pcie 2.0 cards
[/quote1206988560]
Funny I bought the HD2600 PRO (without knowing the PCIe 2.0 support)

It might not be the best card, but it's great for running TF2 at max settings and good resolution!

 

[Lafinass]

It'll get harder to find AGP cards that are up to spec for current games, much less motherboards with AGP slots. Heck, my last two systems haven't had AGP slots.

 

[tiddy]

The 8800GT is also PCI-e 2.0.

/end 2 cents.

 

[Dangerdad]

PCI-e is to AGP as AGP is to PCI. PCI-e is the next evolution of AGP, etc. So it's not parallel technologies like Beta/VHS or HDDVD/Bluray.

 

[Lafinass]

Ehhh... I'd say PCI is father to both AGP and PCI-e. They're slightly divergent paths on the same evolutionary trail.

 

[-nocturne=-]

I'm lazy and cheap... I'm still on my venerable AXP Barton-core 3200 @ 11x220, on a Abit NF7-S v2 with 4 of those great old ddr1 Mushkin black sticks. Only problem is the 9800p AIW (would of been better off getting an x800 for the same price), and since I've been just dumping money in more harddrives and tv tuner cards.

The platform still is plenty fast enough, besides video encoding and some hvy multitasking, so I figure $30 dumped into a AGP x1650 is a plenty good investment to tide me over until the market smooths out a little more...

 

[Sharp67]

I have the ati radeon X1950 PRO agp video card and it runs crysis as smooth as ever with most things on high and a few things on medium...i think i will keep agp around for at least till a video card comes out on pci-e that can run a game that agp wont...

 

[Existence.]

I always thought PCIe was the best and AGP was the worst.

 

[Lafinass]

PCI-e > AGP > PCI > ISA

 

[pillar]

[quote1207036989=Lafinass]
PCI-e > AGP > PCI > ISA
[/quote1207036989]amen 2 that dude!!

 

[saitekx50]

lol amen that is true but you mised one it should be like this PCI-e 2.0 > PCI-e > AGP > PCI > ISA


you missed the new version of PCI-e

 

[-nocturne=-]

FWIW, BB has a clearance that started yesterday on a Visiotek 2600pro 512mb for $25, both pci-e and agp versions (also a $14 lg 20x dvd burner).

 

[Lafinass]

Meh. I'll worry about PCI-e 2.0 when components that fully utilize it become more common than 600 dollar video cards.

 

[Sharp67]

stick with agp if you have it because it is not completley obsolete yet...if you have pci-e or pci-e 2.0 congrats it is almost pointless unless you are going to go SLI...My opinion though so dont believe wat i say lol