AGP Newbie Question

[Victory]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

Although I have known for some time of the stated advantages
obtained when using AGP over PCI I am somewhat confused as to exactly
how to use this advantage .

I have an old m/b , a GA-7IXE4 , which has one AGP slot in addition to
the 4 PCI slots . I also understand that the AGP slot on this board is
only AGP X 2 .and , therefore does not give much of an advantage over
PCI.

Since obtaining this m/b some years ago , I have had a GeForce 2MX 32
Mb video card in one of the PCI slots and , as I am not a "gamer ",
have been satisfied with the performance obtained.

I am now considering upgrading the m/b and the video card and note
that modern m/b's have mostly got " AGPx4x8 " mentioned in their
specs.

I also note that the AGP slot on my present board is a different size
from the PCI slots - ( its shorter in length ).

Now for the questions !! :-

1. Are all AGP slots different in size from PCI slots ?

2. If so , does this mean that all modern video cards are AGP cards
now and no longer use the PCI slots ?

3. In view of the stated advantages of AGP over PCI ,does this mean
that the provision of PCI slots in future m/b's will be phased out ?

B.N.
--

to reply by e-mail remove "admiral_"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

victory@admiraliol.ie wrote:

> Although I have known for some time of the stated advantages
> obtained when using AGP over PCI I am somewhat confused as to exactly
> how to use this advantage .
>
> I have an old m/b , a GA-7IXE4 , which has one AGP slot in addition to
> the 4 PCI slots . I also understand that the AGP slot on this board is
> only AGP X 2 .and , therefore does not give much of an advantage over
> PCI.

Actually, it gives a quite significant advantage over PCI.

> Since obtaining this m/b some years ago , I have had a GeForce 2MX 32
> Mb video card in one of the PCI slots and , as I am not a "gamer ",
> have been satisfied with the performance obtained.
>
> I am now considering upgrading the m/b and the video card and note
> that modern m/b's have mostly got " AGPx4x8 " mentioned in their
> specs.
>
> I also note that the AGP slot on my present board is a different size
> from the PCI slots - ( its shorter in length ).
>
> Now for the questions !! :-
>
> 1. Are all AGP slots different in size from PCI slots ?

Yes.

> 2. If so , does this mean that all modern video cards are AGP cards
> now and no longer use the PCI slots ?

You picked the wrong time to ask this question, as the answer is confusing
due to the emergence in the past few months of a new variant of PCI.

Right now there is a new version of PCI just hitting the market, called "PCI
Express", that can be configured to have better performance than AGP (PCI
Express comes in x1 through x16 with the number denoting the performance
relative to x1. X16 is used for video, x4 is used for most "general
purpose" slots). PCI Express uses a different connector from regular PCI
or from AGP, and is not backward-compatible--you can't put a regular PCI
board in a PCI Express slot or vice versa. If you use PCI Express you
won't see any benefit from this better performance as current video boards
don't show any change in performance going from AGP 4x to AGP 8x, but maybe
someday.

The "latest and greatest" video boards are available in both PCI Express and
AGP versions (different boards--don't know of any that will plug into both
types of slot).

The previous generation of video boards were available only in AGP for the
most part. At the lower end of the performance range "regular" PCI
versions were also available and at the higher end a few PCI Express
versions were released.

> 3. In view of the stated advantages of AGP over PCI ,does this mean
> that the provision of PCI slots in future m/b's will be phased out ?

Yes and no. AGP supports video boards and only video boards--you can't get
AGP network boards or disk controllers or any of the other stuff that is
normally plugged into PCI slots. Its design is such that a machine can
have only one AGP slot, which would be very limiting. The current thinking
is that AGP is going to be phased out in favor of PCI Express sometime in
the next several years. For the foreseeable future machines that support
PCI Express will usually have "regular" PCI slots in addition to the PCI
Express slots, but so far nobody has brought a machine to market that has
both PCI Express and AGP. Eventually regular PCI will also be phased out I
presume so that for a while there will be machines with only PCI Express.
>
> B.N.
> --
>
> to reply by e-mail remove "admiral_"

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

victory@admiraliol.ie wrote:
<snipped>
> 1. Are all AGP slots different in size from PCI slots ?

Yes correct.

> 2. If so , does this mean that all modern video cards are AGP cards
> now and no longer use the PCI slots ?

Yeah pretty much all modern graphics cards are AGP, certainly all the good
ones. However i think you can still get a few PCI varients.

> 3. In view of the stated advantages of AGP over PCI ,does this mean
> that the provision of PCI slots in future m/b's will be phased out ?

Not sure about that, as there is such a wide number of peripherals that use
the PCI bus i dont think they could phase it out any time soon. That said
however, there is PCI express now, but at the moment that seams to be only
used for graphics cards, this is a different slot again and only some brand
new mobo's/graphics cards support it.

Hope that helps.

Matt

 

[Victory]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

>> 2. If so , does this mean that all modern video cards are AGP cards
>> now and no longer use the PCI slots ?
>
>You picked the wrong time to ask this question, as the answer is confusing
>due to the emergence in the past few months of a new variant of PCI.

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply so fully .

Having read lots more on PCI Express since this post I now realise why
you say this !!

The trigger for my original request was that my grandson was asking me
about the suitability of my PC to run the latest gaming " flavour "
DOOM 3 - ( at least it was the latest flavour some few days ago !! ) -

as I'm not a " gamer " I was quite happy running an old m/b which had
an AGP slot ( unused ) for years using a PCI video card which , having
32 Mb , I thought was at the cutting edge of the video card spectrum
!!!

I have only just started to think about AGP - just in time to be at
the imminent demise of such animals , I see !!!

I have also now realised that this AGP slot in my old m/b was designed
to receive AGP cards which are , of course , different animals to PCI
video cards !!

Perhaps I should wait a few months before deciding on upgrading as
there are obviously about to be significant and fundemental changes in
technology in this area .

Kind regards,

B.N.

--

to reply by e-mail remove "admiral_"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

No; the AGP slot is currently being replaced by the PCI Express slot, which
will be much faster than AGP.. The PCI slots on motherboards will be start
being replaced by PCI Express slots in about a year.

--
DaveW



<victory@admiraliol.ie> wrote in message
news:kfhpg09muu4cj3adodn8haiek1nu5ild75@4ax.com...
> Although I have known for some time of the stated advantages
> obtained when using AGP over PCI I am somewhat confused as to exactly
> how to use this advantage .
>
> I have an old m/b , a GA-7IXE4 , which has one AGP slot in addition to
> the 4 PCI slots . I also understand that the AGP slot on this board is
> only AGP X 2 .and , therefore does not give much of an advantage over
> PCI.
>
> Since obtaining this m/b some years ago , I have had a GeForce 2MX 32
> Mb video card in one of the PCI slots and , as I am not a "gamer ",
> have been satisfied with the performance obtained.
>
> I am now considering upgrading the m/b and the video card and note
> that modern m/b's have mostly got " AGPx4x8 " mentioned in their
> specs.
>
> I also note that the AGP slot on my present board is a different size
> from the PCI slots - ( its shorter in length ).
>
> Now for the questions !! :-
>
> 1. Are all AGP slots different in size from PCI slots ?
>
> 2. If so , does this mean that all modern video cards are AGP cards
> now and no longer use the PCI slots ?
>
> 3. In view of the stated advantages of AGP over PCI ,does this mean
> that the provision of PCI slots in future m/b's will be phased out ?
>
> B.N.
> --
>
> to reply by e-mail remove "admiral_"