GeForce PCX6600 - I've bought the wrong card haven't I?

[Guest]

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

I've just bought the following graphics card from Dabs:

http://tinyurl.com/54v7f

But it won't fit in my AGP 8X slot on my Gigabyte motherboard. I've bought
the wrong card haven't I? I was a bit fooled by the description on the
right which states "PCI-Express x16 or AGP 8X interface support".

I'm guessing this PCI-Express (also know as PCX?) is the new PCI standard.

Dabs don't seem to sell the AGP 8X flavour of the 6600 :-(

Hmm, so either send it back for a refund or take the plunge and upgrade my
motherboard & CPU. Getting expensive this just to play Half-Life 2!

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Guest]

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

> I'm guessing this PCI-Express (also know as PCX?) is the new PCI standard.

Correcting myself: PCI-Express isn't the same as PCX. PCI-Express is
sometimes called PCI-E.

Doesn't look like there's a lot of motherboard support around for PCI-E. If
I was going to upgrade, I was considering an AMD 64 but PCI-E support is
limited/expensive.

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Guest]

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

Rob Nicholson wrote:
>>I'm guessing this PCI-Express (also know as PCX?) is the new PCI standard.
>
>
> Correcting myself: PCI-Express isn't the same as PCX. PCI-Express is
> sometimes called PCI-E.

It's confusing, true. You were right the first time though. FYI:

PCI-Express is the new PCI bus, with speeds up to 16x. It's new
architecture allows for high speed transfers, and more importantly, data
transfers in both directions (up/down) at the same time.
The 16x PCI-Express (PCI-E or, more commonly these days: PCIe) will
mostly be used for graphics cards. Expect PCI-Express 1x, 2x or 4x cards
to appear in the future, such as SCSI, Ethernet, Sound cards and the like.

PCI-X is a bus used only in the server market, not in desktops.

PCX is the name nVidia gives to the PCI-Express version of their GPU's.
a PCX6600 is a PCI-Express 6600.

Thus, when looking at nVidia cards, PCX means PCI-Express.

 

[Guest]

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

> Thus, when looking at nVidia cards, PCX means PCI-Express.

Which is why I got very confused The GeForce 6600 was a good price for
me in my existing system - only wanna get Doom 3 up and running. Dabs don't
appear to sell the AGP variant of the 6600 although I assume it does exist.

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Dan]

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

www.ebuyer.co.uk sells the Geforce 6600GT but they appear to be somewhat
more expensive than the PCI-E versions which is unfair! I do not think
Nvidia has released an AGP variant of the Plain 6600 GPU.

Dan

"Rob Nicholson" <rob.nicholson@nospam_unforgettable.com> wrote in message
news:%vIvd.702$c46.356@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net...
> > Thus, when looking at nVidia cards, PCX means PCI-Express.
>
> Which is why I got very confused The GeForce 6600 was a good price for
> me in my existing system - only wanna get Doom 3 up and running. Dabs
don't
> appear to sell the AGP variant of the 6600 although I assume it does
exist.
>
> Cheers, Rob.
>
>

 

[Guest]

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

> appear to sell the AGP variant of the 6600 although I assume it does
> exist.

I've wandered into a completely new area of hardware that I was blistfully
unaware of. Motherboard support for PCI-E with the AMD 64 CPU is in it's
infancy with only a few boards just hitting the market now. I assume that
they will carry a price premium for me.

The AGP version of the NVIDIA GeForce 6600 is getting on for twice as much
as the PCI-E version here in the UK and once again only appears to have been
relatively recently, which is I guess why Dabs don't stock it yet.

I suspect the rest of my system won't do justice to the 6600 anyway, so I'm
toying with the idea of upgrading the motherboard, CPU & RAM anyway. As AMD
64 & PCI-E is a not starter right now, I started looking at Pentium 4
systems. The only PCI-E Pentium 4 systems I can find are based on the Socket
775 chipset. The Pentium 4E looks like a neat/good value chip at the moment
but these appear to be not based around the 775 socket and therefore rule
out PCI-E again.

I think I'll just return it and buy an XBox

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Guest]

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

> 775 chipset. The Pentium 4E looks like a neat/good value chip at the
> moment but these appear to be not based around the 775 socket and
> therefore rule out PCI-E again.

To clarify, the Pentium 4E is based on the S478 socket for which there
doesn't appear to be much PCI-E motherboard support.

Cheers, Rob.