will it work

[reaver]

i am currently upgrading from a GF 440 mx 64 mb. my probelm is that i have an agp x4 slot on my mobo. but i want to upgraded to a gf 6 which are agp x8. will it work. the cards that i am thinking are using are(see links):


http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-GF6225

or

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-GF6625

i have read in these forums that the agp doesnt matter and some are backwards compatable to agp x4. so can u please tell me if either of these will work. also links to other possible choices would be appricated. if neither work could you please post links to ones that will. thanks.

 

[linux_0]

What kind of motherboard, CPU and RAM do you have?

Many AGP 8x VGA cards are backward compatible to AGP 4x so you should be ok theoretically.

 

[reaver]

512 mb ram
p4 2.53 ghz

dunno about my mobo but on a program i used it said

NEC COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL SiS651 1.x

 

[linux_0]

http://www.sis.com/products/sis651.htm

According to this the chipset definitely supports up to AGP 4x so as long as the AGP
connector on the motherboard has the correct notches for the AGP 4x/8x card you try to install it should work fine.

 

[Crashman]

Those cards work in ALL AGP4x motherboards. That includes yours of course.

 

[Reeper]

It definitely will work - I was running a Gigabyte 6600GT on my old Athlon AGP 4x system with no hassles.

Do note though that by sticking with AGP architecture, you'd be severely limiting future upgrade options - AGP is being phased out in a very big way & I can virtually guarantee your shiny new AGP Graphics card will be of no use when you upgrade to a PCI-E based motherboard. (I know, I know - there's always e-bay!)

If you're planning on upgrading Motherboard / CPU within the next year, why not incur a bit of an extra expense in buying a 478 PCI-Express Motherboard & getting a PCI-E Graphics card? This would also theoretically extend your CPU upgrade path to a 3.6 / 3.8 GHz P4 CPU for the 478 motherboard, while eliminating the little AGP 4x bug at the same time.

 

[linux_0]

It is true AGP is being phased out however most socket 478 boards do not have PCI-express and socket 478 is obsolete as it is.

Those harder to find 478 boards WITH PCI-express usually cost MORE than their AGP 8x counterparts and you're buying an obsolete board anyway with a potentially unstable chipset.

You can pick up a socket 478 board with AGP 8X for $25-$60 [ 14 - 34 GBP ] [ 20 - 50 EUR ] maybe even less on ebay.

The AGP8X and PCI-Express versions of the FX6200 and 6600GT are practically identical and perform about the same anyway.

have a look here:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Socket-478-motherboard-pci-express-x16-slot-ftopict169223.html

Now if you wanted to upgrade to a Socket 939 AMD with PCI-express or Socket 775 Intel with PCI-express that would make more sense.

Socket 478+ PCI-express just doesn't make sense.

 

[Reeper]

478 + PCI-E may be a reasonable solution for now... Agreed that the optimum route would be 775 / 939 + PCI-E

It all depends on the budget. What're we looking at budget-wise?

 

[linux_0]

Indeed


The 6600 256MB sells for 72.85 GBP including tax in the UK which is about $130 USD.

A NICE 6600GT 128MB AGP 8x sells for about $140 - $180 USD [ 80-100 GBP ] in the US [newegg]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=GO&Range=1&bop=and&Range=1&description=6600+AGP&order=PRICE
with 500MHz core clock and 1000MHz memory clock!

I would recommend the 6600GT as opposed to the 6600 which only runs at 300MHz core / 500MHz memory clock even if the 6600 has 256MB of RAM.

The PCI-express version of the 6600GT is about 20 bux cheaper but PCI-express motherboards can be significantly more expensive than their AGP counterparts.

A really nice Socket 939 or 775 PCI-E SLI board can easily cost you 170-250 bux [ 100 - 140 GBP ] + CPU + possibly new RAM if your old RAM won't work so there's a tradeoff.

A nice AGP VGA card whould be the cheapest upgrade right now. Even an AGP VGA + AGP8x motherboard would be cheaper than upgrading to ANY motherboard with PCI-express as nice as that would be.

 

[Reeper]

I'm running a 3.0 GHz Prescott CPU on an Intel 875 PBZ Board with a Gigabyte GeForce 6600GT AGP 8X & 1 GB of Kingston RAM running 2.5-2-2-5 - more than worth it, despite the fact that I haven't made the switch to PCI-E.

Doom 3 runs smoooooothly on Ultra High settings & FEAR is very playable. Taking into account that my CPU, MoBo & Graphics card all cost me less than $200, I see it as quite a worthy investment - with room for overclocking on both the CPU & GPU.

Don't write off AGP if you're running on a tight budget - though, go the 939 / 775 & PCI-Express route if you're planning another upgrade in the next few months.

 

[linux_0]

I agree

My Athlon 64 939 3500+ on an MSI K8T Neo2 [ VIA K8T800 ] with 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200 C2 kicks butt even though my graphics card is a pathetic GeForce 5700LE AGP 8X.

I'm planning to upgrade to a 6600GT 128MB or 256MB as soon as I can afford it.

My other Athlon 64 939 3200+ on an Asus A8V-DLX [ VIA K8T800 ] with 512MB Corsair PC3200 also runs great despite the fact I have an even suckier GeForce 5500 OC AGP 8X in it.

AGP should still be around for a while unless the industry conspires to make it extinct.

 

[Reeper]

I know, AGP is good - don't get me wrong - I just can't help but get the impression that we're heading for a second VESA Local Bus Scenario... I still remember getting burnt by that one.

For all intents and purposes, 6600 / 6800GT AGP cards run just as quickly as their PCI-e based counterparts. 16x isn't yet being exploited for what it could potentially offer...

 

[linux_0]

Here's the theoretical numbers for AGP and PCI-Express... ya know what most cards can't even flood AGP8X let alone PCI-E 16x which is four times as fast in full duplex.

Besides most CPUs can't talk to the AGP of PCI bus that fast anyway.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/23/pc_interfaces_101/page16.html

Standard Bandwidth
AGP 1X 256 MB/s
AGP 2X 533 MB/s
AGP 4X 1066 MB/s
AGP 8X 2133 MB/s

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/23/pc_interfaces_101/page17.html
PCI Express Lanes Bandwidth per stream Bandwidth, duplex
1 256 MB/s 512 MB/s
2 512 MB/s 1 GB/s
4 1 GB/s 2 GB/s
8 2 GB/s 4 GB/s
16 4 GB/s 8 GB/s