Ok, I want some answers! After years and years of hearing how "AGP is dying, get PCI Express, its the future, its waaay faster than AGP will ever be!", I have a problem.
You see, I bought a GeForce FX 5900XT AGP for my wife's PC, and it works pretty good. I get over 12000 3D Marks in 3DMark 2001, I probably could get more, but Dell put an inadequate Power Supply in the unit. I got my son a PC with a stronger power supply so I swapped his GeForce Ti 4600(LeadTek Winfast A250 Ultra), which didn't require secondary power with the 5900XT and it got over 11000 3D Marks. My wife's PC is a 2.8GHZ Pentium 4
Now here's the problem. My computer is an Athlon 64 w/PCI Express. And I've been thinking, Well since PCI Express is SOOOOO much faster than AGP, I should be able to get a lower spec card and still be able to match the speed of their cards, right?...
WRONG!!!
I bought a Radeon X1300, and only got 9975 3D Marks!!! What gives?! I mean I figured it may be slower because according to the VGA hierarchy chart it was lower spec than either of those two cards? but I thought it would at least come close to the LeadTek card!
In other words, I think that people that have been writing these articles about graphics cards have been VERY irresponsible in how they've been harping on the apparent death of the AGP bus. And I no longer believe it when someone says a mainstream card won't run as fast on an AGP bus as it will on a PCI Express bus. I mean, it may hold true that a 7800GT may be held back by an AGP bus, That doesn't hold true for a 7300GT. And I'd bet that even a 7600, 8600, or 9600GT would run at full speed on an AGP bus as well.
I think that in the future when someone writes a review for a videocard, they need to leave the AGP bus alone, unless they're talking about a high end videocard. I have a feeling mainstream cards will continue to run fine on an AGP 8X bus for a looong time!
You're comparing the HIGHEST end 5 series card, to one of the LOWEST end X1000 Series cards.
BUS has nothing to do with it... PCI-Express doesnt mean DOUBLE THE SPEED.... it simply means it can theoretically double the date throughput...
Thats like expecting a 7600GT AGP card to be half the speed of a 7600GT PCI-Express card... is that what you're suggesting here?
And 3DMark scores count for nothing, especially where 2001 is concerned! By the time the 5 series and X1000 series cards were released, GPU's were already perfected for those types of tests present in the benchmark program..... so all that matters then really is the sheer horsepower of the cards. In this case, the 5 series card wins outright... since it's a 256bit bus, compared to a 64 / 128bit bus of the ATi card.... which is effectively half / quarter the data bandwidth.
You AGP 5 series card probably kicks out 22GB/S, compared the X1300 with around 6 - 12GB/s... That's alot less bandwidth there and it STILL managed to scores only slightly lower than your 5 series card.
HERES A TIP
Benchmark ALL your cards on 3DMark05/06. I guarantee your X1300 will come out on top.
Another thing you're forgetting here...... manufacturers are slowly ending production of these kinds of cards. Look at PCI cards, hardly any available and they're all 2 - 3 generations behind current spec...
The same goes for nvidia's AGP... nothing since 7 series... No PCI cards since 6 series (OK, 8500GT was PCI too but damn expensive and no good for intense gaming)
Like i said before, the 3DMark program is useless in respect to how you're using it... Install 3DMark06 and watch that 5900XT die a death whilst the X1300 card struggles by and actually completes the SM3.0 tests.
I predict around 300 points for 5900XT, no joke.
I predict around 1300 points for X1300, depending on bus / model.
Ok, I want some answers! After years and years of hearing how "AGP is dying, get PCI Express, its the future, its waaay faster than AGP will ever be!", I have a problem.
You see, I bought a GeForce FX 5900XT AGP for my wife's PC, and it works pretty good. I get over 12000 3D Marks in 3DMark 2001, I probably could get more, but Dell put an inadequate Power Supply in the unit. I got my son a PC with a stronger power supply so I swapped his GeForce Ti 4600(LeadTek Winfast A250 Ultra), which didn't require secondary power with the 5900XT and it got over 11000 3D Marks. My wife's PC is a 2.8GHZ Pentium 4
Now here's the problem. My computer is an Athlon 64 w/PCI Express. And I've been thinking, Well since PCI Express is SOOOOO much faster than AGP, I should be able to get a lower spec card and still be able to match the speed of their cards, right?...
WRONG!!!
I bought a Radeon X1300, and only got 9975 3D Marks!!! What gives?! I mean I figured it may be slower because according to the VGA hierarchy chart it was lower spec than either of those two cards? but I thought it would at least come close to the LeadTek card!
In other words, I think that people that have been writing these articles about graphics cards have been VERY irresponsible in how they've been harping on the apparent death of the AGP bus. And I no longer believe it when someone says a mainstream card won't run as fast on an AGP bus as it will on a PCI Express bus. I mean, it may hold true that a 7800GT may be held back by an AGP bus, That doesn't hold true for a 7300GT. And I'd bet that even a 7600, 8600, or 9600GT would run at full speed on an AGP bus as well.
I think that in the future when someone writes a review for a videocard, they need to leave the AGP bus alone, unless they're talking about a high end videocard. I have a feeling mainstream cards will continue to run fine on an AGP 8X bus for a looong time!
AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA..... thats the best laugh that I've had all week.
THANK YOU!
Honestly, I'm sure your a nice guy and all, but if you don't understand something you shouldn't rant about it unless you want to be made fun of or enjoy looking stupid or like an ass.
And if you don't understand something... there's nothing wrong with asking for clarification and people are more than happy to explain it to you. People here are pretty nice but when you start ranting like a jackass you're going to get flamed.
Message edited by pchoi04 on 03-21-2008 at 01:59:43 AM
SuperSmashHoney 
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