AGP8x really that much better?

[kc252]

Hey, I am looking hard for a mobo with 8x agp and asyncronous memory and support of over ddr266 but there are none right now, should I just go for the board with AGP 4x? Am I going to see that much difference running a 9700 pro on a 8x than a 4x?

•kc252•

 

[lwj81]

NO.

 

[kc252]

Can anyone elaborate on this answer?

•kc252•

 

[Crashman]

AGP8x offers no performance gain with current cards.

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[CorpusBiscuit]

I thought that both the 9700 & 9500 could take advantage of (or at least offer support for) an 8x AGP.

 

[Crashman]

Of COURSE they support the standard! Let's do a little history:
I bought a TNT2 Ultra card once because it was AGP4x. But that made no difference. In fact, AGP4x offered no advantage to the GeForce256, GeForceDDR...FINALLY when they realeased the GeForce2 GTS, AGP4x offered a 2% advantage over AGP2x.

We've reached that point again with AGP8x. Current cards get 0% gains from it. The GeForceFX MIGHT get a 2% gain from it, then again maybe not. The next card afterward should see a gain.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[vacs]

Adding to that, it's not only the card which counts on how much it can make use out of any AGP standard but mainly how the software (speak games) make use out of it. One could easily produce a game where AGP 8x would not be enough (simply by projecting videostreams to objects inside a 3d engine) but since AGP 8x only appeared on the marktet, no game developper yet dares to push the enveloppe and add full AGP 8x support to their latest games (including ID software). It's only after AGP 8x has become the standard and most users own a complete AGP 8x solution at home, then the first true AGP 8x games will appear...