AGP vs PCIe

[lee1001]

While browsing for a video card for my new system I came across dabs.co.uk who had 2 Connect3D Radeon XT PE cards. One AGP and one PCIe. Both are exactly the same price.

My question is which should i go for?

I understand that even if i go to PCI express it will take a while for software/games to be produced that can take advantage of PCIe. Also that by the time that happens i will need to upgrade my MB, Mem and CPU too.

Here are the pro's and con's of PCIe from what i understand. (without the technical data)

Pro's: I wont need to upgrade my GFX card for a LONG time.
When the software is available that takes advantage of PCIe I will see a large increase in performance over AGP.

Con's: No software is currently available to take advantage of PCIe.

Your opinions?

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Ok I thing you've got this all wrong. You sound like you're talking about an Althon 64 "No software is currently available to take advantage of...".

By the time Games need to utilise the bandwidth of PCIe 16x you will need to upgrade your card, weather it is PCIe or not - so your argument "I wont need to upgrade my GFX card for a LONG time." argument is void IMO.

"When the software is available that takes advantage of PCIe I will see a large increase in performance over AGP."

Software is not designed to take advantage of either AGP or PCIe, it uses the available bandwidth of the interface (AGP / PCIe).

Put it this way, PCIe x16 has double the bandwith of AGP x8. AGPx8 has double the bandwidth of AGPx4, Frame Per Second wise there is only a VERY small difference between the 2 (even though AGPx8 has double the bandwith). PCIe wont increase your FPS for a couple of years (when software will begin to get bottlenecked by the bandwith limitations of AGPx8), by that time, you'll be wanting a new card to be able to keep up.

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[sweatlaserxp]

My question is which should i go for?

Do you have a PCIe slot on your mobo? That's the first issue. If you do, there is no reason not to go PCIe. If you only have AGP then go with that, because either way it makes no difference- the current gen. cards (NV4x/R4x0) aren't faster on the PCIe bus. However, the next wave of cards, around the winter 05/spring 06, will most certainly be faster on the new bus.

it will take a while for software/games to be produced that can take advantage of PCIe.

ATi's HyperMemory feature will be in use before the end of the year, which exploits the PCIe bus.

I wont need to upgrade my GFX card for a LONG time

If you go with one of the new flagship cards, then certainly- the next architectures from both vendors won't see retail before early 2006. Just because the card is PCIe doesn't mean the GPU won't become obsolete, but right now is a weird transitional period so the regular 6 month/12 month upgrade cycle isn't happening.

No software is currently available to take advantage of PCIe

And indeed the speed benefits of the new bus won't really unveil until we have Longhorn, DXNext, and the next architectures. Even then it may not be completely utilised, but all that stuff is a long way off, so if you have PCIe in your system then that's all the reason to go with the PCIe version of whatever card you're looking at.





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[Crashman]

Cards have just now barely surpassed what AGP4x had to offer. This generation of cards will likely never benefit from PCIe. The next generation of cards will likely never benefit from PCIe. But in 2 generations, PCIe might be looking fairly good.

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