Is IGN making false claims about AGP 8x?

[ltj311]

I just finished reading an article on IGN's website.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/372/372154p1.html

It's concerning the new GeForce 4 Ti 4200/Mx 440 w/ AGP 8x. Now I'm confused.

I am a HUGE fan of IGN's websites. Particularly their gaming sites. Great previews and reviews. Now I've read alot of posts about AGP 8x and how their is only about a 1-4% increase in performance if you have a mobo that supports 8x and the Radeon 9000 or 9700 Pro.

Does NVIDIA know something ATI doesn't? IGN seems to be giving AGP 8x false claims. Particularly in the 2nd paragraph. Am I reading too much into this? To me from what I've read in these forums, 8x seems to be solely theoretical right now. Basically it's still way before it's time. And it's not like IGN is saying, "Well, as of right now, you won't see much of an increase in performance." Can anyone shed some light for me? After reading that article I would believe that 8x is a great thing.......right now. But according to this community, it's over-rated and not very useful.

Are the Ti 4200 w/AGP 8x worth the extra money? I'm still planning on buying a Ti 4200 and I'm wondering if I should consider these new cards?

Thanks.

 

[Tomlin]

From everything I've read so far on AGP x8 we're still a bit of a way off from needing it.

AGP x4 is what 2.1Gig bandwidth? I doubt there are even many games/applications that get close to reaching that let alone double that...

 

[slvr_phoenix]

**shrug**

Eh.

I've always seen IGN as rather hype-happy. They don't get into enough detail for me. It's like reading fluff-bunny and sunshine marketting ads straight from the manufacturers. This is just another article among many with the same sickening-sweet flavor that has no real substance.

Right now, AGP 8x is just marketting hype. It'll eventually be useful. Right now though most software just doesn't move the kind of texture maps, lighting maps, bump maps, etc. that AGP 8x would be useful for. (Probably because right now, hardware really can't handle all <i>that</i> much without horrible frame rates anyway.) In a year or two though I'll bet that the 8x bandwidth won't even be enough anymore. (Especially if OSs ever start using texture maps and simple quads to start drawing 'windows'.) For now, AGP 8x is just hype and something for long-term mobo users to invest in. It doesn't mean squat for video cards yet.

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