Reservations about AGP

[Freak]

*Sigh*

I'm building a computer and I already got a Video card on it's way.
ATI X800XL 256 AGP

I'm worried because I like to get 2 years worth out of the card before I have to get another card.

I used to have a GeForce 3 Ti 200 128MB DDR and it took care of me through Unreal 2 and all the way up to DOOM 3.

Now, it's not the card itself I'm worried about, it's the 8X AGP that i'm stuck at.
Since theres 16X PCI-E out, I'm wondering if more games will be taking advantage out of this and will soon leave my Nice video(But AGP)card in the dust and screw me over bigtime.



The system I'm building is this.

AMD ATHLON 64 3500+ PROCESSOR S939
ASUS A8V S939 MOTHERBOARD
OCZ/PREMIER DDR 400 1GB PC3200 DUAL CHANNEL KIT
NSPIRE PENTIUM IV ATX 2.0 450W POWER SUPPLY
ZALMAN CNPS7700ALCU (775/478/754/939/940) CPU FAN
ATI X800XL 256 AGP Video Card




Bonus question. This sounds stupid, but do you think there might be a AGP to PCI adapter for Video cards that at least have a Twin Card that has PCI-E?

[herulach]

No agp to pci-e adaptor that im aware of, but it is theoretically possible i suppose. If youre not planning on upgrading the cpu for a similar timescale youll be fine. Graphics cards arent even close to being able to saturate 8x agp, never mind 16x pci-e, and the card youre buying will never be able to.

Id say that looks like a decent enough system that should last a couple of years, although id be a little dubious about the quality of that power supply

[Freak]

No agp to pci-e adaptor that im aware of, but it is theoretically possible i suppose. If youre not planning on upgrading the cpu for a similar timescale youll be fine. Graphics cards arent even close to being able to saturate 8x agp, never mind 16x pci-e, and the card youre buying will never be able to.

Id say that looks like a decent enough system that should last a couple of years, although id be a little dubious about the quality of that power supply

Yeah, that Power Supply is not set in stone.

Thanks for the input.


Maybe someone should invent the AGP -To - PCI-E adapter.

[Freak]

Hey, I also notice your system is about the same as mine will be.
How did it handle Quake 4 and F.E.A.R.?

[Freak]

Wll holy ****

Hmmm, this could be the start of something good

http://www.behardware.com/news/imprimer/7548/

[oralpain]

I have found cases where PCI-E does make a huge difference, though not in what is "normal" use for most people.

If you have the AGP card, you may as well get an AGP mobo.

[RobertN]

there is always the asrock 939Dual-SATA2 mobo which has agp and pcie

even if you have your new mobo this mobo goes for 45 notes so is not to expensive

thinking about getting this myself with a new operton as i want to keep my agp 6800gt


http://www.asrock.com/product/product_939Dual-SATA2.htm

[Mutley]

I'd say stick with what you have. AGP isn't going away any time (very) soon. However, it is true to say that most manufacturers are making PCI-E only cards, which they then bridge to AGP. Take a look at the Geforce 6600GT for example. It is a PCI-E card, but there is an AGP version, which is PCI-E bridged to AGP, which is the layout is slightly odd with the added electronics required.

The downside of this for AGP owners is that these cards costs slightly more (five quid), and require an external power supply, as the AGP bus can't provide the 50watts that a 6600GT needs. PCI-E can supply upwards of 75w.

Mut.

[Octavean]

I'd say stick with what you have. AGP isn't going away any time (very) soon. However, it is true to say that most manufacturers are making PCI-E only cards, which they then bridge to AGP. Take a look at the Geforce 6600GT for example. It is a PCI-E card, but there is an AGP version, which is PCI-E bridged to AGP, which is the layout is slightly odd with the added electronics required.

The downside of this for AGP owners is that these cards costs slightly more (five quid), and require an external power supply, as the AGP bus can't provide the 50watts that a 6600GT needs. PCI-E can supply upwards of 75w.

Mut.

Another downside would be the extra time in development for AGP cards with respect to PCIe.

Anyway, if you already have the card you might want to consider keeping it.

However, AMD will soon be introducing the new 940 pin socket M2. For some, it may be wise to wait for socket M2 before building a new system.

When I was on SocketA I passed over Socket 754 and Socket 940 for Socket 939. I’m glad I did and if I were building now I would probably wait for M2,…which will likely use DDR2 and obviously PCIe.

[Mutley]

Theres a little background to M2 here:

http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/05/04/so...rs_/index.html

[Freak]

I'm upgrading this december, so I cannot wait tell second quarter...Not with games like F.E.A.R. and Quake 4 teasing me

This is what I think I'll go with.

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor S939 Venice 2.2GHZ 512K L2 Cache 90NM Retail Box

ASRock 939DUAL-SATA2 ATX S939 ULI M1695 DDR AGP PCI-E16 3PCI SATA RAID Sound LAN Motherboard

OCZ Performance PC3200 1GB DDR400 CL3 3-3-8 184PIN DIMM W/ Ramsink

Fortron FSP/SPI SAGA AX400-PN 400W ATX12V 20/24PIN Power Supply W/ 120MM Fan P4 AMD Ready Retail

ARCTIC COOLING SILENCER 64 ULTRA TC AMD S754/S939/S940 ALUMINUM 1000-2500RPM 18-46CFM

ARCTIC SILVER 5 HIGH-DENSITY POLYSYNTHETIC SILVER THERMAL COMPOUND 3.5 GRAM


Plus my Girlfriend got me the ATI X800XL 256 AGP
and my brother got me a Soundblaster Live 7.1 sound card.


I think this should all do.


Thank you all for your help, I cannot thank you enough.

[schmunk]

Get what you can afford now, don't worry about what might be available next month, oops no - it's slipped back, two months, no three months...

You'll definitely get two years good gaming from that system, nothing seems set to change drastically in the near future (except perhaps PhysX, but forget I said that), so buy now and be happy with what you get.

By the way, clock for clock, having PCIe makes no speed difference to having AGP.