AGP is not dead!

...and I mean it.

Published on June 21, 2005 By Kombatant In

As I said in my previous entry, I got a new PC recently. Its configuration is as follows:

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3200+ // Motherboard: DFI LanParty SLI-DR // Graphics: Sapphire Radeon X800 // RAM: Corsair XMS4000 (1GB) // PSU: Thermaltake Silent PurePower 480W // Monitor: Dell 2405fpw 24" TFT

Pretty good machine I might say, and it has room for improvement. I chose the X800 because I wanted to get something which will hold me until the new R520 cards show up, and would be cheap enough. I am very pleased with its performance, and I reckon I made the right choice about the components.

So my old PC (CPU: AMD AthlonXP 3000+ // Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7N400-L // Graphics: Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro // RAM: Corsair XMS3500 (512 MB) // PSU: QTec 400W // Monitor: Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454) is now at my parents' house. I got a X800 XL from work yesterday (AGP) and installed it there. Man, the PC just got transformed into a serious gaming machine! I mean, I only have Juiced and UEFA Champions League installed for now (I formatted two days ago and installed Windows again), but playing at 1600x1200 with max AA and AF sure is satisfying. It's a bit strange too, seeing my old PC performing better in games than my new one

My point is simple: for those of you who are on a budget and don't want to change their platform, don't. The new generation cards that will be announced within this summer (with nVidia doing that tomorrow, ATI will follow suit sometime before the end of summer) will support AGP as well (as far as I recall both companies have directly or indirectly confirmed it) so you will be able to game happily with your current specs

Next update will probably be in a few days, with my take on nVidia's newest baby

Comments (Page 1)

thomassen

on Jun 21, 2005

uhm... Is AGP dying?

Zoomba

on Jun 21, 2005

... No, but I hear it had a nasty cold the other week

George Rogers Jr

on Jun 21, 2005

I'm able to play just about anything that's out there with an AMD Athlon 3200+ & a 6600GT AGP vid card....& I'm not even o'clocking. I haven't seen anything yet that benefits from the PCX X16 piplines even though they've been around for some time now. However, I know they're working on it!

iTZKooPA

on Jun 21, 2005

He says AGP is dieing because they made a faster bus for video cards, the PCI-X or PCI Express. Most of the top end cards support both at the moment but that probably won't last for too long.

George Rogers Jr

on Jun 21, 2005

Just curious iTZKooPA, have you seen anything that benefits from the X16 pipeline architecture - or any PC games/apps that really use it??

kona0197

on Jun 21, 2005

AGP 8x and a Nvidia Gforce 4 card is all i need to play my games - games like Command and Conquer.

EventHorizon

on Jun 21, 2005

The PCI-E cards will be released first...Then AGP later on. The push is definately for PCI-E to become the new standard.

GR Jr, if youre talking about PCI-Express cards, the answer is no. Currently, any AGP8x card will perform pretty much the same as its PCI-E equivilent.

Ive got a PCI-E 6800GT...It kicks butt.

George Rogers Jr

on Jun 21, 2005

SEH, Thx for the info....really appreciate it!

Corky_O

on Jun 21, 2005

As I understand it, the main benefit from PCIe is the fewer number of wires needed to transfer information.

Fewer wires = lower power requirement = lower heat generation.

I have not heard of anything that is currently capable of saturating an AGP 8x bus, so the faster PCIe 16X will not be noticeably faster in anything but bench testing - though Video Editing may well push the envelope in the near future.

One immediate benefit is in the Notebook computers, where heat generation and power consumption is a greater concern than in Desktop computers.

Note - if they adopt the "Switch" theory in the MoBo chipset and remove the North/South bridge design, then AGP may be out at that point.

George Rogers Jr

on Jun 22, 2005

One of the main resaons WHY I stuck to the 32 bit/AGP platform was because prices have fallen so rapidly over the past 10 to 12 months for these older components - processors like the AMD 2800+(retail) were running over $500 dollars 4+ years ago....I just couldn't see paying for higher priced upgrades in the 64-bit/PCI Express arena when I have yet to see the benefits from it. Please understand - I LOVE the newer platform & know it's all headed in that direction, but having limited "tech" knowledge hinders me greatly on making educated selections - like Cork O's comments which are well taken; I've never even considered this "Switch" theory about removing the N/S bridges & completely eliminate the AGP bus system all together!!

thomassen

on Jun 22, 2005

PCI-X. Never heard of that actually. I haven't payed much attention since I bought my computer a couple of years ago. I assume you need a PCI-X slot for that?

Yarlen

on Jun 22, 2005

Yup. Eventually even PCI will be vanishing. Everything will use PCI-Express (PCI-X) slots.

Bushman

on Jun 22, 2005

I put my system together 2 years ago and it still works with any game. I have played most of the newer (HL2, Doom 3, FarCry, Deus Ex 2 Call of Duty, etc) games at least the FPS ones except Band of Brothers and that is only because I do not have a DVD in my system. Specs: Intel P4 2.8, DDR 330 Memory 1gig (old I know) Albatron PX845 PEV Pro MB, and an Albatron Geforce4 Ti4280 128mgs video Card (APG) so no changing over to PCI-X for me for awhile at least not until I have to because like George Rodgers Jr. it's going to change over. Smaller is better, and cheaper when it comes to electronics. Kind of like a kick in the ass Mr. Kombatant that you didn't do the video card upgrade first could have saved some money. I must say that your new system sounds impressive though but you might think about increasing you PS to the Antec 550 with what you have the extra juice is nice to have, I use one in mine.

Andy02369

on Aug 18, 2005

I have a very simple configuration, because of money. Works fine to me, even though I run more than a thousand programs.
Windows XP Home SP2
2.7 Ghz celeron processor
512 MB RAM
160 GB HD
ATI Radeon 7500 PCI card

Works great in games from Microsoft and Totalgaming, it's hard to believe that the performance is so good

JAnder09

on Aug 18, 2005

I just built a new 3.6Ghz machine to add to my gaming center, and I went AGP as usual. The performance gain on PCIE is almost ZERO for gaming, and the added cost does nothing but rip you off.

Furthermore, since I rotate machines downward, adding a new standard to the mix is compounded 5 times for the 5 machines I run in my home gaming center. I'll be sticking with AGP for the foreseeable future.

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