PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

[[SDC] Woody]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

I can atest to the fact that pci-e is faster. I just built (last night) a nf4 sli rig. I went from a 6800gt and amd64 3400+ to a 7800gt and amd64 4000+ san diego. It not only is faster (should be) but the game looks awsome. I also installed the creative fx-1 drivers for my audigy2 zs and my ears are hurting lol. The game sounds are now incredable. Evga is having a 2 for one sell. 7800gt with a free nf4 board $449.00 US. That's what I'm running.

[ChopperKill]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

Man oh man. No wonder people get confused about computers when so many people say things without any kind of evidence or just let logic go flying out of the window.

PCI-e is NOT "25% faster out of the box" and I am finding it difficult to know where to begin with such a ludicrous statement. PCI-e has the capacity to be much faster than AGP that's a fact but the point is no game out there even comes close to using up the full bandwidth of AGP 8X yet let alone PCI-e. When games finally do start to use more bandwidth than AGP 8X you will see PCI-e come well and truly into it's own but that's probably won't be for at least 12-18 months. Right now, this minute PCI-e doesn't really offer any consdierable improvements. For a quick example look here http://www.behardware.com/art/imprimer/533/ The PCI-e card was a tiny amount faster and even that was mostly due to the slightly higher clocked memory speed and hardly anything to do with PCI-e.

PCI-e is the future no one is arguing with that and it will offer improvements over AGP eventually but a 6800GT on AGP and a 6800GT on PCI-e running Doom 3 for example will be pretty much the same. Within 5%.

And as for what woody said. You went from a 6800GT to a 7800GT dude and you think PCI-e gave you that? It was the card that's giving you the performance boost not PCI-e.

The guys original question was is it worth upgrading right now to PCI-e or just to do his vid card. Everyone upgrades pretty much on an 12-24 month cycle. Usually buy that time you end up having to change everything anyway including your mobo. Why spend money going to PCI-e now only to have to do it again in 18 months. And for the whole of those 18 months he will hardly see any benefit. Yes in 18 months do it, go dual core, SLI the lot games will REALLY be using this stuff by then.

And socket M2 is coming within 12 months. Why buy a 939 PCI-e board and then have to change it again for M2 in less than 12 months. Save the money wait for M2 and get a beastly dual core, SLI rig.

[DakotaDoc64]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

I am not going to quote you chopper, that was a mouth full but all exactly on. Or "Spot on" as they say their (Been deployed there many times, Love every minute of it.)

In short if you are getting a new MoBo for other reasons. Get PCI-E. If not AGP has plenty of legs yet.

[ODD-BALL]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

SLI on ONE CARD is called crossfire and its coming in a few month ..

Crossfire is ready, and it IS two cards you moron.....

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/

don't post when you don't know what you are talking about

PCI-E is the future now, AGP is being phased out very fast, If you want to buy a video card that will not work in your next motherboard, buy AGP. If you want a video card that actually has a future, buy PCI-E.

As for the speed depate, a 6800 ultra on AGP or PCI-E will be the same speed. Period. PCI-E has much higher POTENTIAL bandwidth than AGP 8x, but no cards are even close to saturating either bus yet, so its a moot point. However, aside from the PCI-E 16x slot that you will use for the video card, all the other PCI-E slots will beat the living shizit out of your standard PCI bus, and are WAY faster, each having its own pipe, with each 1x speed being 2.5gbps, instead of all slots sharing a punny 133mbps pci bus.

[ChopperKill]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

I am not going to quote you chopper, that was a mouth full but all exactly on. Or "Spot on" as they say their (Been deployed there many times, Love every minute of it.)

In short if you are getting a new MoBo for other reasons. Get PCI-E. If not AGP has plenty of legs yet.

lol yeah. I got a bit carried away I think Nice to see someone else who has some sense I just get tired of seeing the same 1 sentence nonsense posts that lead people down the wrong path. Ultimately that stuff ends up like chinese whispers spreading all over the net.

I'm all for giving advice and helping people but at least know a little bit of what you're talking about.

[ODD-BALL]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

Man oh man. No wonder people get confused about computers when so many people say things without any kind of evidence or just let logic go flying out of the window....

And socket M2 is coming within 12 months. Why buy a 939 PCI-e board and then have to change it again for M2 in less than 12 months. Save the money wait for M2 and get a beastly dual core, SLI rig.

you can get a beastly AMDx2 sli rig now with 939, why wait? If you wait a year (or more) for M2, then when it finally arrives, their will be something else just on the horizon that you want to wait for, then something else on and on, I say pull the trigger now, the first socket M2 chips will be at the extreme high end and won't be affordable until a year after they come out. Why wait a year for a cpu that will cost $1200 when you can get an AMD64 now for less than half that? You can use the $700 you save and buy an M2 socket mobo later.

[ChopperKill]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

Yeah I take your point and that's more of as reasoned argument. My beef was mainly with the crowd that are talking crap about the CURRENT potential of PCI-e.

Again though the question he asked is it worth going to PCI-e now over AGP. The simple answer to that is no and considering the current spec he has he doesn't absolutely need a whole new system yet. A new g card would do. Then in 12-18 months when the rest of his rig is tired do it then. Basically it's leapfrogging an upgrade that's not strictly needed and saving cash.

Lastly I'm not saying he can't build a better AMD 64 rig PCI-e rig or something for a good price, I'm saying he just doesn't really need to right this minute.

[imported_Anzen]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

So many stubborn people who think PCI-e is so much better than AGP (while it isn't yet, stated by me and several other reasonable people). Don't talk about things you don't know crap about.

[Quikimpulse]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

hmmm....... i don't think its worth upgrading to pci-e right now. Most of us do not know the true potential of the AGP slot. And to say pci-e is so much better makes me think you guys don't know anything about computers. I would say about roughly 80% of all users still use a agp slot. To actually think that majority of these users can afford to upgrade in the next year is ludacris. I think AGP will last alot longer than alot of u think expecially since the full bandwith speed has not been even closed to being reached at all. I wouldn't buy PCI-e until i see how it ends up in the next 12 months. And by then pci-e motherboards will be cheaper so its a win win situation. Just keep what u have until its necessary to change.

[ODD-BALL]

Re: PCI-E or AGP, what's worth buying?

So many stubborn people who think PCI-e is so much better than AGP (while it isn't yet, stated by me and several other reasonable people). Don't talk about things you don't know crap about.

its not about the potential of AGP, its about the fact that it is now legacy. It is history. The spec has been retired. No decent mobo from last month forward will be made with AGP. Its dead. They never used the full potential for the IDE bus, but SATA is here now, I suppose you won't use that either? They never hit the full potential of the VESA local bus, Why aren't you pushing that as the best to use? I guess you still use a parallel interface for printer instead of USB? U still playing quake 2? AGP is dead, kiss him good by and move on instead of propping him up like weekend at bernies. I know a corpse when I see one.