Why is AGP "obselete" and PCI-E being used.

T

TacoROCKrj

New Member
I specifically want to know what makes AGP worst then PCI-E. I recently decided to upgrade my videocard and i chose this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...OTC-pr1c3watch-_-Video+Cards-_-HIS-_-14161205
It seems perfect to me, great speed, overclocks good, keeps cool and everything.

However when i started searching computer stores to find it i kept getting people saying things like "AGP? you need to upgrade your motherboard" nobody had the card in there store because they said AGP was outdated and on top of it HIS wasen't a "good" brand. Is PCI-E faster or just more popular? I don't want to buy an AGP card if AGP is slow or if I decide to buy a new motherboard soon then find out no new motherboards have AGP slots.
 
Last edited:
New motherboards won't have AGP slots on them, if you find one that does, it's rare!

The reasons AGP isn't around so much any more is because, like you said, PCI-e is better.

It has a larger bandwidth, allowing for more information to be passed through it, thus meaning that you can have better graphics cards, producing better graphics.
 
I don't understand though, that videocard has great stats. How would an identicle PCI-E card be better then it?
That's why i wanted specifics.
 
I don't think an indenticle PCI-e card would have better spec, because it's the same card.

But, the way that new graphic cards are progressing, they're needing to transfer so much more data, that AGP wouldn't be able to do it...

Hard to explain; IF a PCI-e card was in an AGP slot, it would be limited to so many GB/s, hindering it's performance.

If it was in a PCI-e slot (which allows for more data transfer) it would be Ok, as the slot will allow it to transfer as much as it wanted...

Make sense?
 
Sort of, i guess... but sence the card is fast would that mean if i bought an identicle PCI-E card it would still have the exact same speed just cost more, and be pointless? The AGP slot can obviously handle the load on the card sence it's made for AGP, so there woulden't be a point in buying a PCI-E card unless it was faster then AGP can handle? I guess another point would be if i had a newer motherboard i would be stuck getting a PCI-E because it has no AGP slot.
 
think about it this way...your agp bus is a 2 lane highway between 2 major cities. Lets say the data being transferred are the cars...cards that require 2 lanes(lets just say an 8800 for the example) will take up alot and will fill up the highway quite quickly...so lets expand it to 6 lanes for PCI-E...alot of room now.


Its not that great of an example..it played better in my head..but i hope you kinda grasp the point.
 
There is a set amount of bandwidth agp slots and pci-e slots can handle. If the video card cant talk to the northbridge fast enough, you start getting bottlenecking. It gets to a point where the card outperforms the bandwidth of the agp slot and no matter how fast a card you get, it simply cant talk to the northbridge fast enough and limits the cards ability to render a game efficiently.
 
Ok thanks, i understand why PCI-E is better now. However sence that videocard is designed for AGP it shoulden't bottleneck should it? All the reviews are really satisfied and they run crysis and TF2 and new games on high settings. Do you personally think getting this card would be a mistake? The card seems great to me and i want it, but when time comes to upgrade my MOBO can i find one with an AGP slot?

Alternative would be to upgrade my MOBO now and wait till i have enough money for a PCI-E card.
 
Last edited:
TacoROCKrj said:
Ok thanks, i understand why PCI-E is better now. However sence that videocard is designed for AGP it shoulden't bottleneck should it? All the reviews are really satisfied and they run crysis and TF2 and new games on high settings. Do you personally think getting this card would be a mistake? The card seems great to me and i want it, but when time comes to upgrade my MOBO can i find one with an AGP slot?

Alternative would be to upgrade my MOBO now and wait till i have enough money for a PCI-E card.
Click to expand...

Well, I doubt that card plays Crysis on high...because even highend cards have difficulties playing it on high fluently. But it may be a decent card...i'd suggest the 7950GT AGP card over it if you can find it at the right price.
 
Well now you coulden't say that exactly. You don't know what resolution hes running it on, could be 800x600. The comments said it runs like a high-end card 24pixel pipeline and overclocks well into 600 memory, 600 mhz core clock speed and 1300+ clock memory, and stays cool. More on topic though i'm just not sure if i should be going for an AGP card at all because i want to upgrade my MOBO very soon. Should i be patient and wait until i can purchase a PCI-E or will i be able to find a new MOBO with an AGP slot without to much trouble?
 
Last edited:
Just wait till you have enough for a pci-e card. Youll be able to upgrade in the future with less hassle. (Unless you want to get a cheap agp card for now and then just wait to get pci-e later...). But its very very very unlikely you will find a mobo with an agp slot.
 
I would definitely get PCI-E since AGP cards are pretty much phased out, this would be last last card you could upgrade to since there will be no AGP cards for the geforce 8 series (i spose ATI will stop supporting them too) and then you will have wasted money on a card that you can't sell for a decent amount of money later (because AGP cards will be lesser value than an identical PCI-E). So in the end you will have to go PCI-E regardless.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top