APG to PCI-e... Why even bother???

  • Thread starter Deleted member 79192
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 79192

Guest
Okay I know I probably sound stupid and ignorant but is there REALLY a huge performance increase in PCE-e over our well-adopted AGP interface? Its just more work and stress and trouble for us customers to have to deal with, switching over to these new technologies to avoid incompatability. Personally, I don't think it was a good idea to ditch AGP (the graphics card producers)
 
no advantage right now for gaming performance

but maybe someday in the future

you have to have the technology out there first before it gets utilized

PCI-E > AGP

there is no disputing that

it opens the door for other applications that we are starting to hear more and more about, such as GPGPU, moving more things over to GPU processing, physics processors, real time HDTV editting, etc... all these things are now possible with the PCI-Express platform, it is for more than just gaming, and more than for just video cards
 
Nvidia's SLI and ATI's AMR will only work with PCI-E. The power is also different so you usually don't have to put in an extra molex or two because PCI-E can deliver more power to the card.

Also, it's not that bad to switch over. I sold my AGP MSI Neo2 Platinum for $100 and then bought a DFI Ultra-D for $140. Only lost $40 and now I am on track for all future upgrades!
 
I definitely think PCI-E is a far better alternative than the AGP slot, based on power needs alone. As stated, the lack of a need for a molex connector makes it easier to deal with cable management and airflow in a case, as well as freeing up that vital power rail line for something else, like an optical or hard drive. I just wish I had a real motivation to upgrade my computing capabilities and I'd purchase the new chipsets, but I simply don't use my computer enough anymore to warrant such an exorbitant expense of disposable income.

Dark Assassin
 
Ya but motherboards... new CPUs for the motherboards... mabe even NEW MEMORY for these new motherboards... UGH! I just did a major upgrade doing these 3 parts at once, and it cost me a fortune. I'm only 14!
 
Nope, as far as I have seen on all the benchmarks there is not a lot of increase in performance, even in SLI. It's going to be some years, in my opinion, before we see an advantage to PCI-e and SLI. The software is just not here yet that can support such an increase to it's fullest.

I think it was a bad idea too. Now that new ASUS duel GPU option looks FAR more feasible and promising than SLI or PCI-e.
 
As I understand it, the only place PCI-e really makes a difference now is in SLI setups. Other than that, the current generation of video cards doesn't even use up all of the bandwidth of AGP, so the extra bandwidth of PCI-e is wasted. Switching to PCI-e is more in preparation for the limits of AGP being surpassed in the future.
 
rsub20 said:
As I understand it, the only place PCI-e really makes a difference now is in SLI setups. Other than that, the current generation of video cards doesn't even use up all of the bandwidth of AGP, so the extra bandwidth of PCI-e is wasted. Switching to PCI-e is more in preparation for the limits of AGP being surpassed in the future.
Click to expand...

It's not about bandwidth really, it's about being full-duplex.
So that you can do things like SLI, TurboCache, and fast processing of physics and such on the GPU.
The main problem with the AGP bus is that it's only fast when you transfer from system memory to videomemory... The other way around is incredibly slow. So it is impossible to read back the processed results from the GPU in realtime.
PCI-e makes this possible, which opens up a whole new array of possibilities.
Obvously these possibilities are not being used yet by the current software, so it looks like there's no difference between AGP and PCI-e... that's what they said about hardware-accelerated T&L aswell, back in the day... Now who would want a system with software vertexprocessing today (like those dreaded integrated Intel solutions)? There's no way back.
 
the hardware is here and ready and working and is relatively mature, its just that the software is having trouble keepin up. as it always has.

once full support for SLI and such is written and developed, graphics performance will skyrocket. SLI and PCIe alike were moreorless just thrown at game developers. all of the next major titles were already developed/almost fully developed, so the game developers didnt have time to catch up.

until the next major title comes out, developers are stuck creating patches that dont fully support PCIe and SLI. the next major titles will probably natively support PCIe, fully unleashing its power. :D yummy...
 
I'm kind of glad the new technologies are all bunched together that way it doesn't piss me off trying to find an adaptor each and every year. For people who buy entire computers its great. For upgraders, its a decent reason to selloff a complete older system and get a new one.

the 24-pin mobo power connector was and is sorely needed. Ever since the extra 4-pin square connector for P4's was added, I'm only sorry to see its not a 28 pin connector for future needs (heck, its only maybe 25 cents extra worth of copper wire)

Same with Socket 775 or 939/940, really IMO if it was possible and didn't cost too much more a 1K pin design would be on my list.
 
A number of reasons

1, most PCI-E motherbpoards also have PCI-ex1 slots, in a little while you will see PCI-E cards (liek sound, ethernet etc..) and it's always good to be future proof

THe PCI-E bus can deliver more power to the card

It has twice the capabilities of AGP8x, by next refresh (after the R520s and G80s) you will probably see a performance boost with PCI-E

PCI-E is cheaper to make. Since the connectors are simpler (straight lines with the golden fingers, rather then that pattern/puzzle you see on agp cards) it's simpler to make, so its cheaper.

Plus, just for futureproofing.
 
sounds good. If I ever have the money I'll upgrade my Athlon XP 2600 Socket A rig to a 64-bit system hopefully with one or 2 PCI-e slots.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top