- Joined
- May 18, 1997
- Messages
- 55,626
madmat said:I can understand where you're coming from, you follow the leading edge of equipment and the people coming here follow it as well so it's a symbiotic (or sympatico) existence. I'm just interested in the difference because it seems that the hardware MFGs are only interested in generating revenue by forcing ground up overhauls of systems that really don't need it. Other than the sadly limited choices in graphics cards out there, older AGP only systems that are still potent are being trashed just because they're being abandoned due to the claims that the AGP interface just isn't viable any longer. I'm calling BS on that claim and it would be nice to know definitively whether that's in fact a reality or if the hardware makers are correct.
I wish I could afford the hardware to do up such a comparo but my budget is non-existent at best.
You make some good points above that you are not going to be argued incorrect on that. Let's keep in mind that AGP did not just show up yesterday. Here is an article I wrote in 1998 that looked at system performance, and I am pretty sure there is an AGP slot on that mobo. (funny ass read too - wow how things have changed)
My point here is that while AGP is still a very viable interface, it is an aging technology. The fact is that PCIe X8 and X16 for video cards has several huge advantages over AGP. It is also a fact that you have not seen any of those advantages exploited yet. But before we get to the killer app that will catapult PCIe video to greatness, we have to have the hardware out in the marketplace for two reasons. First software developers have to have access to the hardware to easily develop for it. Second, software companies do not build software to exploit hardware that there is no install base for. While you can find some exceptions to this rule, it is pretty much the way desktop PC works. Hardware has to lead the software and we see it in every facet of desktop software.
Does this make the 7800 GS a great GPU? No, it is still a eunuch that should have been named the 7600....