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Gigabyte's G.E.A.R.

T

tcraig_4096

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
211
I have an i915 chipset with an AGP slot (for my 6800GT). I just read in the MB manual that "using the G.E.A.R. might shorten the lifespan of my AGP card". This, it says, is due to the the switching of the PCI signal and voltage to AGP spec.

What is the "lifespan" of a video card? Is this something I should be worried about, guys, or is Gigabyte just covering their behind?
 
From what I've read, g.e.a.r. completely sucks. You're seriously crippling the performance of any agp video card used in a g.e.a.r. slot. Dunno if it can kill cards but the performance hit alone is what kept me away. IMO, it's just not worth risking a $300+ card for shitty performance. It's a crime against nature to run a 6800GT in one of those motherboards :p

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2074
 
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2074 said:
Remember that the PCI bus runs at 33MHz, offering only 133MB/s of bandwidth vs. AGP 8X's 2.1GB/s of bandwidth to the card. The incredible drop in bandwidth explains the performance hit, and although we haven't tested any of these solutions we'd say that running a fast AGP card on the PCI bus is probably not the best idea for performance.
Click to expand...


worst. idea. ever.
 
I found a strange DSLReports thread. These are for ECS' fake AGP, but I would guess Gigabyte's would be similar if not better. Notice the performance difference slightens when using a faster card. If you extrapolate that to a 6800GT, it gets interesting.

I still realize this wasn't the best setup, but I needed 4 SATA, RAID, Socket T, and a 6800GT. Finding a motherboard solution for that is excruciating.

Here's the thread:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11017958~mode=flat
 
If I were you, I would sell the GT and recover as much of the money you can from that, then buy a pci-express card when they're available. The lack of bandwidth to that "agp" port on your board is going to kill the benefits of having a high end card.
 
I can't wait, unfortunately. It is for my Dad and he was supposed to have it two weeks ago. Trying to get a motherboard and getting shipped ones that had incorrect descriptions of features ended up wasting a lot of time.

I do plan to eventually (like you say "when PCI-X cards become available") grab one for my dad and get the GT from him because I will be building an A64.

I am just a little concerned about what I have heard about G.E.A.R and don't have the cash to un-jack this right now.
 
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