Time For PCI-X ? Is AGP out and PCI-X in?

[TailGrab 0]

I've been considering making a new beefy game system and I've been all torn up about the PCI-X thing. It seems like right now PCIX and AGP perform about the same, but the availability is thin for PCI-X hardware. Be it Intel or AMD, whats the route to go, AGP or PCIX? Will AGP be out in a year and my system will hit the upper bound?And on that note, what would you pack into such a system?

[coder2000 0]

PCI Express has nothing to do with Intel or AMD its Nvidia or ATI. There are currently three offerings from ATI in the Radeon x300, x600, and x800. I don't know about Nvidia though. In regards to if AGP is out, yes I think that PCI Express is the new way to go. My new system will not even have an AGP slot. Hope that helped.

[cryptonx 0]

I really dont see much diffrence at all , I have tested both a system with a PCI-Express card and another one with the same settings but a very similar AGP card , the diffrence in Doom3 tests was 1.2 frames for the PCI-E one , which really doesn't EXPLAIN the price diffrence demanded by both ATi or Nvidia , it's a stupid useless speed war, and we are the victims , all what they are doing is try to make a flag ship card that is faster than the other , they really dont care much for anything else , and after making thier card on the Kings chair they make a cheaper alternaties ( MXs / 6200 TurboCache / X300 ) ETC which really also doesn't explain the MADNESS . i think this will all be VANISHED when some other companies try to develop similar cards with cheaper prices , there's some promise from S3 and XGI but they are still far away ...I really don't see how can i pay ALOT MORE MONEY on my graphics card which in my system now is almost 50% of its price , that's NONE SENSE !

[Hercco 0]

PCI-X is the way to go if you're in for the definite high end. If you want a decent system with reasonable amount of money AGP is still the choice. It is simple as that, it just takes some time for new technology to reach every home.

[OpaQue 15]

I dont think.. Agp is going to be thrown out of the market..

Here are some points which I got while searching for advantages AGP 8X.

Laying the foundation at the platform level to harness the power of future graphicsprocessors, AGP-8X delivers a peak bandwidth of 2.1GB/s to the graphics subsystem. This
increase over AGP-4X enables graphics intensive applications to transfer more data to
bandwidth-hungry graphics processors to enable the rendering of improved 3-dimensional
images via enhanced vertex complexity and texturing, which in turn expands the end userâs
visual experience with more immersive, cinematic visual realities.

I read this comment on sitepoint forum.. stating that

PCI-Express allows for a larger bandwidth than AGP does, but current video cards don't even take full advantage of the 8x AGP standard as it is. So even when the current cards move from AGP to PCI-e, there won't be much of a difference in performance. However, the PCI-e standard opens the door for even more powerful gpus that can take advantage of the larger bandwidth. So everyone will switch over to PCI-e.

So.. I think People can relax and and enjoy their AGP motherboard..

[Hercco 0]

Well the current high end graphics processors do benefir from the higher bandwidth of PCI-X. That is they can handle more data than the AGP 8x bus is able to transfer. It's nothing huge, but it explains the difference in benchmarks. But it's not like a top-notch computer with AGP bus and a top-notch graphics card in it wouldn't run Doom III or Half-Life 2 enough well. PCI-X might be a neccessity for the guy who needs to have the biggest 3dMark score in the block, but for a gamer AGP is still alive and well.

[intelboy 0]

I've been considering making a new beefy game system and I've been all torn up about the PCI-X thing.  It seems like right now PCIX and AGP perform about the same, but the availability is thin for PCI-X hardware.  Be it Intel or AMD, whats the route to go, AGP or PCIX?  Will AGP be out in a year and my system will hit the upper bound?

 

And on that note, what would you pack into such a system?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok fellas here i go again.

PCI-X was concibed for replacing the OLD PCI technology wich has more than 11 years old (pretty much for IT bussines).

In reference to AGP and PCIX-8X the diffrence is more bandwith and more wats to PCIX, that is on the bus, if the graphics card need more bandwith than a AGP-8X it will need to be PCIX, so the speed on graphics depends on GPU it NOT depend on the bus if it can delivery the bandwith needed by de GPU-

Today the chipsets manufacturers (intel - via - sys) are migrating thier suthbridges to PCI-X, these migration is the same that happes 10 yeras ago with ISA & VESA migrating to PCI & AGP. It's a mobo issue.

TODAY PCIX and PCIX-8 are indispensable for a high end desktop, the AGP can't provide the bandwith and electricity for a high end GPU.

[meself88 0]

I don't even think PCI-E is needed for the top 3dmark scores. Those guys run overclocked video cards, ram, FSB, and processor. I highly doubt it would saturate the AGP bus, especially considering how little it uses right now except maybe in very short burst transfers. (I guess theoretically it could help you load the level faster. PCI-E is in exactly the same spot RAMBUS ram technology was a few years ago. It sounds great on paper, but performs exactly the same with current technology. RAMBUS eventually died out because of its ridiculously high price:performance ratio, when performance was the same anyway. Hopefully, PCI-E won't die out, however, because we will eventually need it (DDR-2 is making a run for it now as main system memory, and even it has come a little early: still no real performance gains). Who knows, maybe PCI-E will die and AGP 16x will emerge as a different slot than AGP 8x, with more pins or something.

 

TODAY PCIX and PCIX-8 are indispensable for a high end desktop, the AGP can't provide the bandwith and electricity for a high end GPU.

That's why high end AGP cards have their own 12V molex. I believe the AGP 8x can provide the bandwidth, just not the electricity (that's why there were computers catching on fire if the card came out of the slot; now they have locks). And like I said, who's to say AGP 16x won't emerge, with extra pins just for the electricity.

[Prodigious 0]

I haven't seen this addressed yet, so I'll just point this out(I don't want to sound rude or anything). PCI-X is NOT PCI-Express(PCI-E for short). They are two very very different things. PCI-X doesn't even exist in normal consumer desktop environments.

 

I realize it can be very easy to mix up the two(like how people think that IDE and SATA are two different things when SATA is simply a type of IDE channel), but you should be careful to distinguish between the two of them them.

 

Now, that being said, PCI-Express is more than just a replacement for AGP. Actually, right now, no cards on the market can even take advantage of 16x PCI-Express slots because the AGP 8x bus hasn't even been fully saturated by most cards yet. If you compare two identical cards, an agp and pci-e version, the performance is identical. However, soon cards will take advantage of the bandwidth so it will be necessary to migrate to pci-e for graphics.

 

However, there is much use right now for pci-e with addin cards. Currently raid controllers are severely limited by the pci bus. This means raid drives via a pci card can't be fully utilized to their maximum potential. With pci-e though, there is a lot more head room for increased performance. The same goes for newer wireless technologies, such as 802.11n, or HDTV tuner cards, sound cards, etc. All of these things will e able to take advantage of the increased bandwidth.

 

PCI-Express is going to come of age very soon, and we should all embrace it.

 

btw, there is not going to be an AGP 16x. PCI-Express is a standard for the entire computer industry. This is a huge revision. If someone were dumb enough to try to invent an alternative spec, they'd be brushed aside instantaneously.