AGP 4x vs. 8x

[Travis King]

We've brushed on this subject with me before, but not in depth. What
performance difference really is there with Aero Glass between 4x and 8x
AGP? Is it actually noticeable, non-existent, or drastic? Having said
that, what difference if any is there between AGP 8x and PCI-Express x16?
Thanks. I've heard from various people on this NG including Zack that 4x
works fine, but I really haven't done more than brush the subject otherwise.
(Meaning I don't know the true difference in performance with Aero Glass
between 4x and 8x, just that I know that 4x should work fine.) The main
reason I brought this up is I'm just considering doing a partial rebuild of
my computer. What do you think I should do?
I plan on building a whole new computer in two years... In the meantime, do
you think I should do a partial rebuild or just upgrade my RAM and video
card (if necessary) and call it good for two years?

The partial rebuild will include:
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
(Video card if needed and if I can afford it)

I've run the Doom3 Demo and it runs fairly smooth at an 800x600 resolution
on high settings with shadows disabled.

Current specs:
Asus A7V333 motherboard (supports AGP 4x or lower only)
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (just overclocked to 155FSB = 2.17GHz)
768MB of RAM
NVIDIA Geforce FX5600 256MB DDR
WD 80GB 7200RPM IDE 2MB cache
WD 120GB 7200RPM IDE 8MB cache
Lite On 16x DVD drive
Memorex (Lite On) 52x32x52 CD-RW drive
3 1/2" floppy drive
400-watt PSU
Creative Audigy soundcard
3 case fans
Aspire X-Infinity case
10/100 network card

 

[Travis King]

Do you recommend doing a partial rebuild now or just upgrade my computer as
I have it now with a new video card (if necessary) and RAM if I'm going to
rebuild it in two years anyway? I know it would be just your opinion, but I
need advice because I'm stuck on what to do.

 

[Travis King]

You see, my birthday's coming up soon so I was going to ask for parts for
the computer if I felt it appropriate. I'd really like to get my hands on
Vista so I could find out how I personally think my computer stands on it,
so I'd know exactly what I'd need, but without actually having the chance to
use Vista on my computer, I won't know. If the public beta comes out on May
24, for example, that will be pushing my luck.

 

[Andre Da Costa [Extended64]]

So far, the system requirements for Aero have not mentioned anything about
what type of port is required, just that you need a graphics card with a
minimum of 64 MBs vRam, supported WDDM driver, Direct X 9 complient with
support for Pixel Shader 2.0 technologies.

I personally would recommend getting the best video card you can afford and
quality DDR2 RAM, as much as possible. I personally say PCIx would be a good
choice going forward, as AGP will eventually be phased out. Microsoft will
release Service Packs or Interim releases of Windows that will better
support the superior technologies that are a part of PCIe.

Here is nice write up about the PCIe technology by Dell and the advantages
over AGP:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/vectors/en/2004_pciexpress?c=us&l=en&s=corp
--
--
Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

 

[Travis King]

All I could upgrade my CPU is to a 2600+, but it would still have a 266MHz
FSB. (Now if I could trade with my grandmother who has the same motherboard
I have but a newer revision, I could get a 333MHz FSB CPU.) Her CPU she has
is a 2000+, so it's still a 266FSB anyway, and I'd give her my processor out
of the deal. I was planning on buying a gig module, however, my motherboard
only supports two sticks of PC-2700 RAM at the same time (and the later
revision), so if I wanted to use three sticks, I'd have to run the FSB back
to 133 again. (That means either 1.75GB of RAM and slower CPU speed or
1.5GB of RAM and faster CPU speed.) My Athlon XP 2400+ being overclocked,
it runs almost as fast as my other grandma's computer that has a 2800+
Barton in it. (Although not quite.) I'm noticing that I can run my Blazing
Colors - Firey Colors visualization in WMP10 at a little bit of a larger
size now without slowing down and I'm not taking a hit at all in
temperatures. Although my mom's new computer with an Athlon 64 x2 3800+, I
can run that visualization at no more than 30% usage at a full screen
without any slowdowns. I believe the newer revision of my board still only
supports AGP 4x also. See where I'm starting to run into problems with
upgrading much further?

 

[Travis King]

I've heard of some people getting Aero Glass to work, but without
transparency. Is this true and have you experienced it? Thanks Andre,
you're an asset to this newsgroup.

 

[Andre Da Costa [Extended64]]

Travis, the only thing I see worthy upgrading (to more) is RAM, I would try
get as much installed that you can afford. I have 2.6GBs in my system, 128
MB Geforce FX 5200 AGP and its running just fine, although when I have up to
20 windows open, it begins to get a bit slow. So, upgrade the RAM, Vista
will appreciate that. If you can upgrade the processor, I would also do
that. But, the two most important ones are the GPU and installed RAM, you
got a good GPU, so I would focus primarily on getting more RAM in that
system.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

 

[Andre Da Costa [Extended64]]

Man, wait on the BETA and see how it runs then it will give you a better
indication if you need to upgrade any specific part of your system. Feeling
out cannot determine if your system will run Vista without any glitches or
drop in performance.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

 

[Andre Da Costa [Extended64]]

I don't know what those persons are talking about, Windows Vista Aero with
Translucency does not have any special tier to it in the currently available
builds. The only way you can tell you don't have a WDDM supported card is if
you don't see a thumbnail preview of open windows on the taskbar when you
hover its button.

I have read rumours around the web (not guaranteed to be true) that the
current translucent effects in Vista is not the real Glass and will be
replaced by the real Glass in BETA 2 that will be vector based and not use
PNGs to render the interface. The cards you are hearing about not displaying
Glass properly are probably cards not supported by Direct X 9 but are hacked
to get certain effects associated with the Windows Aero Glass tier.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

 

[Zack Whittaker]

Yeh, that's me - Glass works, no transparency. I've got 4 machines running
Vista 5342 except one running Windows Server Codename Longhorn 5308, all
ranging from WinSAT ratings of 2 to 4.

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!

--: Original message follows :--

 

[Kevin John Panzke]

It will probably work best on the new PCI Express x16 Technology.