PCI Express

[Tony Parry]

QVC UK have just been selling a Dell PC with DDR2 memory &PCI Express
graphics card. The presenter said PCI Express was the latest in graphics
ports and much faster than AGP. Is the end in sight for AGP and are we going
back to PCI for high end graphics?. I was thinking of upgrading my aging
ASUS mobo but should I be concerned if a new one hasn't got PCI Express?

Tony P

 

[kony]

QVC UK have just been selling a Dell PC with DDR2 memory &PCI Express
graphics card. The presenter said PCI Express was the latest in graphics
ports and much faster than AGP. Is the end in sight for AGP and are we going
back to PCI for high end graphics?. I was thinking of upgrading my aging
ASUS mobo but should I be concerned if a new one hasn't got PCI Express?

Tony P

The main reason to choose PCI-Epress today is if, after 3
years or so, you'll want to upgrade both the CPU and video
card. Upgrading only video card would be unneeded for most
uses, mostly for gaming benefits, and towards that end the
CPU would need upgraded too else it'd just be bottleneck to
the then purchased new video card.

If you're looking at P4 based systems, PCI Express is the
"latest" platform and may provide more future upgrade
potential in general (but depending on specific motherboard
too, OEM in general are worse in this regard than standard
top-brand retail boards), but for Athlon it's still
premature, and if budget is a constraint you'll get best
bang for the buck by sticking with the older legacy based
AGP boards, which are very attractively priced rightabout
now.

 

[DaveW]

PCI is NOT the same as PCI-e. AGP is expected to be around for about
another year. But the latest video board's are coming out in PCI-e.