Question concerning running AGP 8X video card on 4X motherboard

[ruzicka]

Hello! I'm hoping some of the experts here can answer this question for me.



I am considering upgrading my old graphic card (GeForce3 Ti200) for a newer
one; probably one of the current mid-level AGP 8X, DirectX 9 cards.



The thing of it is that my system currently has an older AGP 4X motherboard
(Asus P4S533). I realize that most current AGP 8X cards are downward
compatible with AGP 4X motherboards, but I was wondering what kind of
performance hit I might see doing this. Obviously, I will not see the FPS's
that I've seen advertised, but should I expect a 10% hit? 20%? 50%?



I plan later on to possibly upgrade my motherboard. I have a tendency to
"leapfrog" components, one at a time.



Any and all help is appreciated! Thanks!



P. Ruzicka

 

[Blaedmon]

regardless of what ppl think, the realworld impact of 8x over 4x cards is
absolutely nothing. It was a sales gimmick back when they were introduced,
and its a sales gimmick right now. As for the future, things may change with
the advance of more demanding game engines, etc. But for now, and a few
years to come - your 4x m0b0 is just fine.

 

[Augustus]

I realize that most current AGP 8X cards are downward

compatible with AGP 4X motherboards, but I was wondering what kind of
performance hit I might see doing this. Obviously, I will not see the FPS's
that I've seen advertised, but should I expect a 10% hit? 20%? 50%?

At various times, with various cards I've had occasion to test this. The
first time was with a GeForce2 GTS Ultra AGP4X card on a PIII 1000 @ 1134Mhz
system with 512Mb SDRAM that seemed to be stuck in AGP 1X mode on my system.
In 1X mode it would average 6125 in 3DMark01. When I eventually sorted out
the Via chipset issues and got it running in AGP4X mode, it would average
6265. Basically a 2% difference. Game framerates were identical. I had a
128Mb Radeon 8500 in my Barton 3200 / 1 gig dual channel system. Running in
AGP4X mode, it would average 11,500 in '01. In AGP 2X mode, it did 11,275.
Again, 2%. I recently upgraded to a 9800 Pro 128Mb on the same system. In
AGP 8X mode, 3DMark01 averages 17, 250. When I installed it, for some
reason it was stuck in AGP 4X mode, and it benched within 1% of this score.
You get a much larger performance variation from the different Catalyst
versions than you do from the AGP mode. This is the main reason I fail to
see the need for PCI Express. There's virtually zero difference in
performance in the various AGP modes. Dual channel memory makes a bigger
difference than the AGP mode, and dual channel is not much of a difference
in terms of real world difference.

 

[Ed Light]

This is the main reason I fail to
see the need for PCI Express.

It will become attractive when the motherboards for SLI pairs of video cards
come out. They don't have AGP SLI planned.


--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[J. Clarke]

It will become attractive when the motherboards for SLI pairs of video
cards come out. They don't have AGP SLI planned.

Or not depending on (a) how much of a performance boost there is and (b) how
much SLI-enabled boards cost and (c) how much of a need there is for a
performance boost.

 

[YanquiDawg]

Oh yeah. $750-$1000 for video sub-system.Can't wait.