AGP 16X?? Why not?

[hurubi]

Well.. PCI is at 16x why can't AGP go this far it would be better right?

 

[DaveSimmons]

No point, the bandwidth isn't neded.

 

[Matthias99]

PCIe != AGP. Basically, it's very hard to ramp up the speed any further on AGP, since it's an *extremely* wide bus (150+ wires, I think, compared with ~30-40 for PCIe x16). The signalling gets very, very hard to do reliably at those speeds -- they've already had to reduce the signaling voltage spec *twice* (from 3.3V to 1.5V to 0.8V for 1x/2x, 4x, and 8x AGP, respectively). It's reached a point where it's not worth trying to make it any faster.

PCIe was built with much higher bandwidth in mind, and because it's set up as a bunch of serial links, it's easier to scale. That's about the simplest explanation I can give.

Also, as noted by Dave, AGP bandwidth is not the limitation holding back video cards these days.

 

[Rami7007]

although i went with PCI-E, it is not needed at the moment... i just did it for future proof reasons...

anyway, we dont even use the 8x out of AGP yet so there isnt a need for 16x AGP

 

[hurubi]

So then why the hell did they come out with PCI-E to waste our money?!?

 

[2Xtreme21]

Originally posted by: hurubi
So then why the hell did they come out with PCI-E to waste our money?!?

Originally posted by: hurubi
to waste our money

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: hurubi
So then why the hell did they come out with PCI-E to waste our money?!?

the PCI bus is getting tired . . . so they created PCI-E x1, x2, x4, x8, and x16

that and SLi

and a 6600GT PCI-E costs less than 6600GT AGP :roll:

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: hurubi
So then why the hell did they come out with PCI-E to waste our money?!?

Today? Yes, it's a waste of money. Tomorrow? A wise investment.

AGP was designed to take graphic 2D/3D data off the PCI bus which was congested as hell. One big traffic jam.

Then came the High Speed interconnect which replaced the PCI bus connection from the North and south bridges on the motherboard. This help further take the stress off the PCI bus by separating IDE/LAN/Audio/USB and integrated RAID from memory controller which directly communicates with the RAM Bus, the CPU, and the AGP bus.


PCI Express takes it to a whole new level by giving each device a point-to-point connection without bus sharing. For example, the USB no longer has to share the 133 MB/s PCI bus with IDE and Gigabyte LAN.

PCI-E increases I/O functionality. Is it needed yet? Likely not. But it's the next step into the future that will likely require even more bandwidth and more strain on the PCI bus from the motherboard. I'm not just talking graphic cards either. Things like hard drives and their interfaces, LAN connections, etc. Plus, with it's lower power consumption and error handling, it will help aleave interference from the circuitry on the motherboard. This is a huge plus. As more power hogging hardware enters the market, we will need such an interface to run them stable.

For me in-depth stuff check out this article: http://www.anandtech.com/syste...howdoc.aspx?i=1830&p=1

 

[Insomniak]

Can they do AGP 16X?

It's probably physically possible, but why? PCI E is out. There's no reason to make a higher AGP standard - PCI E already makes AGP obsolete.


If current games don't use AGP8X bandwidth, why make PCI E?

Because they can? You do realize that games don't even used AGP 4X bandwidth yet? It has no bearing on performance. It's marketing only.
What PCI E will do is allow for much better overall system response - better communication with PCI-E add in cards. Additionally, it's one less bus to worry about (AGP + PCI vs. Just PCI E), so it (barely) simplifies things.

 

[Icopoli]

If you have an AMDEdge.com ID,

http://www2.amd.com/us-en/prot...220,00.html?1104272478

Read and learn.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: hurubi
So then why the hell did they come out with PCI-E to waste our money?!?

the PCI bus is getting tired . . . so they created PCI-E x1, x2, x4, x8, and x16

that and SLi

and a 6600GT PCI-E costs less than 6600GT AGP :roll:

Yes, but a 6800GT AGP costs less than a 6800 GT PCIe.

 

[frootbooter]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Yes, but a 6800GT AGP costs less than a 6800 GT PCIe.

Hence the reason of PCIe is "to waste our money" (as quoted up there).

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: hurubi
So then why the hell did they come out with PCI-E to waste our money?!?

the PCI bus is getting tired . . . so they created PCI-E x1, x2, x4, x8, and x16

that and SLi

and a 6600GT PCI-E costs less than 6600GT AGP :roll:

Yes, but a 6800GT AGP costs less than a 6800 GT PCIe.

And next generation, probably all the AGP cards will carry some extra price because they are native PCIe which will be bridged. Supply/Demand/Cost to Produce.