AGP 2X - Does 2X really matter vs 4X

[HEUGE]

I apologize if this topic has been covered previously, but I didn't see related articles during a search.

I just purchased a Toshiba M500D, and I plan on populating this machine with a new video card for both 3D gaming, and high resolution 2D working. The machine shipped with 8mb TNT2 vanta.

I believe that the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA6BXD, and the AGP slot is only 2X. Does the 2X speed limit my graphics speed capability? With this particular system, I am not aiming for "the best", but I just wanted to understand the limitations. AGP is 32 bit still right? AGP 2X is also 66MHz right? Doesn't this provide me with enough bandwidth for most gaming needs? Where would 4X come into this discussion?

I thought that the bandwidth on video cards was filled mostly for loading texture data on the card, but now with most video cards coming with 32MB of memory (or more), does this matter as much?

Could someone please help me clarify, and/or throw some card recommendations out to me regarding this machine?

Thanks,
HEUGE
aka Eugene Hsu

 

[RoboTECH]

4x does nothing. Ignore it, it's not an issue in the least.

What games do you play?

 

[Yoshi]

AGP 4X will get you nothing regardless of game, OS, or CPU.

 

[HigherGround]

i'm running on AGP 1X and could care less, there's almost no speed drop off from 2x->1x, same applies to 4x->2x

 

[han888]

i can not see any different between 2X agp and 4 x agp

 

[HEUGE]

Thanks Robotech, Yoshi, Higherground and Han888,

So I guess I do not have to worry about the 4X AGP. Good to know. Hmmm....

As for the games that I play, well ask me after my start-up company get's a little out of start-up mode. I will have some time in oh 6 months or so... 8)

Actually I haven't really played anything for the past four months, but I was heavily into HL Team Fortress before that. I intend to get Team Fortress 2 whenever that comes out, and my cable modem is being installed on Wednesday AM. *grin* Quake III Arena will be probably installed shortly thereafter. The monitor I am using is a Dell P1110 (rebranded Sony 21" flatscreen Trinitron), so I need to have a solid card that likes high resolution and drives a clean picture. This TNT2 Vanta is actually driving this monitor at 1024x768 at 144Hz (not while gaming, just work). I "LIKE" high refresh... 60Hz flicker truly sucks...

For work I intend to use all the MS operating systems (98se, 2000, ME(?)), but more importantly I want to be able to dual-boot to Solaris X86 (ver 8) and perhaps FreeBSD or Linux. (Do these driver requirements help anyone point me to the card I need?).

In my old computer I used to use a Matrox Millenium II and Voodoo II 12MB in my old Dell Workstation (400 series) and that worked quite well for solid 2D and great 3D (well I did buy the Voodoo II soon after it was released, and it was very nice at the time). This means that I am partial to Matrox and 3DFX due to prior usage, but I am willing to look around. I do like the Matrox series cards, but I have read that they perform at lower frame rates, although they supposedly look quite nice. *shrug*

Thanks for any help,
HEUGE

 

[BFG10K]

I believe that the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA6BXD, and the AGP slot is only 2X. Does the 2X speed limit my graphics speed capability?

No. There is really no difference between the two. I think Tom's Hardware said the difference was about 3%. It will be a long time before games send enough data to saturate an AGP x 2 bus.

AGP is 32 bit still right? AGP 2X is also 66MHz right? Doesn't this provide me with enough bandwidth for most gaming needs? Where would 4X come into this discussion?

AGP x 1 (32 bit, 66 MHz)
AGP x 2 (32 bit, 66 MHz, uses rise and fall so effective 133 MHz)
AGP x 4 (32 bit, 133 MHz, uses rise and fall so effective 266 MHz)
AGP x 8 (32 bit?, 266 MHz, uses rise and fall so effective 533 MHz)

I am not sure whether AGP x 8 is 32 bit or 64 bit.

 

[jpprod]

AGP x 1 (32 bit, 66 MHz)
AGP x 2 (32 bit, 66 MHz, uses rise and fall so effective 133 MHz)
AGP x 4 (32 bit, 133 MHz, uses rise and fall so effective 266 MHz)
AGP x 8 (32 bit?, 266 MHz, uses rise and fall so effective 533 MHz)

Actually AGP4X is 66mhz/32bit/Quad data rate, as in information is transferred twice on each rising and falling edge of clock signal. This is partly why AGP4X isn't really twice as fast as AGP2X: only bandwidth is doubled, latency isn't better. Don't really know about AGP8X, but I would guess it's 133mhz QDR.

There are appications which benefit from faster AGP bus. Among these are high-poly OpenGL apps using T&L and of course, 3Dmark2000