agp or pci-e, that is the question

[jersey jim]

New member here, done a lot of searching, and I have come to the following crossroads.

I'm planning on building myself a nice AMD 64 based (3200 - 3500) system for myself, to replace my current 1.7 P4 Dell. I planned to reuse my soundblaster card, my 120gb 7200 rpm ata drive, and my ATI 9700 pro. The plan was to use the ATI card until the next generation of cards comes out.
The whole PCI -e thing totally throws me off. I did not even know there was such a thing until I started doing some research. Will the next generation of vidwo cards even have AGP versions available, and what kind of performance hit would there be over a PCI-e card?

Would a PCI-e 6600GT offer any substantial improvement over an agp 9700 Pro on similar systems? Maybe just get an AGP motherboard, and reuse the 9700 Pro, then upgrade later to a high end AGP card? Or just just bite the bullet and get a 6800 GT or a high end ATI for a PCI-e motherboard? (don't really have $400-500 for a card right now, but....)

Does any of this matter for the latest versions of the type of games I want to play (battlefield 2, ut, call of duty, need for speed, etc), I just want to be able to crank up all of the details and still have it play smooth.

So basically, it comes down to how much an AGP slot is going to hinder potential video upgradability within the next couple years.
Your opinions?

 

[Sqube]

Most of the new PCI-express cards do have AGP equivalents.

A PCI-e 6600GT would be a significant improvement over a 9700 Pro.

AGP is being phased out as quickly as the video card companies can manage it. Be aware that, if you do decide to pick up an AGP motherboard, you'll be at a decided disadvantage once the next generation of stuff comes out and simply doesn't work on AGP boards.

In short, AGP is going to hamstring you in the coming years. There are some reasonably priced PCI-e boards; go with one of those.

 

[ShadowBlade]

welcome to AT
i would advise pci-e for upgradeability (chaintech VNF4, make sure you have PCI-e card FIRST, it makes you use one)

 

[w00t]

pci-e is what is new that is all
no performance over agp

i would probably go with agp if i were you your card is good enough to play the games you like.

 

[Concillian]

I would go for PCI-e for only the reson that the new cards seem to be more available first in PCI-e. You can bet that as time progresses there will be more emphasis on PCI-e than on AGP.

As has been said, there is no real performance difference, so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to upgrade JUST for PCI-e. However, if someone is building a system from the ground up, I think it makes the most sense to go with PCI-e at this point. Price difference is minimal right now, so go with what has the better future, PCI-e

 

[Corporate Thug]

PCI-e is more future proof

 

[Ike0069]

PCI-e boards are not much more than their AGP equivalents. So just get one of those, an X800XL, and sell your 9700 pro in the FSFT forum. That is still a good card and would sell easy for the right price.