AGP questions, please help!

[2linepass]

I have already checked the FAQ's and gotten about half of my initial questions answered, however, I still have a few and was hoping that someone could help. I know that the 1,2,4,8.x means the amount of data that is transferred. The 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 standards are what support the 1-8.x cards.
1. Where does the voltage fit into all of this? I know that certain boards will take 1.5 volt cards only, as 3.3 volt cards will cause damage. 2. How are the AGP Pro cards rated for voltage, in other words AGP Pro 50 and 110. What are the voltage ratings for these cards if any?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Viper96720]

Don't know the voltage rating for agp pro. But if you had one your motherboard would need an agp pro slot. They won't fit in a normal agp slot.

 

[2linepass]

That seems to be the riddle here. They make AGP Pro 2x, 4x, and universal slots. The 2 boards I was looking at have AGP Pro 4x slots but do not indicate the voltage rating, and neither does the card that I have-Fire GL4.

 

[AnAndAustin]

IIRC the AGP 'PRO' was aimed at professional not consumer cards and has no relevence for home users. AGP slots are a little understated but to keep it simple here's the diff slots you get on mobos:

AGP1.0 - AGP1x and 2x with 3.3v, newer AGP4x cards should simply roll back to 3.3v mode in AGP2x / 1x as needed and your gfx card nor mobo SHOULD be damaged. However there are other issues, mostly other voltage stuff which could make the card misfunction or unstable and could cause damage, I think this is more relevant to S.Skt7 mobos. Anyway you may want to only use older style cards like Voodoos although the Radeons are known to be 'gentle' cards.

AGP2.0 - AGP1x, 2x and 4x but ONLY 1.5v cards, usually a key prevents older 3.3v cards from being fitted, GF2 and up are all 1.5v so this should never be a prob anyway. AGP8x / AGP3.0 spec cards will work but will rool back to 4xAGP mode (unlikely to notice any perf drop).

AGP2.0 UNIVERSAL - AGP1x, 2x and 4x supporting 1.5v and 3.3v, will accept all AGP gfx cards.

AGP3.0 - AGP4x and 8x with a keyed 1.5v slot (with lower internal voltage). ALL modern AGP gfx cards will run (certainly GF2 up again) but of course you'll need an AGP3.0 / 8x card to run in AGP3.0 / 8x mode although there's VERY little need to.

AGP3.0 UNIVERSAL - Presumably accepts all generations of cards, but haven't heard anything concrete.

AGP2x mode is hardly ever exceeded making AGP4x not a whole lot better. AGP8x is once again overkill and I doubt even the Rad9700PRO would be hurt at all significantly by running in AGP4x mode. Hope this helps!

 

[BoomAM]

An AGP Pro Slot (of any type) is bacically just a normal AGP slot with a few more connectors on it to supply the extra juice that some professional cards need. Any AGP card will work fine in a AGP Pro slot.
I had one on my ORIGINAL Asus A7V MoBo. Remember them, none of the A7V8x rubbish. Anyway, i ran a Hercules GF2MX, Creative GF2GTS and a Creative GF3Ti200 in it with no problems whatsoever.

 

[AnAndAustin]

So I'd say the AGP Pro slot presumably on your mobo would be AGP2.0 and will work with any 1.5v hence AGP4x/8x card, if the word 'UNIVERSAL' is mentioned anywhere then it should accept any gfx card. I think all AGP Pro slots are at least AGP2.0. What type of card is the Fire GL4 (a professional card I understand but what spec)?

 

[2linepass]

Thanks for the replies, this does help a lot. The specs on the Fire GL 4 are as follows:
Bus type-
AGP 2X/4X v2.0 Compliant w/ Side Banding
Memory configuration-
128 Mb DDR SGRAM, Unified Framebuffer
3D performance
29 million Triangles/second, G-Shaded, Z-buffered, non-Textured
33 Million Anti-Aliased Vectors/second
512 Million Pixels/second fill rate, G-Shaded, Z-buffered, non-Textured
250 Million Pixels/second Trilinear Texture fill rate (Mip-mapped)
Connectors-
Two DVI-I Digital Monitor Output
StereoGraphics Connectors
RAMDAC
300 MHz / 30-bit Palette DAC
Form factor-
Single, Full Length AGP/Pro50 Card Length

I now know that this card is 1.5 volts. So if the mobo says something as obvious as AGP Pro 1.5 Volt or as vague as AGP Pro 4X then I will be okay.