AMD PCIe Motherboards?

[manno]

any one know when we'll be able to get an AMD 939 motherboard with dual PCIe slots... scratch that ANY PCIe slots? My brothers keep hounding me. The want to know when can they get a new PC, and I keep telling them to wait for PCIe,. They both ran out and snagged a copy of Half-Life 2 yesterday, and now they have really turned up the nagging. If a mobo costs them $200 they don't care they just want a PC that plays Half-Life 2 well, and run games for the next 1-2 years well enough. I want to get them one that if something crazy happens in the video card sector, their $1500 - $2000 investment isn't shot (I've tried to sell them less PC but they won't hear it) and they just need to spring for new cards, not new card + mobo. Any idea when I'll be able to get one, or should I just break down and help Via / nVidia clear out their "legacy" stock. There by saving myself the frustration of telling them "just a little longer..." while I cross my fingers behind my back?

-manno

 

[jonnyGURU]

Why wait? I mean.... Even if you wait for a board with PCIe, the video cards not going to be any faster than an equivalent AGP 8X card until that board then becomes obsolete and you have to buy yet another motherboard and yet another video card!

From ViaArena:

"For some reason most people were expecting PCI Express to dramatically boost the performance of today?s high-end graphics cards. Despite the fact that there is no evident bottlenecking of the AGP 8x bus, people were still expecting a bus that offers twice the available bandwidth to make a difference. Of course for today?s graphics cards the PCI Express bus offers us nothing!"

"PCIe graphics cards that are currently available are basically an adaptation of AGP 8X graphics cards. They do not utilize the available bandwidth of the PCI Express bus. Graphics chip manufacturers will develop and release cards that do utilize the new bus, once there are enough motherboard supporting PCI Express in the market place. If you do purchase a PCI Express capable motherboard now, in the near future, you are guaranteed that you can purchase a PCIe graphics card that is as good as the top AGP 8X graphics cards available plus you will have a strong upgrade path to the next generation cards."

But when will that be? Is it worth the wait?

For a 1-2 year PC, go with AGP for now. Bleeding edge sucks.

 

[Chadder007]

Even if it doesn't need the bandwidth to the Video card ....it at least provides enough power to the new video cards.

 

[manno]

I agree with you man, but they won't here it. So if I'm going to spend $150-$200 bucks on a mobo I'm gong to make sure it will last them at least 1.5-2 years. And it looks like ATI, and nVidia are both going the SLI rout. If I go AGP in six months next round of cards will be here and they'll probably be close to 2x the speed of this generation of cards. Instead of making them buy a new $400 card I can tell them to get within 80-90% of that performance just buy another geforce 6800 GT which will probably be at $200 new, let alone if we go ebay.

see my point? If it was about going as inexpensive as possible I would go AGP, but because it's not my money and they specificaly don't want to have to by a whole new PC anytime soon, I see this as the best option.

If they said Put together a PC that's under $1000 and is able to play half-life 2 I would go AGP. But they're looking to play the next 2-3 generations of games not just this one with little to no sbsiquent investment.

 

[DanDrop]

Hi Manno,

Check this thread out. AMD SLI board.

Edit: It is a 939 socket...woohoo

 

[manno]

Fantastic, thanks!

 

[Zinn2b]

Nvidia's are being shipped as we speak And the other poster is correct know advantage right now but if you can talk your brothers into just a small wait ' ATI " be out with there SLI in first quarter 05 you must also relize that it was ATI that worked hard to bring PCI-E to the Maket so am thinking that ATI is going to be the better solution. From what I read in the white papers they will be fully optimized. thats why ATI didn't bring shader 3 into the market with there latest cards.