Curious about AGP vs. PCI

[mrmoray]

Currently I have a GeForce 2 MX 400....with a PCI interface. I'm just wondering how much of a performance increase you get from the AGP interface. If I had the exact same card, but in AGP (not that I'd run out and buy this, but humor me....), would I notice the difference, say in Quake3 or UT?
I just recently built my first computer and transferred my G2 from my old machine. My old machine didn't have an AGP slot, so when I bought the G2 I had to go with PCI. When I get the money to upgrade video, I'll obviously go with AGP, probably G4, once the prices come down, but I'm just wondering how much of an impact the AGP slot really has.

 

[FrustratedUser]

I have the same card but running a 500MHz celeron. You will see a huge improvement when going from 800*600 to higher resolutions. Up to 800*600 the performance is almost identical.

How does your card perform with the 1.3GHz Athlon? Any 3dMark2000 results?
I get around 2800.

 

[MithShrike]

Mmm... its only an MX400 I can't think of much difference it sucks either way but you might want to read the FAQ about AGP right here at AnandTech.

 

[Rand]

You'll notice quite a bit of performance, the GF2 core is heavily dependent upon AGP's advanced feature set and is not at all well suited to PCI implementations.
A GF2 MX400 in PCI is generally only a bit faster then an AGP GF2 MX200. The performance gain using a GeForce 2 will definitely be appreciable.

 

[BFG10K]

I'm just wondering how much of a performance increase you get from the AGP interface.

Quite a large one as T&L enhanced cards like the GeForce based ones don't get enough bandwidth for their needs from PCI.