Difference between AGP 4x and 8x?

[imported_Collector]

I have an older computer with an AGP 2x/4x slot and an ATI 7000 card with DVI. I would possibly like to upgrade the graphics card but the cards with faster hardware all seem to come with AGP 8x.

Is there a physical difference between a 4x slot and an 8x? Can I buy an 8x card and use it in my 4x slot? If so, would it even make sense to do so?

The computer seems to work fairly well for what I do but I am planning on buying a 2405FPW monitor and don't want to get hampered by the graphics card that's in there now.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

8x is backwards compatible with 4x. I had a GeForce 4 Ti 4800 SE for a long time (which is 8x) running in a 4x motherboard. No problems. The cards still can't really take advantage for the extra bandwith, so you shouldn't see much of a bottle neck, if any.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Doubles the bandwidth from 1.1 >> 2.2

-Kevin

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Doubles the bandwidth from 1.1 >> 2.2

-Kevin

But in general, 8X AGP is nothing more than a marketing gimmic. There is no noticeable performance gain going from 4X to 8X in all the benchmarks I've seen.

 

[imported_Collector]

Thanks for the responses. It looks like I can get an 8x card and drop it into the 4x slot.

Now, I have a P3-800MHz with 256MB SDRAM (going to 512MB). Most of the time I'm doing basic Windows stuff and some light VB programming. Any gaming I do is of the strategy type and maybe Grand Prix 3. I do plenty of shooting in real life so I don't play those FPS games. Also, like I said, I plan on upgrading to a 2405FPW from my 21" Viewsonic CRT.

Any recommendations for graphics cards for this system? Or am doing just fine with my Radeon 7000?

 

[imported_Kensai]

Go with a 9800 Pro or 6600 GT or something of the likes.

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Go with a 9800 Pro or 6600 GT or something of the likes.

Either of those cards are quite overkill for a Pentium3 800mhz. No need to blow around $200 on such an older system.

I would find whatever you can get for cheap. While the 9700s are overkill (slightly slower than the 9800 Pro), you can find them for not much more than $100 in the FS/T forum. I'm not sure what they go for from retailers.

You can also look for a 9600/9500 series GPU which will work fine with your CPU.

If you can find a Geforce4Ti series GPU, that'll be a good bet too, but they lack DX9 features. I'm not sure if you could run any games with those features anyway, but they can be easily found for less than $80 on the FS/T forum.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

I'd definatly recommend a 9500/9600 card, or a GeForce 4 Ti 4x00. It'll be a bit more than your computer could handle, and will help to bump gaming performance slightly. A 9200 or FX 5200 wouldn't be terrible either, and I'd personally lean towards them, instead of buying second hand from strangers over the 'net. You can get them for less than $50 on www.newegg.com.

 

[imported_Collector]

$200 is a lot more than I wanted to spend on a card. The 9600 is more of what I'm after. It's always good to know that a 4 year old machine will still keep on doing what I want it to do.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Get a 6200 and unlock all the pipes and OC it and you have a 6600NU which will beat a 9600 pro and if oced far enough a 9800Pro. 6200/6600 is your best bet if you dont want to spend a lot.

It is ludacris to even recommend a 9800 or 9700 pro when the next gen cards are cheaper have more features and beat them. Additionally even the Geforce 4Ti's are not a good value anymore as the 6200 will beat them over and over.

-Kevin

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: Collector
$200 is a lot more than I wanted to spend on a card. The 9600 is more of what I'm after. It's always good to know that a 4 year old machine will still keep on doing what I want it to do.

Unless you can get a fantastic deal on one, a 9600 isn't really a good bargain. A 6600 is about the best bang for your buck on the lower end these days.

We could probably help you narrow it down a bit more if you told us exactly how much you want to spend. I think a 128mb/128 bit 6600 AGP can be found for around $135 and it's faster than the 9800 Pro. It may be more of a video card than your system currently needs, but you'll be upgrading that 800Mhz at some point down the road and the 6600 will scale better.

 

[imported_Collector]

Originally posted by Creig
We could probably help you narrow it down a bit more if you told us exactly how much you want to spend.

I guess I was thinking of something in the $100 price range. But if something cheaper will still do the job, so much the better. I know that's not much to some of you gamers but like I said before I don't do any heavy gaming. My favorite game is the original Civilization.

I'm just trying to keep a 4-year old machine running by upgrading the graphics card to make better use of the 24" widescreen LCD. I want good performance under Win2000 more than anything. Typical uses are e-mail, writing letters, running various spreadsheets, programming with VB, surfing for porn, etc.

When I do upgrade to a better machine I'll build the new one and give this old one to my 6-year old. My new one will probably be PCI-Express anyway so I don't need to try and salvage the graphics card.

 

[doublejbass]

Ti4200 baby. A year ago or so I bought a Gainward 64mb 4200 for $40 on fleabay.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Creig

Originally posted by: Collector
$200 is a lot more than I wanted to spend on a card. The 9600 is more of what I'm after. It's always good to know that a 4 year old machine will still keep on doing what I want it to do.

Unless you can get a fantastic deal on one, a 9600 isn't really a good bargain. A 6600 is about the best bang for your buck on the lower end these days.

We could probably help you narrow it down a bit more if you told us exactly how much you want to spend. I think a 128mb/128 bit 6600 AGP can be found for around $135 and it's faster than the 9800 Pro. It may be more of a video card than your system currently needs, but you'll be upgrading that 800Mhz at some point down the road and the 6600 will scale better.

No way. A 6600gt is faster than a 9800pro, and it goes for $200 or more for AGP version. The 6600 regular is actually way slower than a 9800pro. But either one of those is probably overkill for your system. I'd say just get a gf4200 or something in that range. It's cheap, but offers a decent performancefor the money.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

For around $65 shipped he could go after a 128 bit Radeon 9550. That seems like it would probably be a good card for an older rig. For a P3 800, would it even be the bottleneck?