PCI-Express to AGP???

[BigCheeZ2000]

I am going to be building me a new system this Christmas in which i will be using pci express. The problem is that I need a video card now and I want one that will work on my system now and my next. I am going to get a 6800 gt but i dont want to spend the money when i can only use it until Christmas. So someone else told me that they will have an adapter (bridge, whatever) that will make it possible to connect a pci express card to a current agp slot. Has anyone heard this? Also if there is not one of these then what would you suggest me do? Thanks.

-BigCheeZ

 

[3chordcharlie]

Some companies are using a bridge, but it's either internal to the chip, or 'tacked on'.

I haven't heard of any adapter cards; I'd suggest holding off, or committing to buying A64 later so you will still have an agp slot...

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yeah, there's no card that will go in both AGP and PCI-Express. The connectors are different (the part that slides into the slot).

There are companies putting AGP slots on their boards with PCI-Express, so that could be an option. However, using an AGP card in those will take a performance hit, so, if you buy a really nice card (6800 or X800 for instance), then it'll be handicapped some when you move to the other board later.

I would recommend getting a 9800Pro or 5900XT to tide you over until you upgrade.

 

[LTC8K6]

Buy a cheap AGP card now to tide you over.

Remember that by Christmas prices should be lower for the 6800GT and there may even be more choices out at that time.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Gigabyte boards have native PCI-X16 and AGP8X on their mobos. Buy whatever you want now, chances are you'll be able to find a board that supports both technologies by christmas easily.

 

[klah]

The only boards I have heard of with both AGP and PCI-E actually run the AGP slot through the PCI bus which supposedly gives a 20% performance hit.

 

[CU]

They should make card that would fit in both the agp and PCI-E slot. One company did this with a rendition V2200 card. It would fit in a PCI slot, but you could flip it over and insert it into a AGP slot. I think this design would sale very well now. I would buy one.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: CU
They should make card that would fit in both the agp and PCI-E slot. One company did this with a rendition V2200 card. It would fit in a PCI slot, but you could flip it over and insert it into a AGP slot. I think this design would sale very well now. I would buy one.

It's not worth the R&D for them to do this. Why develop anything like this when you can just make customers buy the same thing twice?

Also, the Rendition V2200 (not even sure what generation of card this is) is nowhere near as complex or as power hungry as today's cards - the power regulation and wattage current cards draw is maddening - designing two sets of paths to two separate pinouts on the bottom and top of the card would be a near impossiblity from a logistical standpoint, unless (as aforementioned) they spent a boatload of cash on R&D.

A simple "adapter" solution would work much better, but, again, what is the gain for ATI/Nvidia to do this? It won't be in sales; heck, people are *more* enticed to buy a high-end card if they know they will have to upgrade their whole system (CPU/board/etc) to get new features (ie PCI-express).

In a $1000-1500 system, a $400 video card is a bit of a stretch, but many will get one. Just for the heck of it, not many non-enthusiasts will spend that much cash on a video card. $400 is a lot of money!

 

[LTC8K6]

Buy whatever you want now

The only thing he can buy now is AGP. So then what come Christmas?

He has a brand new board with a brand new PCIE-X16 slot sitting empty because he bought a $400 AGP card 4 months ago?

Granted there is little performance difference at the moment, but I would think he'd want a shiny new PCI express card to put in that shiny new mobo. I know I would.

I suppose he could ebay his 4 month old AGP card and get a PCI-E card.

I'll bet the dual slot boards cost more too. They're bound to.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if PCI-E cards are in short supply even at Christmas. You never know. We can barely get the AGP cards now.

 

[BigCheeZ2000]

I guess i could get the 6600gt for $200. that should hold me til the holidays...but i want a 6800gt right now so bad! Thanks for the help guys but there doesnt seem to be a definate right way to go right now. I think it would be stupid to buy a $400 card for a couple months but i guess i could try and sell it later. Decisions...decisions...

 

[Vad3r]

rather than start a new thread, I have question that relates to this.
Is there any kind of time table on how quickly PCI-E will take over the market. Lets say, the majority of PC's at Xmas are PCI-E.
How quickly will AGP be fazed out ?
Won't ATI and nVidia kind of need to support both in order to keep as many consumers as possible. I realize this is a burden for them to have cards for both, but it seems better than dropping all customers with AGP only. I know tech is always advancing, but trying to tell a customer they need a complete new pc in order to buy there product seems silly. Isn't it in their best interest to support both as long as they sell.
If I worked at the video card companys, I'd track AGP vs PCI-E sales, and when one gets low enough percentage wise, I'd stop producing it.
In my opinion, with a guess of 95% of PC's today with AGP, it should take quite some time for everyone to leave it. I dunno, say 1 year to 18 months ?. Gamers upgrading maybe every 4-6 months, most others 1-3 years (just a guess here of course).
BigCheeZ2000, you have hard choice here. I feel the pain too, playing Doom3 at 640x480 with some choppy parts is getting to me.
I'm not, but IF I were to buy today, I'd get that 6800 AGP, and then at xmas, get the AMD 939 fastest I could afford. And I would hope I could get the latest and greatest vid card the following summer. In my opinion, it would be there.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: BigCheeZ2000
I guess i could get the 6600gt for $200. that should hold me til the holidays...but i want a 6800gt right now so bad! Thanks for the help guys but there doesnt seem to be a definate right way to go right now. I think it would be stupid to buy a $400 card for a couple months but i guess i could try and sell it later. Decisions...decisions...

Since your obviously a gamer, buy the AGP 6800gt, and buy an A64 system when you upgrade; thre will still be 8x AGP s754 and s939 by Christmas... I'm willing to bet a fair bit on that