PCI or AGP??

[mustang659ut]

Looking at a CL Nvidia card with GF2 GTS and wondering if there is an advatage to the AGP over the PCI?? I dont game much... just web and programming...

 

[kmmatney]

If you don't game much, then you shouldn't really get a GF2 GTS (a waste of money for your purposes). At the most, get a GF2 MX. Only get a PCI card if you don't have an AGP slot on your system, otherwise get a AGP. I don't think they even make a GF2 GTS in PCI. If your system doesn't have an AGP slot, then a Voodoo3 PCI is fast and cheap and good for an occassional game.

The main advantage of the AGP slot is it has a deicated memory bus, whereas a PCI slot will share the memory bus with any other PCI devices you have, slowing things down a little.

 

[Sunny129]

yes there is a quite significant advantage to using the AGP slot over a PCI. the default clock rate of a PCI slot is 33 mHz, while that of an AGP slot is 66 mHz. these both change according to your FSB speed, but usually the PCI bus is set to 1/3 FSB when the FSB is under 133 mHz, and 1/4 FSB when the FSB speed is 133 mHz or higher. AGP is usually 1/2 FSB no matter the speed of the FSB. this may vary depending on the motherboard, but either way the AGP slot allows for more data transfer and at a faster rate. a PCI video card is limited by the PCI bus, while an AGP video rests in a slot whose bus limit is about twice as fast. i dont actually know the difference in actual data transfer rates, but i do know that the AGP slot can transfer more data across its aperture than a PCI slot. as for the AGP and PCI bus speeds, they speak for themselves.

 

[BFG10K]

I dont game much... just web and programming...

Then you certainly don't need a GF2 and you don't need to be concerned with AGP vs PCI. Get a Voodoo 3 or a G400 and get the AGP version if you can, simply to save a PCI slot.