PCIe or AGP for system build?

[AEvangel]

I'm putting together my first system from scratch and I have been doing a ton of reading about the new PCIe SLI infastructure versus the soon to be outdated AGP.

My problem is that I really like the Multimedia functionality of ATI AIW line of cards, but they only come in AGP and from what I'm seeing PCIe is the way to go.

So my question is this for a casual computer user who likes to play games as well as do video and photo editing as a hobby does it matter at this point if I go with the PCIe or the AGP infastructure??

I also envision having to upgrade this system in the next 2 years.

I know this has been mentioned in previous posts but they seem a little vague as to the answer.

Thank you for allowing to waste your time with my questions...

 

[Battlewaffle]

PCI-e has about 4 times the bandwidth of AGP, and is the new standard
Get PCI-e

 

[Jakebrake]

Originally posted by: AEvangel

I also envision having to upgrade this system in the next 2 years.

...

I too am building a new system and I bought an AGP card.

1. They are less expensive for the performance you get out of them.
2. How many current applications take atvantage of the PCI-e bandwidth?
3. How much money do you plan on spending on this build?
4. It's new tech., let them iron out all the bugs and let the prices come down.

 

[uOpt]

What Jakebrake said.

Also note PCIe might be hip but SLI is not. Nice but not what you neccessarily want to go.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

AIW's come in PCI-E too. No need to limit yourself to AGP. Or, you could always just buy a seperate TV tuner PCI card AGP will die out eventually, but it still has a couple of years left. Current cards show no real increase in performance due to the increased bandwidth, but future cards probably will be able to take advantage to PCI-E. I would get PCI-E just for future upgrading.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I personally would buy a PCIe video card and a seperate PCI (regular) tuner card. It's cheaper in the long run. You don't have to rebuy the tuner capabilities every time you want to upgrade.

The additional bandwidth capabilities of PCIe won't help much, but it is a little more future proof. AGP cards will be continue to be released for a few more years if you plan on going AGP though.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Jakebrake

Originally posted by: AEvangel

I also envision having to upgrade this system in the next 2 years.

...

I too am building a new system and I bought an AGP card.

1. They are less expensive for the performance you get out of them.

I don't know if that is totally true. The PCIe versions of the 6600GT are the same price as the AGP version, so you really aren't paying any real premium for PCIe (besides the extra cost of a PCIe mobo, but it is worth paying extra for the NF4 chipset and the potential to upgrade later to the A64 X2). With the X800XL, you actually have to pay slightly more for the AGP version.

Since the OP wanted an AIW card, the X600 Pro AIW is a pretty nice deal for $185. The core and memory clocks aren't nearly as fast as the 9600XT version for the same price, but with the new X600 Pro version, you get a DVI output that the 9600XT is lacking (which could be important if you have a nice flat panel).

Truth be told, though, it'd be a lot better to get a nice stand alone graphics card like X800 or GeForce 6600GT and then add in a Sapphire Theatrix 550 video capture card. Not only will your gaming performance be better, but the TV picture quality and CPU utilization while capturing will be worlds better than the AIW. If you are even remotely thinking about using Windows MCE2005 at some point, don't even bother with the AIW cards and get a real tuner with hardware encode (like the Theatrix 550 or the WinTV PVR cards).

 

[KayKay]

PCIe gives you room for an upgrade in the future, some quality PCIe boards are cheaper than you'd expect, i.e. MSI Neo4-F

 

[DanDaMan315]

I hear there are big prices drops coming for AGP cards....

 

[AEvangel]

Ok, I'm not shooting the moon here, but I have a decent chunk of change to play with $2k for total system build not counting the monitor for that I already have a Dell 2005FPW.

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: Battlewaffle
PCI-e has about 4 times the bandwidth of AGP, and is the new standard
Get PCI-e

wrong:
pci-e 16x
agp: 8x

has 2 times yet agp 8x hasnt been utilized there is no performance increase from agp8x to pci-e(16x). Its just the future agp8x is going to die out shortly so i would get pci-e for the future.

 

[w00t]

another thing dont get AIW cards its a waste get a seprate t.v tuner and a graphics card that way if u get a new graphics card u still can use ur pci t.v tuner.

 

[edmundoab]

speaking about support for the future,
PCI-E the way to go.
AGP is facing out through time.

Not much noticable difference as of now of course.

 

[Green Man]

Originally posted by: w00t


wrong:
pci-e 16x
agp: 8x

has 2 times yet agp 8x hasnt been utilized there is no performance increase from agp8x to pci-e(16x). Its just the future agp8x is going to die out shortly so i would get pci-e for the future.

OK, you can't really compare them like that.
AGP is 66Mhz x 32 bit = 266MB/s so 8x is 2.1GB/s
PCI-e is 2.5Ghz x 1bit = 312MB/s so 16x is 5GB/s
You can't just say one is 8x and one is 16x so it's only twice as fast.

Of course you're right that pci-e only has a bit more than double the bandwidth of AGP 8x

And, AGP is still faster than PCI-E. Nothing wrong with AGP for the next couple of years.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: DanDaMan315
I hear there are big prices drops coming for AGP cards....

Link?

Next generation cards will be released by Ati and nVidia. After that who knows..

But you have a full year for certain of newly released AGP cards.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Battlewaffle
PCI-e has about 4 times the bandwidth of AGP, and is the new standard
Get PCI-e

That is somewhat incorrect

[*]PCI-e has four times the bandwith of AGP 2.0 (AGP 4x) but only Double the bandwith of AGP 3.0 (AGP 8x), It all depends on what version of AGP you are refering to.. Currently there is no performance differance between AGP and PCI-e. You can Run a PCI-express video card in an x4 pci-e slot and get virtualy the same benchmark result as if it were running in an x16 slot.

[*]Personaly I would get an X850XT or PE and a Separate PCI TV WONDER? ELITE, It has better encoding and picture quality when compaired to All in Wonder's.



[*]Also an AnandTech article on the TV Wonder Elite

• 
  First Place: ATI TV Wonder Elite
  
  For just about a year now, we've been hearing about ATI's Theater 550 chip, the successor to the highly successful Theater 200 used in the eHome Wonder. The Theater 550 was a bit of a let down in that it seemed a lot like a new release of old technology. What we wanted to see was a hardware MPEG-4 encoder from ATI and what we got instead was the promise of the best hardware MPEG-2 encoder ever. Although it's not the promise we wanted, ATI did deliver exactly what they set out to do.

The X850 PE and Tv Wonder Elite Combo I mentioned earlier is my personal Pick for a media center; But if you insist you can get an ATI PCI-express All in Wonder x800XT and would be my second place pick.

 

[rise]

Get PCI-e

edit--if you're buying a new rig now with a $2000 budget i can't think of any reason why you wouldn't go with an nf4 setup. i can't.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: rise4310
Get PCI-e

Agreed, you will be kicking your self later on if you go with AGP.

 

[AEvangel]

Thank you all for your advice.

 

[AEvangel]

Now that I know I'm going with a PCIe MB I was wondering whether or not I should worry about SLI.

I was looking at the ASUS K8N Deluxe SLI, but a friend told me to wait for the Premium?

Any suggestions or insights would be apperciated.