So there's little difference between AGP 8x and 4x?

[anindrew]

Hi everybody!

I've started to look into buying a new video card. I'll probably do it later this summer. My motherboard is an Abit KR7A-RAID. It has AGP4x (with 1.5V--can be altered). I read in the "Preparing for HL2, need help" topic that there is almost no performance gain between AGP 4X and 8x. Is this true?!

All this time I've been thinking that I can get a great video card, but it won't be running as fast as it could. Now I read that and I'm thinking "oh, well no worries then!" So what's the deal? Thanks everyone!

 

[MDE]

There really isn't much difference, but the rest of your system may hold back the video card. What are your system specs and what card were you planning on getting?

Welcome to the Forums!

 

[anindrew]

Thanks for the reply and welcome, MDE!

Here's my system specs:

Abit KR7A-RAID with latest BIOS
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53Ghz)
crazy PAL Alpha cooler with equally crazy fan
512MB Mushkin DDR 2100 cas 2.2.2
SB Audigy 2 ZS
PNY Geforce 3 Ti 500
Maxtor L060J3 60GB ATA133
LG CRD 8400B CD-ROM
LG GCC-4120B CD-RW/DVD
--I think that's it

Like everone says, I'm waiting for the games I'd like to play to come out: Doom3, HL2... If money were no object and I was buying right now, I'd probably get an ATI X800 Pro. I really hope the price of those come down some. $400 for a video card is asking A LOT. A couple years ago when I got the GF3 Ti 500, I paid $300 and thought that was a bit much. However, that card has handled everything I've thrown at it with ease, so I guess it was money well spent. Do you have any recommendations? Do you think the X800 would run fine? Should I buy a less expensive card?

 

[MDE]

Your system may bottleneck the X800 Pro. I'd get in line with everyone else and snag a 9800 Pro for about $200. Just make sure that you get one with a 256-bit memory bus. Either the 128MB or 256MB cards are OK, but the extra RAM doesn't help all that much. The GeForce FX 5900XT cards are also pretty good at about $170-190.

 

[TStep]

If you are considering a new card I suggest you read this. Like MDE stated you have to watch out for the bottleneck. Although the article is for the X800, it should more or less apply to the 6800 series as far as the system bottlenecking applies. Its nice because it compares a last gen card (98000xt) to see if you are going to get any real gains with just a video card upgrade for a few given systems.