So, what is the deal with PCIE anyways?

[MetalMat]

I will be building myself a new computer early next year, and thus have been looking at different processors, motherboards, video cards, etc.......

I looked at a review for the ATI X700 and am happy with its performance vs. its price. I noticed that it is a PCIE and have read a little bit on it. I am just wondering what exactly this technology is and why I should get a motherboard with PCIE instead of AGP.

 

[Steve]

Much faster transfer speed than AGP. PCI-E video card slots will do 16x (dual slots for SLI will do 8x each). Plus PCI-E is a direct, point-to-point connection.

 

[MetalMat]

Wow, you can go old school SLI? Reminds me of the days of the voodoo 2......

 

[Steve]

SLI is coming back. nVidia has it available now, but ATi will have a comparable solution soon.

 

[LTC8K6]

There is no noticeable difference in speed between agp4x 8x and PCI-E. The only exception is if you buy a board that supports SLI and run 2 PCI-E cards.

Benchmarks between the cards are pretty much identical.

I would not bother with PCI-E yet, unless you intend to get a board that supports SLI so you can buy a second card later on down the road to speed your graphics up, Or you've got the bucks to go SLI right off the bat. 😀