When will AGP be replaced?

[SnowBoarder9455]

Hey,

I'm just about to build my computer, and I was planning on getting an AIW 9700 Pro. I heard about PCI-Express coming at the end of this year or the beggining of next year. Will it replace AGP and PCI, or just PCI? If its going to replace AGP, will my 9700 PRO become incompatable with the new motherboards, or will they still have an AGP slot on them? I don't want to spend $350 on a card that will not plug into a new motherboard in 9-10 months.

Kevin

 

[Malladine]

Don't worry about the 9700Pro being obsolete for several years dude. 2007 before ANY game is released which requires more IMO. And AGP will last longer than that, no problems.

oh and PCI Express will not replace AGP, ever

 

[dguy6789]

i hope it doesnt, I like agp, but PCI express' sole purpose is supposed to replace agp. The reason is currently the fastest AGP (8X) has 2.12 GB/s bandwith. PCI express at launch will have more then 4 GB/s of bandwith. And will quickly go to over 10 GB/s. I like AGP, has been very reliable and fast, but PCI express is being made to replace AGP, but i dont know if they will have agp slots on new mainboards.

 

[DurocShark]

But, part of the attraction of AGP was its ability to tap into main memory when necessary... Will PCIx be able to do that?

 

[Viper96720]

Will PCI-X be backwards compatible with PCI? I think it is but not sure. I think it will replace AGP in the high end systems. Nvidia and ATI must be designing cards to work with PCI-X already.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: DurocShark
But, part of the attraction of AGP was its ability to tap into main memory when necessary... Will PCIx be able to do that?

I was thinking the same, but I'm doughting that because by then DDR II will be out and putting that of graphics cards might help even more. Anyway, I think AGP still has a few years if not more because today's latest games don't even use all the bandwidth AGP4x prodives lets alone AGP 8x.

 

[Viper96720]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,522303,00.asp
Guess it is backwards compatible.

 

[eklass]

linkness

also, consider the phasing out of a standard... even if tomarrow PCI-X is taken in favor of AGP, it will be several hardware cycles till AGP is no longer implemented

 

[JSSheridan]

Will AGP be replaced? Yes, eventually. Historically, it will take about as long for PCI to be phased out as it did for ISA, which is still present in many systems today, though not in enthusist's/gamer's systems. AGP will not take quite as long though. AGP will become second class as soon as systems PCI-Express GFX ports are available, and chipset/motherboard manufactures will not be implementing both AGP and PCI-Ex GFX. That simply would be an unnecessary expense.

Now, PCI GFX cards are still made today, but PCI comes in every new system today. PCI slots will still come in every PCI-Ex system while AGP will not, so PCI GFX cards will have a future with PCI-Ex. How long AGP slots will be around depends on many industry factors, chipset, GFX card, and motherboard maker's willingness to support them, and consumer demand for demand for them to name a few.

PCI-Express' most important purpose is to replace the obsolete 133MB/s PCI bus, and PCI-Ex GFX is a welcome side. PCI-Ex GFX will be tied directly to the memory throught the chipset like AGP is now. Also, PCI-Ex(press) is not PCI-X, a parallel interface used in server machines which is 66MHz and 64bit for 533MB/s interface.

In summary, the introduction of PCI-Express will mark the beginning of the phase-out period for PCI and AGP. A couple of guesses (#'s I am pulling out of my ear) on when they will not be found in mainstream systems: AGP - end of 2006; PCI - middle of 2010. And the 9700Pro will be painfully obsolete by the middle of 2005. Peace.

 

[TheCorm]

Originally posted by: eklass
<a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,522303,00.asp" target=blank>linkness</A>

also, consider the phasing out of a standard... even if tomarrow PCI-X is taken in favor of AGP, it will be several hardware cycles till AGP is no longer implemented

Originally posted by: JSSheridan

it will take about as long for PCI to be phased out as it did for ISA

Exactly...I mean PCI started coming in with early to mid pentium systems and they still had ISA on many Athlon Socket A boardss such as the Abit KT7!

Jamie

 

[Malladine]

9700Pro will be painfully obsolete by the middle of 2005

I suppose that depends what your "pain" threshold is

IMO, it'll still run every game in 2005 and even 2006, just not at max settings. As I said before, it'll be 2007 before a game is released which actually requires more than a 9700pro.

I use my experience with my 7000 card to come to this opinion. Bought in 2001 and was mid-range at that point. It runs at bottom end settings in UT2k3 right now. Radeon 9700Pro is top end now, therefore it'll last more than the 2yrs the 7000 did, easily.

Of course, this is providing the rate at which technology is advancing remains constant. Also, this is just VPUs. CPU and RAM upgrades can help enormously!

 

[gururu]

It was a real bummer when I couldn't plug my voodoo5 AGP card into my Abit BG7 agp slot (different version).
I can imagine you having the same problem when Fall2004 rolls around, if you opt for high end boards at that time.
Otherwise, I have to believe that AGP will be supported in one form or another well past that. I doubt we will see high-end boards with both AGP and PCIx, as it'd be a waste of space, but who really knows I guess.

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

PCI-Express sounds really cool just think, You be able to have two good video cards one PCI-Express and one AGP it be better then today if you had one PCI and AGP, the PCI would run nowhere as fast as the AGP.

just my 2 cents...