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Worth investing in PCI-Express now?

H

hjack

Junior Member
I am buying a new system (soon, I hope!) and am stuck in the PCI-Express vs. AGP dilema. I know PCI-Express is the latest and fastest option but I am not all that interested in SLI (I would rather buy the latest generation GPU rather than pair up 2 n-1 generation cards) but am not sure how long AGP will hang around?

As I will be going the AMD route this is a particularly thorny dilema due to availablity issues with nForce4 mobos.

Thoughts?
 
Right now agp and pci-e preform the same, so don't choose based on that! It basicaly it comes down to upgradeability. If you upgrade every few months, go ahead and go pci-e, as this will save you the upgrade of a vid card and a mainboard next upgrade. However if you're going to wait a bit you might as well buy for the hear and now, because in 6 months it's a whole new game anyway. That way the boards that are new now and cost an arm and a leg, will cost way less, so a vid card and mainboard upgrade should be a lot easier to swallow. It's been said in these forums may times, and I'll say it again: unless you upgrade constantly, ther is no such thing as future-proofing!

At least that's how I feel 🙂
 
I don't upgrade often. I am replacing a 5 year old comp. So instead of dealing with price gouging with PCIE cards and lack of NF3 out right now, etc., I got an AGP setup with AMD S939 and a Dell 2005FPW monitor. By the time I upgrade next time, NF7 will probably be out.
 
i'm having the same dilemma as hjack, the only things i'll be upgrading in my computer will probably be the CPU and vid card. I will probably need PCI-express the first time I upgrade but I don't know if it will be worth it to get pcie now.
 
go pcie. wait for the nf4 to be more available. theres no way you have a pressing need for pcie or a new system right now. if you do, i'd spill the extra cash ($250 or so) on a NF4, honestly- rather than build a agp system at this point in the game.
 
I don't do major upgrades often, preferring instead to nickle and dime processor, memory and vid card upgrades. I've been happy with the value of going this way. When I do upgrade, I stay in the mid-range.

This time out I'm going to go PCIe. It's got a real future. AGP is already looking bleak. I was shopping for AGP cards, and contrary to Electric Mayhem's assertion, I found that the AGP cards were already commanding a premium over PCIe cards with similar performance (compare the prices on the two versions of the 6600GT for an example). I think its just going to get worse as AGP becomes an increacingly small market and vendors exploit the fact that AGP buyers have significant upgrade costs for MB and likely CPU if they want to try to substitute PCIe.

What's more, it looks like A64 PCIe boards are going to be available at reasonable price points, once they hit the market and supplies stabelize, though we are some number of weeks away from that happening.

So, my advice is go PCIe if you can wait a bit, and if you expect you'll be doing a vid card upgrade durring the life of the new computer.
 
I agree with eas. PCI-E is the way to go. Wait a bit and you will find pci-e motherboards. From looking around the web and asking questions it looks like the nforce 4 ultra and VIA K8T890 will be out in late january (latest). Personally I'm waiting for ANY vendor to release a PCI-E motherboard for socket 754. AGP videocards are now more expensive for nvidia and ATI to make. The new GPU designs are striclty PCI-E . Several others, including eas have mentioned that geforce 6600gt are more expensive in agp flavor, and that's true.

So wait, unless you want a Intel chip.
 
I would definitely opt in getting a PCI-E mobo right now. I've been trying to build my newest computer, and originally, I was indifferent to PCI-Express and just was willing to stick with AGP, and bought the Neo 2 Platinum. However, my ordeal in finding an AGP card was just ridiculously ardous and incredibly annoying. I don't know the situation in the US, but here in Canada supplies are really low because distributors are leaning towards the future that is PCI-E and therefore are not buying as much AGP, for fear of having a surplus of card lying around the warehouse. The 6600GT for example, has been impossible for me to find in AGP format. The 6800GT was also not that easy for me to find, as stores sold out and only the online store had any left. As the newest cards come out, they'll most likely be first released as PCI-E, with AGP either not having an option at all (X800 XL for example), or being created months after the initial releases.

Moreover, as others have said, the PCI-E cards tend to be cheaper in price than AGP.

As a result, if you are a gamer that's trying to build a solid rig, I think waiting two to four weeks for the new mobos to be released AND distributed is definitely a wise option. Honestly, I want to play new games on my new setup so badly, that I've been contemplating shooting myself in the foot and just settling with the Neo 2 Platinum and 6800GT. BUT... such an option would really be crippling two years down the line, when I just feel like upgrading my video card, and I realize that: a) I have less options for videocards since most would be geared towards PCI-E and b) the prices would probably be in favor the PCI-E due to greater supply.
 
imo, you guys are wrong about agp being more expensive than PCIe. I think the 6600gt agp is more expensive because it came out recently and there are low quantaties of it, plus its pretty popular since most people still have agp boards. Just try looking for pci-e versions of x800pro or 6800gt or higher and you'll see what i mean, the pci-e versions of those are much more expensive. If you're going to buy a computer sometime this year, its better to go agp. It will take a couple months for pcie to become more widely available and cheaper.
 
right now pci-e mobo's cost $50-$150 more and for example a 6800gt is $100 more for pci-e version. save some money and still get similar performance with agp. By the time pci-e really hits (like someone above said in a year or 2) we'll have faster pci-e boards out and better cards...so if you upgraded to pci-e now you'd still be SOL then. But this is the computer game...you will never be on top for more than a minute and your damned if you do...and damned if you dont.
 
Originally posted by: MaverickBP
right now pci-e mobo's cost $50-$150 more and for example a 6800gt is $100 more for pci-e version. save some money and still get similar performance with agp. By the time pci-e really hits (like someone above said in a year or 2) we'll have faster pci-e boards out and better cards...so if you upgraded to pci-e now you'd still be SOL then. But this is the computer game...you will never be on top for more than a minute and your damned if you do...and damned if you dont.
Click to expand...

you can get a bfg 6800gt pci-e card from chombo.com for 399.99. i dont really consider that 100.00 more than the agp versions. and if it is cheaper check the amount of memory on it i've seen some 6800gt's with 128mb and others with 256mb. if you do a search @ chombo.com you'll see all the agp 6800gt cards are alteast 50.00 more than the pci-e version except for one which only has 128mb of memory and its only 30.00 cheaper
 
1)When PCI-E cards are more avialable (The 6600GT isn't too bad though)
2)When PCI-E motherboards are available (Intel don't really have anything new to offer and NF4 are spread thin)
 
Lowest pci-e 6800gt ive seen is #499 and thats not even in stock. I have yet to see a 6800gt agp over $400 except for the BFG versions. where are you shopping that your getting those prices?
 
I wouldn't worry about pci-e right now. There is no performance gain, and by the time there is any pci-e board you buy now will be very outdated. I'm one of those guys that never builds a completely new system however, I just throw a few hunderd bucks at my machine every 1 1/2 to 2 yrs. I guess if you want bragging rights right now, go ahead and get pci-e, but personally I don't think it's the right time.
 
Originally posted by: MaverickBP
Lowest pci-e 6800gt ive seen is #499 and thats not even in stock. I have yet to see a 6800gt agp over $400 except for the BFG versions. where are you shopping that your getting those prices?
Click to expand...
Actually you can get the BFG 6800 GT OC PCI-E for $399 at chumbo. com right now. I just picked one up. Will prob sell out fast though. Point is, prices are already falling, and availability is increasing.
 
Consider PCI-e:

- Youll have to buy PCI-e sometime... which means all the money you spend on AGP based hardware is wasted to a larger degree...
- PCI-e does have its releavant performance advantages (higher bus speeds, newer technology so on..)
- PCI-e cards and mobos are priced cheap now, to encourage AGP users to switch across. High end PCI-e cards are cheaper than high end AGP cards (on average), and the difference almost makes up the cost of a NF4 motherboard.
- AGP cards will be gone within a year, so if your card melts down / youre unhappy with its performance -its upgrade time sooner than you expect.
- "future proof"


Now Consider AGP:

- Pretty much all you will need for any game thats out at the moment. PCI-e performance is par with AGP at the present time and while PCI-e has capacity for performance gain this will only be capitalised on in the development occuring within the next few months.
- Can mix and match from your hardware, buy 2nd hand (dont do that), should you need to...
- PCI-e cards will be much better in a yr to a year and a half, then at their present state... but damnit, so will everything else.
- Youll have to wait a bit for PCI-e hardware. And then wait some more for prices. And then wait some more for better hardware. (meanwhile the other parts you wouldve planned on wouldve dropped in price)


Other Notes:

Either options are perfectly ok, theres no big mistake in getting one over the other at this point. preference and suitability will depend on the individual.

Personally im getting: Gigabye GA-K8NXP-9 (PCI-e, AMD64) and a Leadtek Winfast PX6600 GT TDH (PCI-e, Cheap, Fast) - A good mobo and a cheap PCIE vid card (for now).

Choose wisely. 😉
 
So which PCI-E motherboards do you people have your eyes on in the next few weeks? I know newegg has the GIGABYTE "GA-K8NF-9" listed...only $130 too!
 
I'm eyeing that board at NewEgg too. Appearantly it won't OC at all, which is probably fine for me, since I'm more about reliability than constant tuning and tweaking.

On the other hand, the main reason I'm even considering a PCIe board right now is that I'm looking to maximize my options for economical upgradability down the line. A board with some OC-ability seems more likely to take as yet unreleased chips.
 
ill have to look around some more cause i've been seeing 6800gt's for $100 more then their agp counterparts. And the mobo's, if you can get one, i've yet to see drop to similar pricing. but let's just say money is no concern, or you DO find similar pricing...then of course you might as well go pci-e. Couldnt hurt too bad except for the relatively new mobos
 
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