Originally posted by: v8envy
Originally posted by: Rollo
Sigh. Whatever.
AGP is making a comeback! It will be just like the old days Paratus! No WAY will ATI and nVidia orphan you guys with your great AGP machines! You're a HUGE market, they'll cater to you and retro engineer their parts. :roll:
I think you underestimate the size of the AGP market. Over the last few years HP, Compaq, Gateway and Dell have sold millions of AGP-enabled P4 2.8 and faster machines. These boxes are perfectly fine for gaming aside from asstacular 3d acceleration, and their owners would LOVE to use them to play games (e.g., a friend with an AMD64 3200+, 2G of ram bought at BestBuy wondering why his 'geforce4' integrated video won't even load many new games like Fable).
Having * a * budget AGP solution capable of running modern games is a giant win. The owners of these appliances don't have the savvy nor the bravery to open those things up and start performing motherboard surgery. And having bought them in the last year or so, they're not going to throw them away and get a new, nearly identical except for PCIe version.
The AGP version of the X1600XT, while stupidly cripled, has absolutely no competition from nvidia.
I get constant questions re: what needs to be upgraded in these consumer appliances to let junior frag aliens. And I keep replying, 'nothing much yet, try to hold on a few more months or get a $60-ish 9600pro/xt.'
Without an AGP 6800GS @ $160, nvidia has no such solution (6600GT is getting a bit long in the tooth.) The 1600XT AGP, if it gets to a price point of about $130 would become the winner and champeen of the budget segment. And at $199 retail, probably the boxed retail segment.