Whats the difference b/w a PCI Graphic card and a AGP Graphic Card???

[Esma]

Both of them cost about the same so what is the big difference. Is it better to get a AGP or a PCI Graphic Card.
:confused: :confused: :confused:

[Death Metal]

AGP's faster. I mean, not the graphics, but the communication between the graph board and the comp's system.

[Fou-lu]

AGP= Acelerated Graphics Port
Available in 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x, it can transfer about 266MB/sec, 532MB/sec, 1GB/sec and 2GB/sec respectively. It has a fast link to the main ram, where it can store textures when they exceed the vid memory.

PCI= Peripheral Component Interconnect
It can only transfer about 133MB/sec.


PCI vid card are getting obsolete (except for Voodoo cards, they don't use the capabilities of the AGP bus, but they have been discontinued)

[Demigod]

AGP cards sit on an AGP slot, PCI cards sit in a PCI slot. AGP is basically an enhanced PCI slot reserved for the video device with a dedicated bus and direct memory and CPU access. PCI cards are there as an alternative, for people who may not have AGP slots. They'll slowly get phased out, like ISA videocards. As for performance, AGP is faster, but PCI isn't bad either. AGP is around 10-20% faster than PCI.

[Zephon]

Another point is that AGP is directly connected to the North Bridge, while the PCI slot is connected to the South Bridge, so sometimes the communication between North and South Bridge can be a bottleneck of the card. Anyway, AGP is faster and all the newer card are designed for them.

[Esma]

I have some questions reguarding AGP and PCI cards.

Questions
-------------

1.Do ASUS Motherboard support both AGP and PCI card???
2.How do I know if my card is a AGP or a PCI card???
3.Is it better if I get a AGP card rather than a PCI card???


Thanks for all the people who help.

[FireGL]

it depends on the board
a1: the best thing you can do is read the manual of your mobo
a2: if your card is inserted in a white slot then its pci but if it inserted in brown then agp(there are lots of software that can tell you wether you got the pci or agp card)

a3: ofcourse read the post above

[Goku7]

First of all, I'd be very suprised if ASUS boards didn't, because from what I heard their Motherboards are VERY high quality.

Mine is an ASUS VX97, an obselete board by today's standards but for it's class (Pentium-1 support only, that's what I mean by class) it seems very fast.

[expert464]

I've got an old ASUS P5A-B, socket 7, only one AGP port but it definately supports it. 2x AGP at that!

[Esma]

Thanks for the help. I have a ASUS P5??? Mobo. I am currently using my agp slot. Now I have one last question if you don't mine answering. The Question is:

Does AGP Card preform better than PCI because I'm going to upgrade my graphic Card pretty soon so I need some advice???
I will most likely get the AGP card, but is PCI card worth getting?

[Arpanet]

If you have the opportunity (i.e., cash) to get an AGP card, go for it. They're faster than PCI cards (higher FPS) and pretty soon just about every major vid card will be AGP.

[Demigod]

All standard motherboards support PCI videocards. It's just another PCI device afterall, like a soundcard or SCSI card (AGP is built around the PCI bus specifications; it's a dual-clocked PCI bus with double-data capabilities) You can also plug in a PCI videocard along with an AGP card to have a dual-display setup, which is kinda nice. If you plan on getting a new videocard and have an AGP slot then go for an AGP card. It's worth it in the long run.

[Goku7]

Wait, for AGP, the Graphics pretty much run on their own, without the CPU needing to be used?

If that's the case, then AGP is definitely the way to go. If there's anyway to free up CPU resources, use it! The end result can be better multitasking performance, which goes a long way for systems running Norton System Doctor (the Stoplight Icon), or similar program that constantly bugs the CPU; and a graphically intensive game at the same time.

[Esma]

Thanks for all of your replys. Now I'm getting either a ATI Readeon
or Nviadia MX-400. I will think about which one to get. Any Suggestion???

[Goku7]

It really depends on the options you want to use on the games.

I read that the ATI Radeon does excellent in performing in Resolutions of 1024X768 or higher.

The MX-400? I thought that was a sound card! (Whatever....)

Anyway, if its a Geforce2 based card, then you have the advantage of getting 600 gazillion triangles per second, but its performance in the area of 1024X768 or higher MIGHT be a little worse than the Radeon.

[Esma]

Okay, does the Ati Radeon work better with a PIII-600Mhz or does the Nviadia Geforce2 Mx-400 work better with a PIII-600Mhz???

[Demigod]

Originally posted by Goku7
Wait, for AGP, the Graphics pretty much run on their own, without the CPU needing to be used?

If that's the case, then AGP is definitely the way to go. If there's anyway to free up CPU resources, use it! The end result can be better multitasking performance, which goes a long way for systems running Norton System Doctor (the Stoplight Icon), or similar program that constantly bugs the CPU; and a graphically intensive game at the same time.

3D accelerators free the CPU of the task of rendering 3D graphics (and now transformation and lighting) but the CPU is still heavily used. It still has to calculate the 3D co-ordinates of objects and polygons and pass it along to the videocard, despite whether it's PCI or AGP. AGP just has a much larger bandwidth and has direct access to system memory so it can get the job done faster. For 2D graphics the CPU still does all the work.

[Goku7]

If that's the case, then what the heck is "DirectDraw Acceleration" worth if the CPU's still doing all the work?!