Raging topic:Move to PCIX or stay with agp

[Crixx_Creww]

When we new (PCIX) PCIe was coming, we all speculated on whether or not agp would die instantly or not.

Now that the cards and the boards are here, and the benchies are in and prices are settling.

Its time for us to once again go to the polls.

Do we ride out the newest wave of cards on the agp bus
or do we invest in pci now and even further more, do we sli hmm.


Cost performance is always a big issue.
THe agp cards seem to be performing at the same level as their agp counterparts BUT the agp cards are more expensive.

SO my friends, the question is.
Do we spend our hard earned money on one of these uber cards on agp, knowing at some point, in the not so distant future that we will be moving to pci mobos.

Or do we hold off on getting an uber card now, and wait till our next major system overhaul to move form a pitiful 5200 to a great cost performance card, the 6600 gt.

Its tearing me apart, because i want the 6600 gt soo badly!
But i cant shake the feeling that i shouldnt spend that 200+ on a agp card.

Serious discussion fellas.
Damned if yu do?
Damned if yu dont?                    

[W1nTry]

Ok Crixx I know u had the best of intentions and its a good post, with one major error... PCI-X is a server based standard found in well duh servers and Apple G5 systems... what you are reffering to is PCI Express which could be shortened to PCIe NOT PCIX thats something different. Just thought I would point that out to you, before man like Synth burn a hole in yuh using some Uchiha Mange Kekki flame or something.... yuh know what i'll edit ur post whilst i'm here.

Onto answering or discussing this important topic:
Like all relatively new techs, its always best to let it mature so that mobo makers work out all the manufacturing issues. That being said I read an article whereby it was stated that making a PCIe chipset and properly integrating into a mobo is alot more challenging than making good all tried and tested AGP. Also mobo manufacturers don't expect the AGP market to go away for at least another 2 years. So in short its safe to buy that 6600GT, the only real threat would be some X800SE variant that can offer better performance at the same price in the next few months.

If however you are going to buy a completely new rig, as a good friend of mine said, it makes no sense buying into old technology. So I would say wait a few months let the nforce 4 come into its own and buy a PCIe mobo and card. I've also noticed that PCie 6600GT's are cheaper than there AGP counterpart (as u mentioned). The real reason behind going PCIe now is to allow urself that open upgrade path, as newer gen video cards will begin to take better advantage of the PCI bus bandwidth. Remember the current gen of cards was designed with the AGP bus in mind, the next gen cards will be designed to take full advantage of all the new features of these new and improved techs.                    

[TrinireturnofGamez]

does the hardware industry especially video cards need PCI-E 16x? : no , in all benchmarks shown to date, AGP cards at the same clock manage to keep up and occasionally BEAT PCI-X cards, even when the game involves swapping lots of data to the system RAM ( doom III@ ultra with 128mb card )

Does the user need PCI-E ? : YES , the industry has found another way to make us spend money on a whole new system ! besides, the PCI-E cards coming out are cheaper than AGP 8x cards of the same chip , and eventually ( DX10 era ) PCI-E will actually be faster than AGP 8x .

 What do you do ? : if you have a system with at least 512mb ram  , and a 2.4ghz P4/ athlonXP 2600 , ride it out till the prices fall , buy a 6600gt/6800gt/X800 . If you have less than 2ghz/ athlonXP 2200 , and not much RAM ,  its time to invest in a whole new system with PCI-E .                    

[Rampage]

i'd say to go with pcix. the cards cheaper, newer technology, faster...what more you want? all it missing is a halle berry poster included in the mobo package.                    

[Synth]

PCIE requires a mobo upgrade at least.

Is it worth it? Perhaps from an upgradeability perspective if nothing else. Certainly not from performance perspective.

Yes AGP more expensive and we still waiting on ATI for their lines... But its only a lil more and should drop a bit as AGP highend battles it out when ATI finally get off their ass.

Millions and millions of agp card and mobos without pcie...its not dying anytime soon. By the time agp is dead youd need a complete upgrade anyway.

I think no upgrade really worth it till mid year when pciE has matured and we can see real benefits other than slighly boosted 3dmark scores.

Course if you dreaming of SLI well...thats a whole other story for another day.                    

[TriniXaeno]

Personally, a 6600 GT significally pwns my current cards. Ti 4200s, etc....

As does the Athlon 64 3000+.

So like trini said, if you're in my position and need to upgrade your mobo anyway, to support the new processor...might as well go PCI E and get the cheaper 6600 GT.

Simple and sweet.

If you're not going to change mobo cause you got a 3000+ athlon xp or Pentium 4, then go with the AGP.

Not the neat answer you're hoping for I'm sure but this is the reality.                    

[Crixx_Creww]

indeed from everyones comments its pretty much a matter of whether yu need a system rehaul if simply upgrading yur card.

For me, my 1337 dell is more than cutting it, even my 5900xt is great.
But i believe i owe myself something that is hot on the market for once.
Not waiting years down the line to get a 9600xt  kinda thing.

 Upgradability is definately what yud have in mind if yu go pcie.
And honestly, going pcie without going dual 16x is silly.

Cause in the end, yur moving to pcie because it has a great upgrade path ahead of it self.
And with sli on the market, it would be sensible to get a sli board now, get a 6600gt and when yu think yu need another upgrade, instead of getting a new rig, simply slap in another 6600gt and yur cooking with ramco gas                    

[TrinireturnofGamez]

indeed from everyones comments its pretty much a matter of whether yu need a system rehaul if simply upgrading yur card.

For me, my 1337 dell is more than cutting it, even my 5900xt is great.
But i believe i owe myself something that is hot on the market for once.
Not waiting years down the line to get a 9600xt  kinda thing.

 Upgradability is definately what yud have in mind if yu go pcie.
And honestly, going pcie without going dual 16x is silly.

Cause in the end, yur moving to pcie because it has a great upgrade path ahead of it self.
And with sli on the market, it would be sensible to get a sli board now, get a 6600gt and when yu think yu need another upgrade, instead of getting a new rig, simply slap in another 6600gt and yur cooking with ramco gas

lol @ ramco gas . dual PCI-E boards go for at least 200 us ! and you can't use 2 different models of the same card in SLI ( eg. MSI + Asus geforce = no work ), so its extremely unlikely that you can just slap in another 6600gt 6 months down the line .  besides, SLI only works with 11 read it 11 games ! the others play the same speed as if you had a singe card . and nvidia is stikking to update their support....
    even if nvidia does update their SLI support to the 100 promised games, you still won't be able to enjoy alot of games that come out in full SLI power  until months after they are released , and the game has no more appeal.
    This year you should stay  single core cpu  and single card . just make sure you get a flexible mobo that will handle dual cores when they are cheap and worthwhile .
    also, for all those upgrading , make sure you get a 64 bit cpu if you ARE getting  a whole new rig ,  windows 64 is out this year, and next year games will start using 64 bit tech .                    

[TriniXaeno]

good point trini.

I was sayin to crixx earlier, that if you're a techie and able to change your mobo at the drop of a dime, getting a single board with a 6600gt is fine now and then when you really need additional power, sell your mobo and get the sli version and a second 6600gt.

by then, it should be a tried and true formula, with tons of game supper and if it's not....then you can just ditch that plan altogether, no love lost.