AGP or PCI-E

Reginald

Reginald

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I have an AGP motherboard and am looking to upgrade my graphics card.

What I want to know is whether it would be worth upgrading my motherboard to PCI-E at the same time whilst getting a new graphics card?

I'm looking to upgrade to something relatively good so that I won't have to upgrade again for another few years but obviously not too expensive. So, first of all I need an answer to the AGP and PCI-E question, then some suggestions for upgrading.

My current specs:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+
2.2 GHz Performance Rated at 3.5 GHz
1Gb RAM (I am upgrading to 2 Gb in the next few weeks)
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT (128 Mb)
Creative Audigy 2 (Would like to upgrade this soon as well, but is not too urgent)
 
go for PCI-E if your going to upgrade...
although AGP does still have some life to it
 
definitely PCI-E....youll be kicking yourself later when a new card for PCI-e comes out that you want and you still have AGP.
I reccomend this deal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130277
Its a EVGA 7800gt with a free EVGA nforce 4 socket 939 SLI PCI-E Motherboard. I have it and its great. Its a bit pricey at $350, but it'll give you a lot of upgrade options in the future....
Then again, the 7900gt was just released, but you can always use EVGA's step up program to nab one of those for basically free.
 
hungryduck said:
definitely PCI-E....youll be kicking yourself later when a new card for PCI-e comes out that you want and you still have AGP.
I reccomend this deal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130277
Its a EVGA 7800gt with a free EVGA nforce 4 socket 939 SLI PCI-E Motherboard. I have it and its great. Its a bit pricey at $350, but it'll give you a lot of upgrade options in the future....
Then again, the 7900gt was just released, but you can always use EVGA's step up program to nab one of those for basically free.
Click to expand...

Do they deliver to the UK? Because that seems a freakin awesome deal.
 
Thought we as AGPers aren't going away without a fight, AGP will eventually loose in the short coming and become obsolete.
I would strongly advice you to get nice freaking decent 939 SLI mobo (Asus or DFI) along with Nvidia 7900 or ATI X1900X and get rid of that 754 chip and buy 939 either FX or X2 AMD and set yourself up for the future.

Let us know if you like us help you out with savings.

I'm talking about $1800 for the three but you won't have to buy nothing for the next 3-4 years.

For MOBO http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=247022
For CPU http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80730
For GPU http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321060

Hehe Let me know if you need memories.

Good Luck.
 
AGP glory years are soon over. After kicking PCI ass, they are now getting a taste of their own medicine by PCI-E.

PCI-E is the future for now. Upgrade to a 7800GT to AGP or just buy a new motherboard and PCI-E card. The PCI-E version is cheaper.

RIP AGP ;(
 
good lord man, I think the FX-60 might be a bit out of his budget. Thats a grand just on one processor. With that kind of hardware, he'll need a new PSU, cooling, possibly RAM etc.
 
You will either be buying a new board with PCI Express now or on the next upgrade.

The highest AGP card that I know of is the brand new 7800GS.
 
Hypnosos said:
AGP glory years are soon over. After kicking PCI ass, they are now getting a taste of their own medicine by PCI-E.

PCI-E is the future for now. Upgrade to a 7800GT to AGP or just buy a new motherboard and PCI-E card. The PCI-E version is cheaper.

RIP AGP ;(
Click to expand...


Did you have to be that mean to AGP?

Aaaah! I remember the Good old PCI and how we did it.........The Good Old Days..singh!

hungryduck said:
good lord man, I think the FX-60 might be a bit out of his budget. Thats a grand just on one processor. With that kind of hardware, he'll need a new PSU, cooling, possibly RAM etc.
Click to expand...

Hehe. Let me know if he needs more help with savings. I got couple of generators somewhere.
 
Barney Fife said:
Hehe. Let me know if he needs more help with savings. I got couple of generators somewhere.
Click to expand...

Lmao. turn the lights off when you leave the room!


Well about PCI, it sucks so bad. But is still on par with the Ps2's and gamecubes. I think the shadow power of the xbox is better though. I would kill for AGP, stop saying its going to be obsolete. Dude its like not going away anytime soon. :dork:


it will haunt the PC world for another 10 years .. I guess.
 
Right I think I will go with PCI-E and a 7800.

One question, will I have to change Processor, Sound Card, RAM HDD or anything like that when changing from AGP to PCI-E?
 
Reginald said:
Right I think I will go with PCI-E and a 7800.

One question, will I have to change Processor, Sound Card, RAM HDD or anything like that when changing from AGP to PCI-E?
Click to expand...

It all depends on what socket MOBO (Socket 754 or 939 for AMD MOBOs) you buy, and your CPU that you now have with your current MOBO, If your current CPU is socket 754 and the MOBO you buy is also socket 754 they are compatible and you can reuse the CPU that you now use.
But if the MOBO is socket 939 and your current CPU is socket 754, then you gonna have to buy socket 939 CPU.
You can reuse sound card, RAM, HDD, DVD drive, CD drive, Floppy Disk, Power Supply Unit, All the fans, Modem, Case, etc.

I do strongly advise you to buy socket 939 MOBO though, as socket 754 CPU are no longer made and AMD is clearing them out. That's why all 754 AMD are sold next to nothing.
 
Please double check though. I hate you to take my word for it. There are some 3700+ socket 754 and 939 AMD chips out there.

If you bought this PC from a retail store, in other words, this is a brand name PC like Dell or HP, Etc. call the manufacturer and ask what socket is the AMD, or post the computer name and model here and I will search it for you.

Or if you can take out the CPU and post the SKU number in the back, I can tell you for sure what socket it is.

Good Luck.
 
Just looking at the papers I got with the PC it says it's a 939, so that's good. :D

So say I have a top end budget of maybe 500GBP (but preferably less) what shall I buy?
 
Reginald said:
My current specs:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+
2.2 GHz Performance Rated at 3.5 GHz
1Gb RAM (I am upgrading to 2 Gb in the next few weeks)
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT (128 Mb)
Creative Audigy 2 (Would like to upgrade this soon as well, but is not too urgent)
Click to expand...

Well basically you don’t need to buy whole lots new stuff. That’s what I like about Building, you can always recycle. Meaning: Saving money.

In your case you can recycle your CPU, RAM, Sound Card, HDD, CD/DVD ROM, PSU (If you have a good one like 500W plus), Floppy (If you still use one), Keyboard, Mice, cooling (Unless you OC-ed or intend to OC).

What you do need is a SLI ready Motherboard, Video card, and if you like to add more RAM 1GB of RAM, 2GB is nice amount of memory for gamer. Just make sure that you use the same sticks together and not mix memory sticks: PC2700 to PC2700, PC3200 to PC3200, etc.

If you up to upgrading yourself now, its always better to buy an up to date equipment, meaning: new up to date stuff and not stuff that are old and outdated and soon to be obsolete, buy respected brand names like Asus, Invidia, ATI, DFI, MSI, Corsair, Kingston, Crucial, Mushkin Etc. These guys are devoted builders like yourself and they sell top of the line, the quality of their products are superior to the Model Ts Dell and HP have sold to people. So you don’t have to upgrade again in the near future and or end up whit a crappy equipment, specially when you’re gaming, because these games are getting hungrier and hungrier for resource and people are selling crappier and crappier stuff.

For Motherboard I like Asus and DFI I think they’re top of the line and are preferred by gamers, builders and OC-ers, all because of their MOBO layout, BIOS settings and qualities. The motherboard I’m really saving up for is the Asus A8N 32-SLI-Deluxe it costs about $200.00 US. Please read the MOBO manufacturer specifications for references. I do have DFI LANParty Ultra now, which I’m really happy with.

For memories Corsair and Kingston are your best bet for their low tendency memories. (Note: use the same kind that you use now for upgrades. PC2700 –PC2700, PC3200-PC3200 Etc) The prices are very, it just depends on what kind of deal you got, but no one can really estimate it. Shop around, they’re about $40.00 to $200.00, the performances are never that much different, they tell you they’re high-speed low tendency, you say OK! That’s all. But this I can tell you: buying two sticks of 512MB memories are much more expensive than buying one stick of 1024MB. So be smart. If you get two sticks of 512MB kit then they're as same price as one stick of 1024MB. But if you see a guy with one stick of memory, that guy should be avoided cuz it's rare to buy one stick, nowadays everything come in pairs.

For Video Cards you have two option: Basically: Nvidia and ATI. They both about the same, though ATI is little bit in the underdog side, but they're the same, except for few frames.
You need to have a card with minimum of 256MB V-RAM and 400MHz core rate.
These cards cost somewhere around $300-400, but what you could do is that buy the new 7900 GTX with 512MB of V-RAM and almost 700MHz of core. New these cards need some serious money $500-600 and they pretty sweeet.

Well I think that’s about it, let me know if I left out something.

Good Luck.
 
You choose wisely Mr. Reginald.
Maybe I will get that DFI instead of Asus. You kind of persuaded me into it. Hehe.

Everything looks nice except Video card. I'm voting for the 7900GTX trust me on this one.

Very nice though. All for 530 Euro? that's impressive Mr.

Good Luck.
 
Barney Fife said:
You choose wisely Mr. Reginald.
Maybe I will get that DFI instead of Asus. You kind of persuaded me into it. Hehe.

Everything looks nice except Video card. I'm voting for the 7900GTX trust me on this one.

Very nice though. All for 530 Euro? that's impressive Mr.

Good Luck.
Click to expand...

They're British pounds, not Euros :p
 
depends if ur planning to really be serious about it. an agp 8X card will do, especially if u don't want to bother with switching around mobo's. but if u really want to get a nice set up, switch boards and drop in a pci-e....u'll be glad u did!
 
So- no-one has actually given a reason as to why PCI-e is better / worse / different than AGP. All that has been said is that PCI-e mobo's and cards are becoming more common. Can anyone give any actual technical reason why PCI-e is better / worse / different than AGP? What performance gains / losses are actually noticeable to the average gamer, for comparable cards? Because at the moment, AGP cards are cheaper, and if you can't tell the difference between comparable AGP / PCI-e cards, why not save the $, and laugh at the fools that spend more?
 
The actual slot is much faster. The same card on either slot will perform basicly the same. Although PCI Express has faster cards out than on AGP so you can't go as high up on the ladder. AGP cards will slowly be phased out. Basicly with an AGP board your upgrade path for video cards is about to be nil. Not sure just how fast it will happen but with basicly no AGP boards being sold (all HPs/compaqs/Dells have PCI Express now) that time is coming.

Also SLI/Crossfire. :D
 
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