A quick AGP question for the hardware gurus.

[xerus]

My system supports AGP 4x. I’ve been thinking of getting a new video card and I notice that many of the newer ones are billed as AGP 8x. Is it a waste for me to stick an 8x card into my 4x system? I would think that I wouldn’t be getting nearly the alleged benefits of the faster graphics processing of the newer cards by running it at only 4x. The cards I was debating getting were a Geforce 4Ti 5200 AGP 4x 128m or a GeForec FX 5200 Ultra AGP 8x 128m. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Jon

[shwncplnd]

You can use an 8X AGP card, but in your BIOS settings, you'll only be able to use it at up to 4X. The newer mobos will utilize the 8X AGP capability, but yes, you can use an 8X AGP card. It will only be running @ 4X though. I bought a new vid card here recently, so now I'm looking to get a new mobo and possibly a new CPU if the price is right.

Shawn

[flyinggriffin]

Keep in mind that if you upgrade your system,you can just put the newer card into the new motherboard.

[faosfx]

Yup...the ATI Radeon 9700 PRO is an 8X version however, my motherboard has an AGP 4x slot but it works like a charm anyhow ... 8X slots are faster though!

[xerus]

I'm aware that I can use the 8x card in a 4x system. My question was more about the cards themselves. I'm assuming that all the benchmarks are at the 8x for the 8x card so how can I evaluate the capabilities of the card against other 4 times cards. Bench marks show the FX card is faster then the Ti but would that be true in if they were both in a 4x system.

I hope I'm explaining this clearly enough. If not let me know.

I'm just not sure it's worth the extra money for the 8x, (about $50 US more), card.

Jon

[BAW69]

Just because a card has 8X AGP it doesn't mean that developers write their software to take advantage of it! The majority of games out just now barely use that bandwidth of a 4X AGP bus never mind 8X. FS2K2 being more a CPU intensive program would fall into this category. So buy your card and be happy in the knowledge that you have a stunningly quick card that is also fairly future proof!....Until FS2006 perhaps!

Cheers


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