AGP Versus PCIe

[simon_xazza]

Sorry if I am going over old ground but have not been able to find the answer to my question on the forums. I'm running a GeForce 6800GT on AGP but it is only 128M (Asus). I want to spend some cash on upgrading because this card seems to struggle with some games - can't use anything near highest settings on FEAR.

I notice from benchmarks that 6800GTs are not that far behing the 7800GT or X1800XL - which fit my budget. I assume these are PCIe 6800s. Is there a big difference between AGP and PCIe speeds? Am i going to gain much. Is my 128M memory the problem? Any advice on this would be appreciated.

I also intend to upgrade processor to Athlon 64 X2 and motherboard to PCIe.

 

[ParadoX]

I dont believe there is much of a difference between a agp 6800gt and a 6800gt pcie that have the same spec. Yours being 128Mb would be slower than a pcie card as i dont think they come in 128MB variety A 7800GT pcie may offer you a 50% performance increase from a your 6800GT so may be worth while. A 6800GT 256MB gets ~5000 in 3dmark05 and a 7800Gt ~7000 as a rough guide. Hope this helps

 

[lay-z-boy]

ok, first, you wont be able to play fear with high settings on a 6800gt as it eats computers for breakfast.
2nd, there is no advantage of pcie over agp, current cards cant even reach the max bandwidth an agp 8x port but as all the latest stuff is on pcie and is cheaper its a better alternative.
Finnaly i dont recall a 6800gt with 128mb ever being made, i thought all 6800gt's had 256mb of ram, however the 128mb will be clocked slower and lower in capacity than any 256mb version.

A 7800gt would provide a boost if you paired it up with a good cpu but as the new 7900 range is around the corner i would advise either waiting or getting a x1900/1800.

 

[Phemo]

There was a 128MB 6800 GT - as was originally stated, it's an Asus card. I'm not entirely sure why they produced it, but they did - do a Google search for ASUS V9999 GT GE.

As already mentioned, depending on how soon you want to upgrade, you'd probably be best either getting a 7800GT or holding off for the 7900 series. Maybe even check the X1800 series out as they're nice cards at nice prices these days. It'd be a bit pointless to upgrade from a 6800 GT to a another 6800 GT, albeit with twice the RAM. You might as well hold off and get something that'll be newer and faster as well as providing more RAM.

 

[AWPC]

I know the exact card you got as I had the 256MB version!

Only upgrade for you @ the moment is an AGP 7800GS. This will be faster than what you got but not by more than 15-20% tops.

You need to get a PCI-E mobo + DDR2 Ram + PCI-E gfx card @ some time in the future as no more AGP cards will be made which are any faster than the 7800GS.

I had to make the upgrade a few months ago and it is hard as to get all @ once as not cheap.

@ Least you can sell your old parts and get anywhere from 30-50% of the cost of newer replacements. Wait too long though and your AGP card will be worth a lot less than it is now (currently around £100 secondhand).

 

[ACESHIGH]

Dont go for the 7800GS - it is almost as quick as a 6800Ultra & it would be pointless considering your current card. Best to switch to PCIE imo.

The X1800XL (£211) is a cracker of a card & would be a good upgrade for you.

But if you can stretch then this would be even better (& imo the best bang per buck card at present) ...
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) £276.07 Including VAT
It would also run FEAR nicely.

 

[simon_xazza]

Thanks very much for all your help. X1800XL/T and new PCIe mobo it is

 

[HangTime]

For the record IIRC the 128meg Asus 6800GT was also crippled by having much slower memory (700mhz DDR1 instead of 1000mhz DDR3). So effectively it was just a 6800 with extra pipelines enabled and a slight speed bump on the core.

Therefore, the 7800GS would perhaps be a fair bit faster than your current card (compared to a 'proper' 6800GT).

That said, personally I'd still go down the pci-E route since AGP cards tend to carry a price premium. Also gives you a chance to jump on the Opteron bandwagon (better for overclocking/value than the X2)