IS AGP DEAD?

[Skree]

these arguments have been going on since the first, early days of PC's, even before ISA became standard. This also happened with AT/PS2 connectors, as well as PCI over ISA, AGP over PCI when AGP was invented, and now PCI-E (&E2) Vs AGP.

These arguments happen whenever a convention becomes obsolete. It would be ridiculous, in our (the enthusiast) market, to now build a brand new system with AGP unless you're NEVER going to need any kind of graphical high power.

For people on a budget, or people re-using old hardware, buying 2nd hand, or those that will never need graphical high power such as office type pc's AGP is a very viable option.

I've still got a CRT television, a Sony Trinitron - It's old but the picture is phenomenal and it's the right size for the room. I wish to use this to play back video style media that is available to me.

As a result of my latest network upgrade a number of parts have become available for me to assemble a low spec PC to use as an entertainment PC. SKTA Athlon XP-M, DFI Infinity, 1gb ram, GeForce4 Ti4200 128mb, 480w tagan psu, case, 80gb spinpoint ATA for a bootable drive.. So the graphics is not only AGP but old AGP too. It should do me for a couple more years, or at least till i upgrade to a HD TV...

AGP is NOT dead, but it is in its twilight years. Generally the geek (yep, that's us ) market seems to get things a bit before they become common in mass made PC's which is when the old tech starts being phased out. You will still be able to buy new AGP cards as legacy devices for old machines for probably 3 to 4 years, at which point they will be phased out entirely. PCI was a good 8 years old before the last common ISA expansion cards were phased out. You could still buy new PCI graphics cards as late as a year ago.. You can probably still get them now but they'll be very rare.

AGP will take a long time to die fully and truely.

 

[shiver]

I am upgrading soon but my current setup still hosts an AGP card (7600GS).

I'm not the keenest gamer so graphics isn't really a necessity, having said that I run a 2407WFP and 2007FP off this card and it copes admirably.

Obviously my new system is going to have a PCI-E card and to have a half decent AGP card would cost more than a better PCI-E card.

 

[Delvis]

Geforce 8 on AGP to be honest

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Nvidia-GeForce-AGP,news-26246.html

Muwahaha

 

[J.D]

It's dead to the people who care. All the others with older systems are happy their PC turns on and shows a picture. Never mind if loading times could be halved with better hardware, cheaper graphics in PCI-E and other features. The majority of AGP systems aren't probably used for much more than surfing, looking at pictures and printing etc.

At least it's what I've found as I repair a lot of family and friends systems and unless they game, the PC is used for surfing, printing, downloading and putting the holiday pics in the picture folder. I've told them all about the benefit of upgrading and how cheap it is but as long as it's working they really don't care.

So AGP is dead to the enthusiast maybe but not at all in the mainstream.

 

[V F]

something is not right with those dates, agp3 was out after pcie1?? that doesn't sound right at all. pcie1 doesn;t seem to be as old as 2002.

the only point you make is using dodgey dates with no vaildity to them. even i could slap out some dates like those but lets not get into that sort of thing shall we.

It is wrong, PCI-E cards never hit until at least mid 2005 or slightly later.

As when I got my X850XT in June 05 there was no PCI-E card to buy. So PCI-E cards could have probably been in stores by late 05.

Matrox Announces World's First Low-profile PCI Express x1 Graphics Card: Release date: August 3, 2005 http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/466155

With x1 design, Millennium G550 LP PCIe is compatible with all compliant PCI Express slots, including x1, x4, x8, and x16

The Matrox Millennium G550 LP PCIe graphics card will be available in September 2005

Erm - click the links - they are Intel branded White Papers - unfortunately PCI-SIG keep everything under look and key ...

Please dont make a fool of yourself...

ps3ud0

It may be, but PCI-E GFX cards weren't on shelves until fall 2005.

The Board of Directors approved the PCI Express Specification Rev 1.0 in July 2002.

The technology was announced in 2002. Most likely... Even then when I got my Abit NF7-S in July/August 03 there was still no mention of PCI-E until early 2004.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_15266.html

 

[ps3ud0]

It is wrong, PCI-E cards never hit until at least mid 2005 or slightly later.

As when I got my X850XT in June 05 there was no PCI-E card to buy. So PCI-E cards could have probably been in stores by late 05.

It may be, but PCI-E GFX cards weren't on shelves until fall 2005.

The technology was announced in 2002. Most likely... Even then when I got my Abit NF7-S in July/August 03 there was still no mention of PCI-E until early 2004.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_15266.html

The dates arent wrong - just it seems some couldnt be bothered to read the post correctly especially when the heading said 'Dates of White Papers'

Sorry mate but most of us on Geforce 6800s PCIe picked them up late 2004 not 2005 - I then picked up my X850XT PE Feb 2005 when they were still very difficult to get hold of...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units#GeForce_6_series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ATI_Graphics_Processing_Units#Radeon_R400_PCIe_series

ps3ud0

 

[V F]

they were still very difficult to get hold of...

Ah, thats why I probably never saw them in 2004 then. I just remember people discussing it in 04.

I knew there was some PCI-E X850's/NV6 Series kicking about and Crossfired X850's getting advertised, but nevertheless mass quantities never hit until 2005.
Even the Mac towers never got PCI-E until Oct 05 which was the 7800GT.

 

[ps3ud0]

Ah, thats why I probably never saw them in 2004 then. I just remember people discussing it in 04.

I knew there was some PCI-E X850's/NV6 Series kicking about and Crossfired X850's getting advertised, but nevertheless mass quantities never hit until 2005.
Even the Mac towers never got PCI-E until Oct 05 which was the 7800GT.

Not really - the X850XT PE was a notorious paper lauch and so was very hard to get until Spring 05 - Geforce 6 PCIe were available mainstream in good quantities from late 2004...

Macs arent really known to be cutting edge especially for GFX power...

ps3ud0

 

[Jleo]

IS AGP DEAD?

No agp is still very much alive, e.g. play the latest and greatest at decent settings(not high/Ultra mind you even the latest just about manage that) you couldn't buy a low end pci-e to out perform the 1950pro it will make a very good attemp at the new Crysis demo which says a lot, having said this the rest of your spec is very important i.e. memory cpu hdd setup.

Waits for standard Cyber-Mav response :yawn:

Popcorn while we wait?

ps3ud0

I'm sure the OP is glad of your input

 

[Kanifee]

APG still serves a purpose and for serious gamers AGP is only just dying its death now, for everyone else it has a year or two left in it yet.
And isnt PCI-E2 just a revision of the PCI-E technology? and therefore PCIE is just evolving and not dying to make way for PCI-E2?
Its like saying AGP x4 died to make way for AGP x8 when infact is just evolved into the other.
I even think mid range cards come NV 9xxx series will be better value in the PCI-E format.

 

[Mekrel]

In my opinion, it's not a case of what cards come out on AGP, it's all to do with chipset support.

All the latest chipsets have been native PCI-E, so if you ever need to change socket it usually means (but not in all cases) a new chipset so AGP won't be a choice.

Then again, there still are motherboards like the ASRock boards that use different IC's to provide AGP still but these are value boards from a value brand.

I don't see the reason of keeping to AGP when everything is seemingly going against it (card choice, price and chipset support).

 

[TomL]

Not Dead in my House & still getting on BF2 maps First.
I am old & so is my system & i have to say the more i get out of it the better i feel. I have seen Thousands of pounds spent over the years & still they don't beat me onto a Map
Nowt wrong with AGP for those on a Budget or just getting the most from there Current old system like me.

Of course the people with their spandangly new expensive machines play the game at bigger resolutions with more fluid motion and higher detail

/comforts self for buying expensive machine

Aren't AGP cards more expensive than their PCI-E counterparts, meaning it'd be cheaper to get a budget PCI-E system than a budget AGP system :/?

For example: PCI-E vs AGP

I suppose the AGP has a slightly faster core frequency, and PCI-E native components such as the motherboard may be more expensive than AGP ones - and it's been said obviously there is no point in going AGP if you're building a totally new machine, but AGP prices must be set to go with the supply & demand rule: less people interested in it, price rises, and that happens till its phased out?

 

[ACESHIGH]

In my opinion, it's not a case of what cards come out on AGP, it's all to do with chipset support.

All the latest chipsets have been native PCI-E, so if you ever need to change socket it usually means (but not in all cases) a new chipset so AGP won't be a choice.

Then again, there still are motherboards like the ASRock boards that use different IC's to provide AGP still but these are value boards from a value brand.

I don't see the reason of keeping to AGP when everything is seemingly going against it (card choice, price and chipset support).

Its realy all about what you currently have the way i see it. Old P4 or A64 boards with decent CPU's but only AGP sockets, can be improved markedly by changing an old 9800pro, X800pro, 6800GT etc to an X1950pro for a reasonably cheap amount (without much hassle) & keep an old system chugging along nicely.

So No AGP cards are far from dead, but the socket (or motherboards with it) pretty much are.

 

[fish99]

I wouldn't think twice about recommending another AGP card for my dads PC. He's on Skt478 P4 3.2 / 2GB DDR400 / 7600 GT and has no money to upgrade the whole thing. Stick a X1950 Pro AGP in there for £90 though and the PC has another 12-18 months life in it.

So AGP is not dead for everyone.

 

[Talrinys]

with 2600xt comming to agp and rumours of nvidias 86 series and possibly 9 series cards also comming to agp, id say agp is gonna have a longer life than pci-e 1.0 seeing how pci-e 2.0 is gonna replace pcie v1.

doubt we gonna see the end of agp for a long time yet.

You have compatability between PCI-E versions though, that means a lot.

 

[J.D]

Read post number 44.

If the PC is for surfing, putting pictures on and MSN then who cares as long as it's working?. I fix a lot of people's PC's in my area and nobody is bothered for upgrading. My gaming m8's are all on PCI-E but nearly everyone else is on AGP and only the people that have bought a PC in the last 2 years or so have PCI-E. They don't know what they've got though. I say "AGP or PCI-E?" and I get a distant look followed by a brief sense of desperation until they fold crying on the floor asking me what language am I speaking.

If I was just surfing and watching movies then I could easily go back to my single core 3700+ with the 9800Pro. What would I lose? ..

 

[Generator]

Tomorrow will be the last day I use AGP full time
AGP, you have served us well

 

[Sean_UK]

Well, considering you can sell a decent agp card along with memory & mobo on certain auction sites for; not hard to jump on the PCI-E boat by only adding say £50 to £100 on-top, and yet still build far superior system (Providing old PSU + case etc are still decent enough).

AGP will linger for a while yet.

 

[EffBee]

As long as there are people around like me who are running PCs with older AGP only motherboards, perhaps not even as the main computer in the house, and who passionately detest rebuilding an OS from scratch to get it "just so", then AGP will linger on, and on, and on.

Its much more acceptable to replace some RAM and a video card to get a bit more power (thus lifetime) out of a machine than go through the hassle of effectively building a new one. Once you get to the stage of EVERYONE having to scrap their old PCs or to replace their mobos to support the desired processor and peripherals then at that point AGP is dead.

On an old PC, even for games, don't underestimate the difference a new top notch AGP card and memory upgrade can make.

 

[AsusCoolUk]

AGP or any other bit of kit you've got in your PC is'nt dead until it stops doing what you want it to do. People come out with the statement 'AGP IS DEAD', well it might be for them but for others its still great.

Like I say, if your games run at the resolution you want, at the speed you want, with the quality you want, then whats the problem.

I wonder how many people upgrade their graphics cards when they dont need to.