I was wondering could anyone sum up the pros and cons for both AGPx8 and PCI-E?

Looking at getting a new card soon, not sure to go ATi or Nvidia.

I'm guessing motherboards only support either AGP or PCI-E, not both?

Any dis/advantages of having PCI-E?
Are there any boards that happen to work better with AGP/PCI-E? i.e run better/faster due to architect?

PCI-E is moving in, AGP is slowly moving out.

How much do you want to spend?

Are you upgrading mobo/cpu and stuff as well?

If not, best going with a video card that works with jor mobo. Otherwise, probably get a pci-e mobo so u have plenty of room for upgrade in the future.

They basically perform equally but as prot has already said AGP is now an obsolete technology and will soon cease to be on any new boards.

So if you were building a new computer it would be silly to buy an AGP based motherboard or else you are just going to have to upgrade it again in the future when you want a better card.

There is one board that supports both, an Asrock board... they do lots of crazy s*** like P4 board with an extra riser card for an AMD chip (obviously not at the same time). I personally wouldn't touch em though, kinda cool as a novelty if you are into that stuff but performance wise they haven't got the greatest reviews.

Any dis/advantages of having PCI-E?

Cheaper, faster and more choice of graphics cards in general.

I don't think you'll have much of an upgrade path for faster cards in future as AGP versions of future cards won't be released. Hell I don't think even some current high-end cards come in AGP form anymore.

The only disadvantage with PCIe is you'll have to have a PCIe mobo. So assuming you already have an AGP mobo you're turfing your old mobo. At that point you suffer the knock on effect - if your old mobo is Socket A (athlon XP) then you'll be buying a new CPU too and maybe new ram as well. So your upgrade could become quite expensive.

That said PCIe is coming in and AGP is being phased out. So sooner or later you'll need to make the shift. Just make sure you can cover all the stuff you need before you take the plunge.

PCI-E > PCI-E Mobo > New RAM > New CPU > New PSU. in that order

AGP > Old hardware > Less Perforamce boost as time goes on.

imho it's not worth getting an AGP card now unless you have a specific reason to do so and you are not really into gaming.

you don't need a new psu or new ram for pci-x

As a system builder, i recommend PCI-Express for its upgradeable nature.

As a backyard computer brudda, i recommend AGP cos thats easier for me to test your cactus board cos the less different formats the better.

I am in the middle of the two. I'm just gonna run my Athlon 2600/256MB Radeon system until such time as i have no choice but to go PCI-E

you don't need a new psu or new ram for pci-x

As a system builder,

I hope that as a system builder, you know the difference between PCI-X and PCIe ...

haha, owned.

It seems that no new cards are coming out in AGP format. That means you can't buy anything better than a 6800 Ultra from Nvidia or a X800 series cards from ATi.

Hehe beat me to it parabol.

And Mr Hardware there is the potential to need a new PSU and RAM. It really depends on how up to date the persons current system is. I've got a mate running an AGP based system with a 230W PSU and 266MHz ram. He's going to *have* to buy a new PSU and RAM when he upgrades. And I'm sure there are lots of other people in the same boat.

The main thing is that people get it into their heads that they need to look at all their PC components before doing an upgrade because they might wind up having to upgrade more than one thing. And it really sucks if you've got a limited budget - that you spend entirely on the mobo and vid card only to find you *do* need that new ram, and CPU, and PSU...

Some newer cards should be faster since there's no PCIe->AGP bridge, but everything coming out will pretty much only be PCIe anyway. In other words, if you want any upgrade path at all, you'll need PCIe.

I'm having the same dilemma, so for that reason I'll probably be buying an ASRock 939Dual (has both PCIe-16 and AGP8x) - that way I can use my 6800 now, and upgrade to a PCIe card later. Of course, to do that I need an A64 CPU as well, fortunately the RAM remains the same.

I was planing to get a new MOBO/CPU anyway. I've already got the ram. PSU is currently 350w. Might have to get another one (I assume running 4 HDD does have it's effects on the PSU).

So PCI-E is the way to go, anyone recommend a good board? Are there any bugs/problems with existing PCI-E boards being incompatible with certain videos cards and what not?

I want a AMD 64 3200+ with a 6800GT (does this card even come out in PCI-E?) but unsure of board.
Anyone have any recommendations?
fank you ^__^

I want a AMD 64 3200+ with a 6800GT

What type of games do you play?

I notice many people here play Source-based games, which are heavily CPU-dependent. If you fit into that category, I'd recommend a faster processor.

Here are my Barton CS:S benchmarks at various levels of overclocking for proof:

2500+ :: Stock 6600GT: 95 fps. Overclocked 6600GT (by 7%): 96 fps
3200+ :: Stock 6600GT: 118fps. Overclocked 6600GT (by 7%): 120fps

As you can see ... the processor is the bottleneck, even at 3200+ speeds .. with graphics card speed making very little difference!