General Graphics card questions

[winterlude]

My current system only has AGP 4, even though my vid card (9600 AIW) supports AGP 8.

How big an improvement might I see with an AGP8x board?

Is PCI-E faster (currently) than AGP cards?

I'm on a really tight budget, so I view my purchases as investments (for several years).

I'm leaning towards a budget MB that supports AGP8 and portting my existing card for my next system, but if PCI-E is much faster, that would give me something to consider.

Thanks in advance

 

[imported_Kensai]

There won't really be a difference unless you're running something that actually uses the video bandwidth provided by AGP 8X or PCI-E x16.
(Superly god AutoCad with dual Quadro FX4400s in SLI might saturate the AGP 8X bus)
You should be fine with AGP 4X though if you want to upgrade your system, I'd suggest PCI-E as AGP 8X is being phased out pretty quickly.

 

[biostud]

0

 

[winterlude]

Thanks for the reply Kensai. I remember review years ago that AGP 8x wasn't much different, but I was wondering if things had changed in the graphics market concerning bandwidth.
I'll stick with my current system for now. Plays Doom3 and Halflife2 good enough for me.

 

[RussianSensation]

Investing into AGP 8x or PCIe for performance purposes is a waste of money.
Investing into PCIe motherboard for future compatibility, product availability and upgradability is a smart decision.

Keep the current setup until your next system upgrade to a PCI-e motherboard. Cheers.

 

[thunderroller]

PCI-E will give better output