AGP Question

Question

According to the documention, my Dimension 8250 supports AGP 4X. Should I be able to run an AGP 8X graphics card? I know it wouldn't run as fast as 8X, but would a good AGP graphics card be an upgrade to my ATI Radeon 9700 Pro PCI that I'm using now?   Thanks.

mccarthy001 · Answer

(1) Yes, the card will run in 4X mode on your machine.   (2) nVidia GeForce 6600 GT or 6800 GS (latter is better)

tigerwolf7 · Answer

8x has twice the memory bandwidth (around 2GB/s), it just dosen't translate to improved performance. In fact that's basically no difference between PCIe at x16 and x4 speeds.

sdavis44 · Answer

So then, Tigerwolf, I'll ask you specifically...I have a 3.06 GHz machine. Do you think upgrading from an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro to the 6800 GS will be a significant improvement? (Now I'll stop pestering! Heheh.)

Steve

tigerwolf7 · Answer

There's no performance difference at all between running a card at 4x rather than 8x.

sdavis44 · Answer

Thanks for your response...I'm shopping for a 6800 GS. One more question if you'd be so kind as to give me your opinion. Since my motherboard in only AGP 4X, is it going to totally crimp the performance? Or do you think I will still see a significant improvement over my Radeon 9700 Pro?

Thanks again.

Steve

sdavis44 · Answer

Wow...great! I'm curious then...what is the difference? Steve

mccarthy001 · Answer

8200/8250 have the AGP 4x slot so you need to purchase the 6800 GS AGP.

sdavis44 · Answer

Hmmm...now you've got me thinking it probably is AGP. But I would have sworn the Win XP hardware device manager (or the desktop video advanced settings adapter listing) listed it as PCI. Let me describe something in a VERY non-technical way. My Dell Dimension 8250 has about 5 slots all the same and 1 that is different. I THOUGHT the 5 slots were all PCI. They have the 9700 Pro, the sound card, etc.. The 'other' slot is currently empty...I was thinking it might be a single AGP slot. But now I don't know. Does this tell you anything?   (Regardless, I'm 99% sure my board will take the 6800 GS AGP card. My Dell docs specifically say that the MB supports 4x AGP.)   Steve

tigerwolf7 · Answer

Are you sure your current card is PCI? As far as I know, there were never any Radeon 9700s released in PCI format, only AGP. If it really is PCI, then it would perform even worse than the cards on that chart, so a 6800GS would be an even bigger upgrade.

The extra RAM on the 6800GS dosen't help a whole lot, but it's kind of of the lowest -end card that sees any benefit from 256 instead of 128MB. (Lower end cards that ship with more than 128MB are really just a marketing gimick to make the card look better than it is.)

tigerwolf7 · Answer

From what I can see in the manual, it looks like the 8250's motherboard should have 4 PCI slots and 1 AGP slot closest to the CPU.

AGP cards do show up as being on the PCI bus in the Device Manager, so that dosen't tell us much (AGP is basically sort of a super version of PCI from a technical standpoint.)

But at any rate, your system should definetly have an AGP slot, unless it's some sort of totally strange manufactering fluke :)

sdavis44 · Answer

The charts make me feel pretty good about the upgrade. But since you said 'no problem', I have to ask another question then...one that the charts you referred me to raised:   The chart is for AGP cards I believe. The 9700 Pro I want to replace is a PCI (not PCIe of course) card. Does that make a difference?   AND...does the fact that my 9700 Pro is 128 MB and the 6800 GS would have 256MB make any difference?     Steve Message Edited by sdavis44 on 02-28-2006 11:14 AM

tigerwolf7 · Answer

Hey, no problem. I'd guess it would be roughly a doubling in performance at worst (plus you'd get SM 3.0 support).

These charts should give an idea of the increase in performance. The 6800GS would perform close to a 6800GT, and the 9700Pro is listed on there:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/10/04/vga_charts_iv/page9.html

sdavis44 · Answer

Yeah...I think 4 PCI/1AGP is correct. That's pretty much what I thought. But that means my 9700 Pro is definitely in a PCI slot. (An AGP card wouldn't fit in PCI slot, would it??) And my one different slot (almost certainly the AGP slot) is closest to the CPU and is empty.   So I'm 99+% sure I can use the 6800 GS AGP in my PC in my vacant AGP slot, but I'm still a bit confused about my 9700 Pro being in a PCI slot. You had me convinced that the 9700 Pro was AGP.  :smileyhappy:   Oh well...not big deal...sounds like the 6800 GS AGP will work for me and be a very nice upgrade.   Steve

sdavis44 · Answer

Okay, I'm going to try to take advantage of your patience and expertise one last time...I think. :smileytongue:

I'm ready to buy, but now I need to select between the PNY, the XFX, the eVGA, or possible another brand of 6800 GS AGP 256 MB card. And I'm thinking I don't want an OC version. My PC is already rather noisy and I'm not that sure my power supply would handle it.

Got some final advice for me?

Thanks.

Steve

mccarthy001 · Answer

You're correct about all of the above.

Go with eVGA 6800 GS 256-MB AGP.

Some good rebate prices out there on that one.

Go to: Pricegrabber.com , follow links from Computers to Video Cards. search for 6800 GS. NewEgg, zipZoomFly, Monarch, all good retailers.

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