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Difference between PCI Express & AGP

Hello All,

I was wondering what the performance difference between a AGP video card and a PCI Express card is.

I see a lot more motherboards coming out with the PCI Express. Is this the trend of the future? I'm trying to get a new home system for one of my designers. We have a couple of Matrox Parhelia 128mb cards left over from our old office systems, that i would like to use. These are a AGP card. I'm finding it difficult to get a new quality motherboard with AGP. Any information would be appreciated.

Our current office system is:

P4 3.2GHz, 800FBS on a AOpen AX4SG MaxII motherboard

2mb ram

XP Pro SP2

Nvivia Quadro FX500 Driver: 7.1.8.4 (solidworks recommended)

SW 2005 SP5

and

SW 2006 SP2

Reply to
Kevin Scheeringa
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I'm not sure of the difference for CAD software, but for games PCI-E is noticable faster.

Yup. And I'm sure in a few more years there will be PCI-E x2.

You should still be able to find a mobo with an AGP slot. Check out pricewatch.com

Reply to
Jeff N

Thanks Jeff. That gives me some info. I'll just have to look a little harder..

Reply to
Kevin Scheeringa

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This is a short video that shows the difference. Basically it shows that 8X AGP allows the video processor to communicate with the system board one direction (send/receive) at a time, and at a rate of up to 2.1 GB/sec. With PCI Express, it can talk both directions at the same time, and at a rate of up to 4 GB/sec for each direction. So, almost a 4:1 advantage?

WT

Reply to
Wayne Tiffany

I assume that the designer is going to be running SolidWorks. If so, I would not use the Matrox Parhelia boards. According to the SolidWorks Graphics Card test reports, they are supposed to work, at least with SW04 and 05, but not many people in the news group have anything good to say about them. Spend a few hundred bucks to get a low-end Nvidia Quadro or ATI FireGL.

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"

Reply to
Jerry Steiger

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