Agp 4x or Agp 8x?

zman_acura

zman_acura

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

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Not just for guild wars but in general what difference does agp 4x and agp 8x make? I have agp 4x running a 9600xt would it be worth upgrading my mobo to something more decent or would there not be much of a change?

Principa Discordia

Principa Discordia

Site Contributor

Join Date: Apr 2005

England.

In my experience there isn't actually much difference between 4x and 8x as long as the graphics card is decent.

Sir Skullcrasher

Sir Skullcrasher

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

California

15 over 50 [Rare]

W/Mo

I'm running a Radeon x800 xt PE on my 4x AGP mobo... and i have to say it look WAY better than my old videocard can do (my old card, Geforce Ti4200) but i do notice that sometime the graphics or monsters would pop in or out... so that something weird i have notice.

Rayea

Rayea

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

west yorkshire, Uk

Sisters of Serenity

N/Mo

basically, a 4x card is only going to be able to deal with Dirx9 on a software basis.

software version will play, but its mainly designed to use up to Dirx8.1c or below in its hardware verion.

8x, or the newer PCI-express versions, which are (i think) 16x are designed to work both. althought the older 8x types (Nvidias below the FX levels and Radeons under the 9550) are only going up to the dirx8.1 in hardware (i have a Ti 4800se running here, and its fine)
the newes ones and the ones above the levels i mensioned will go all the way past Dirx9 in hardware, which is supposed to be better.

so yeah, its just faster and better graphics i the main.
mind you, if your board only goes up to 4x, and you pop in a 8x, sometimes there can be problems so if you ever upgrade just the card, better keep an eye on it unless the board is 8x

Meat Ball

Meat Ball

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2005

AGP 4x: 266MHz clock, 16 bytes/clock, Bandwidth: 1066MB/s
AGP 8x: 533MHz clock, 32 bytes/clock, Bandwidth: 2.1GB/s

The difference, about double the bandwidth which for some games will make a considerable impact.

http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_AGP.html

Algren Cole

Algren Cole

Banned

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Principa Discordia
In my experience there isn't actually much difference between 4x and 8x as long as the graphics card is decent.

true...kinda.

at 8x the bandwidth is doubled....but most games don't utilize more than 4x worth of bandwidth...so it's impossible to notice a difference

zman_acura

zman_acura

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

Thx for the help guys. It helped me understand it alot better

Tommer

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jul 2005

Ontario, Canada

Pyschoptic Army

E/N

agp4x would bottleneak most of Todays video cards(most of the FX's too)..but then if u look at agp8x too PCI-E16x.. there is hardly a difference in OVER Frames per second in any game.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

Personally, I look at 8x as a kind of Turbo on a car. You don't necessarily need to use it, but it's there if you need the extra performance.

Without the Turbo, you could hit Lag and this could hinder performance when it's needed.

However, as others have said, it may not make much of a difference all of the time, but will show up if you don't have it.

Calimar

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2005

Silver Limon

E/Me

Just make sure your motherboard supports the 8x - what no one mentioned is the difference in voltage and current between the two. IF it enters the slot, you could damage your mainboard. Not funny.

Hardware support for 3d helps a lot, but it all depends on how much the game expects of the card. I've got a 4x Radeon 9250, works fine, rarely experienced any slowdowns. I'd rather upgrade my i-net connection than my video hardware... if I didn't have T1 already. Still get lag at times, especially using teamspeak. Weird.

Lard Taylor

Lard Taylor

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: May 2005

Barrie, ON, Canada

Balthazar's Knights

W/R

I noticed a fairly big difference using AM3, I went up 7k going from an AGP4X board(Gigabyte GA7DXR) to an AGP8X board(Asus A7N8X-X). Most of my games, including this one, play faster.

glockjs

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

no. not much of difference. specially to make it worth an upgrade. do a google on "agp 8x vs 4x" or something to that effect. benchies show it all