AGP 4x vs. 8x

[tgxiii]

I will be building a computer for my brother, used mostly for gaming. I was looking into the ECS K7S5A Pro motherboard because Fry's has them for really cheap, but I noticed that it only has AGP 4x support. My question is: Is it worth it to pay the extra money to get 8x support? My brother likes to play FPS games like Counter-Strike and RTS like Warcraft III. Keep in mind that budget is a big constraint.

If 8x is the way to go, I will have no problems deciding what video card to get. I need suggestions on 4x cards costing around $100. Thanks.

[Kruzin]

There is no real world difference in performance between 4x and 8x. And you can run an 8x card in a 4x mobo, it will just run at 4x.
It's all just a marketing ploy.

AGP 8x is recommended if you have a serious need to transfer multiple GBs worth of texture data from the GPU to system memory. Think professional 3D design applications, not games.

Anyway, yes, Kruzin is dead on correct. Gaming performance will be impacted by less than a couple of percent, as most current video cards offer more than onboard memory for the texture storage requirements of nearlly all popular games.

Robert Richmond

[tgxiii]

Thanks for the input.

[tgxiii]

I am looking into a GeForce Ti 4200, more specifically a Chaintech 128 MB. It's $114 with shipping at http://www.micropro.com/item.htm?ite...CCT4200-8X-128

We don't plan to upgrade for quite a while, so we want a video card that is good enough for all the latest games. Would this be good enough? Would a Radeon 9600 be better?

[Peter M]

Yes, I'd be looking for a Radeon 9600. Lower power consumption, DX9 hardware, and on the non-pro versions, fanless cooling.
And they definitely work fine in K7S5A - I just come from upgrading one to an H.I.S Radeon 9600

[tgxiii]

Other than noise, are there any advantages to fanless cooling?

[Telexen]

"no real difference between 4x and 8x ... blah blah blah"

Yeah, right. They said the same thing about 4x and 2x when 4x was new.

Wait until there's a game or any application that can actually utilize it, then it will be worth it...whether it's right for you or not depends on how long you're planning on keeping the card.

[gerald_weigel]

I have the Ti4200 and I also run the K7S5A ver. 3.1, I have had no probloems at all, and am very pleased with the performance.

[Kruzin]

Originally posted by Telexen
"no real difference between 4x and 8x ... blah blah blah"

Yeah, right. They said the same thing about 4x and 2x when 4x was new.

Spoken like someone completely duped by marketing.
I will go farther, and say there is no practical difference between 2x and 8x, and only a negligable difference between 1x and 8x, and even then only on cards with less than 32meg of ram.

If you don't believe it, run some benchmarks at the various AGP rates.

Todays cards are loaded with 64, 128 and even 256meg of ram. Games are (for the most part) still designed to run with 32meg or less. Thus, there is NO NEED for AGP transfers to occur, and the AGP rate is meaningless. The only place it will make a difference, as RR pointed out, is in massive texture renderings, typically only seen in high-end design apps.