[ap673]

OK heres the deal, I don't know what I shoud do. Right now I have a pretty good rig, overclocked xp2600-m and 9800nonpro overclocked. I don't know if I should just keep the AXP platform and save up for an AGP8x 6800GT now, or wait til spring/sumer next year and buy A64/NF4/PCI-E platform and get a PCI-E 6800GT. So if I buy the 6800GT now i'll pretty much hafta keep it for a year. Is there really ganna be a difference between AGP and PCI-E cards til the end of next year? Should I just get the 6800GT and enjoy it and upgrade to an A64 platform without PCI-E sometime next year? Or would it be stupid to waste money on another high-end AGP8X card and be stuck with it when PCI-E is starting to come about.

[dicecca112]

if you know you are going to upgrade to A PCI-E, DDR-2, A64 system, then I would keep my old system and save my money until the new technology matures, and then built an awesome system.

[ap673]

But the only thing holding me back is really the difference between AGP8x and PCI-E in the near future. Are there going to be games that are actually ganna go over the AGP8x bandwidth ceiling? I know games right now don't, but who knows maybe next year it will. Otherwise i'd have no problem with buying a 6800GT right now and upgrading to A64 later and use the same video card.

[dicecca112]

I think the answer is no, no game will use it I will wager, probably until HL2 comes out.

[ap673]

Well HL2 comes out in 2 weeks so....

[tonyou]

I have a similar system to what you have and is thinking about the same thing. I am leaning towards getting a decently priced 6800GT now to tide me over until PIC-E matures on AMD platform.

[skidooosl]

I would stay with what you have now and wait about a year or two.... then you will get a HUGE upgrade and the system you have now will still be great in 2 years.

[goon]

I'm waiting for the PCI-E to come out too....

[Syx]

I say go with the AGP

[lilxvietxboi]

AGP

Heres my thinking. Whats the difference between AGP 4x and 8x? (The answer is barely nothing. You cannot tell if its in 8x or 4x except that 4x may be more stable.) AGP speeds are not a bottleneck at the point where the cards need more bandwithd. So the difference in speed from PCI-E(16x or 32x i forget the exact speed compared to AGP) and AGP(8x), would be neglible, and won't be noticable for quite some time, so save up and wait for the prices to drop. One thing that might be good for a PCI-E would be the nVidia SLI cards(Dual 6800's), but who would want to spend ~$1k on a videocard. On another note, get ATi :-p

At this point in time, there are only videocards made for PCI-E, am i correct? The next thing would probably be audigy and scisi cards? What benefit will PCI-E have at this moment?(I think its forward compatible, PCI in PCI-E would work, but not PCI-E in PCI)

[sfa ok]

There will always be something new around the corner, the best value is to get what's just under the highest end at the moment, since the really high end stuff has insane prices that you won't see the benefit from.

[Chowdy]

Your computer is still very competitive, i think the best thing to do right now is to wait for the new tech around the corner (DDR2, PCIe, etc...) to mature, as someone earlier said.

And no, this is not going to put you in a perpetual waiting cycle, because DDR2 and PCIe are big moves, and the next "cycle" will probably be in a while, just as PCI had its stake for years, and AGP, and DD1, etc...

[Docta_Z]

AGP.

PCI-X is too brand new and not properly matured. Native support for AGP will continue for a couple years before it's phased out anyways. You'll upgrade again waaay before that.

You'll also be waiting till christmas or 1st quarter 05 for a decent pCI-X mobo/card combo. Plus there is really no difference between AGP/PCI-X speeds and scores with today's technology.

Go with AGP.

[Tim-E T]

I have a Abit Nf7-S with a 2500+ barton and a ATI 9500np 128mb. As you can see I have a worse card then you have bbbuuuttt: I am going to wait for PCI-Express to mature and then get a socket 939 sytem with a Nvidia card. It all depends on your needs. If you need better performance now your only choice is to get a card now. If you can make and do and save then you can do exactly that: make do and save your money.

BTW Docta_Z it is PCI-Express(PCI-E) NOT PCI-X (which is something different).
Does Docta_Z stand for Doctor Zoidberg from Futurama?

[Enigma422]

AGP should be around for another year or two, so if you upgrade at least once a year then I would go with AGP now and get a PCI-E on your upgrade next year. If you don't then I would wait until PCI-E comes out.

In short, go AGP if you are either looking for a short term upgrade or plan on keeping your hardware for more than a year. If you want long term upgradability for your video card then PCI-E is the way to go. I hope what I said made sense.

[MoreGooder]

In my opinion, the only thing attractive for PCI-E is the SLI products we'll be seeing from NVidia. SLI is old tech really, (Voodoo 2), but for the PCI-E archy. If you don't know already, this tech uses two video cards to divide the work load up. Once we have 2 PCI-E 16X slots on motherboards... Look out! We'll be looking at some serious graphics computation that approaches real-time rendering of quality that will rival the polished and highly refined look we see in major motion pictures such as Lord of the Rings. Until SLI comes to fruition I'm holding onto my AGP 8X system.

Downside.... two high end video cards to enable SLI will likely cost more than all the other components in your typical gamer's computer combined. Start saving your pennies.... er... um, make that quarters.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

i think sli is going to be overrated. game designers will not rework games, or design games around this newfound source of power. if a game needs a brand new $3000 rig to play it, it won't sell that well.

if you can get 100fps in a game with one card, is 160 frames at the same settings really going to help?

[ap673]

Ya thats true. Right now I think the best thing is to just wait and save up. I guess I just won't rush into anything and get tempted, because honestly my system is good enough now. Heck I run source smooth as hell. Eye candy is just not worth the extra 300 bucks.

[lilxvietxboi]

moregooder jocked my post :-p... haha

yup save up! agp will still be goin on for a long way to come.. look at pci videocards they are still there!!!

[ap673]

It really just player preference. I think the best thing to do if you have 9800/5900 and above with a xp-m overclocked is to just wait til your system actually starts to lag games at the reso you want. It will probably take a while, so ill save up for s939 A64/NF4/PCI-E card. Thanks for the insight guys!