AGP 4X vs AGP Pro

[Rallycry]

Hi,

Looking to get a new mobo and I was wondering, should I care a lot whether the board has agp 4x or a pro slot ? I don't want to be left out of any future high tech video cards if they need the extra power. Thanks

 

[Bobby Manus]

I'm not 100% sure but i think the only difference in an AGP pro slot and an AGP 4x slot is the pro supports not only 4x, but 2x and 1x also. The 4xagp slot only suports 4x AGP.

 

[Rallycry]

Actually I think the main difference is the pro has extra pins for cards that may take more power. I do not think this is used in cards yet. I am not sure if it will become the standard in the newer, higher power vid cards. The 4X card does not have the extra pins but I am pretty sure it is backwards compliant with 1X,2X. I just wanted to know the forums opinion on how much of a factor it should be when upgrading to a new mobo. Thanks for your reply.

"Thank you for your support" - Bartels and James

 

[Daniel R]

Yes, both types of AGP 4X slots are backwards compatible with 2X and 1X. This is just like AGP 2X slots are backwards compatible with 1X. The only significant difference between a normal AGP 4X and an AGP 4X Pro slot is that the Pro slot allows you to use higher end graphics cards that required 50W or more of electricity. I don't know of any 3D graphics cards that required a Pro slot, but perhaps professional modeling cards do.

 

[Dr_Kildare]

My old faithful K7V has a AGP Pro slot on it... Excatly the same as a normal 4x capable slot (performance wise) just a tad longer as to supply Pro cards with more voltage 5V instead of 3.3V I think?

Few Professional cards use this & Asus did bring out a 64MB Geforce DDR Pro card if I recall...

 

[Rallycry]

Thanks for your help. I decided to not worry about the pro vs 4X question and bought a IWILL KK266-R. I decided I would rather have the ISA and extra PCI slot than the AGP pro. Again, thanks for your info.