Socket 370 & 8x AGP? Is there such an item?

[-=Mr_B=-]

Well, pretty much as the topic says. I'm trying to figure out if there is a 8x AGP equipped motherboard for my retro build. I'm thinking Gainward Golden Sample 7800GS+ 512MB or XFX 7950 550M 512MB, both being way overkill for the Celeron 1300 that i got to put in as the over all engine of the bus...
Minimum 3 RAM slots, if possible more, and even better if it can actually use my 512MB RAM, since that leaves me with 1GB RAM, which i would like... A lot.

If there simply isn't anything to fulfill such "needs" i'll simply stick to the 4x AGP motherboard i got. (GA-60XT) But i'm not entirely sure the 7-series GFX are safe to put in a "universal" AGP slot (No keying) so in that case i might downgrade to the Radeon 9500Pro...
Anyway, just wanted to pick your brains, and see if i could get any wiser. I just might end up saving the 7800/7950 cards for the future, if i cant find a way to move forward on this.

Thank you for your time.
B!

 

[Dr. McCoy]

I seriously doubt 4x was around when Socket 370 was being made, I believe 8x came to be early on in the Socket A era.
I guess it's possible some Socket 7's had it but I've never seen one before.

 

[-=Mr_B=-]

I seriously doubt 4x was around when Socket 370 was being made,

1 x AGP 2x/4x mode & AGP 2.0 compliant

Source
In fact, Everything seems to have 2x/4x, but 8x, is less available. People mention that they found some motherboard with 8x support, but they never name it, so it's hard to know if it's true or not.

For the 9500Pro it doesn't really matter. It doesn't use enough bandwidth for it to be an issue. But the 7800/7950 cards do.

Poking about i found a dual socket tulatin board, it still only has 4x, but gives me a 4'th memory socket.(GA-6VTXD) But i'm not sure if ECC memories are optional or not on this board. *sigh* It might be worth picking one up if it's optional, i don't feel like having to buy more memory, i got loads of the stuff already.
B!

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

AGP 8x would be easier to find on Skt A's.
Maybe go that route one day, find a cheap Duron and underclock it much like I did with my retro rig.

That said, I'm not sure if there's a huge difference between AGP 4x and 8x.

 

[-=Mr_B=-]

AGP 8x would be easier to find on Skt A's.

I believe you are right. But for what ever reason, i have a lot more "spares" laying around after fixing and scavenging Intel systems, then AMD's. So when it comes to parts availability, i'm a lot better of with a Intel setup. Which was why it became a P-III system. Everything from the era has 9x driver support, i think i even located 9x drivers for the 7800GS+/7950GT AGP cards (Won't know until i try em) meaning i can dual boot anything back as far as Windows 95, & XP while getting "reasonable" performance for legacy Windows XP games as well.

That said, I'm not sure if there's a huge difference between AGP 4x and 8x.

Probably not. The Radeon 9500Pro or even 9700/9800Pro's wont use all the bandwidth, it's just the nVidia 6/7K series cards that do, apparently. I'll figure something out.
Lets put it like this. I've been using a Via C7 800MHz CPU, with a VIA S3 GFX chip, and a grand total of 128MB RAM. Since this comes in the package of a HP T5530, it's not really user friendly, and cant be upgraded that much. Actually, only the harddrive can be swapped, which i replaced with a larger DOM. It fills the slot nicely as a low power unit, at 18-20 watts, but, it doesn't perform as well as i wish, and there is "issues" moving ahead, since it's VGA only. Anyway, i'm quite sure 4x AGP will be more then a lift for the over all performance, i'm just being anal, and checking before i spend to much time building something that i might end up pulling apart en replacing pats on later.

Hell, turns out i got two 1.3GHz Tulatin celerons. SL5ZJ, both of em. To bad they aren't SMP enabled, or i'd definitely grab that dual mobo. Only one CPU would actually do anything in Windows 9x, but the dual boot to XP would suddenly be really useful.
Meh. I'm still on the fence. For now i'll just go play Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries on the T5530
B!

 

[Mr.Scott]

There are no PIII boards that support AGP 8x. Hell, some early P4 boards didn't even support it. You'll need to go socket A at the earliest for AGP 8x support.

FWIW, A PIII will bottleneck that card hard.

 

[-=Mr_B=-]

There are no PIII boards that support AGP 8x.

But.... But... But i read on the Internet that there IS some. How can Internet fail me like this?
Admittedly, i sort of came to this conclusion my self. It sucks, but what can one do.

FWIW, A PIII will bottleneck that card hard.

What? No, you think? Really? Damn! ;- )
It is, of course, pure insanity to combine what essentially is a 7800GTX or a 7950 GT with a P-III CPU. But thats quite all right, i've never been known for my sensibility :- )
B!

 

[Mr.Scott]

I didn't mean to sound derogatory. As a purveyor/bencher of the antiquated platforms, I'm not exactly known for my sensibility either.

 

[-=Mr_B=-]

I had to google that word. Derogatory. Don't worry about it, i didn't :- )
B!

 

[JCLW]

i815 boards use 1.5v AGP so the 7800GS would work.

You would get the best CPU performance from your Tualatin on an i440BX board, and could use 1GB of ram, but would only have AGP 2x (3.3v signalling) and ATA-33.