MAJOR COMPUTER CHANGES COMING SOON! I was considering upgrading my home system or building a couple new systems to create a network with for my house, and while looking at mainboards I saw a new slot(PCI-X 64bit or PCI EXPRESS). I researched it found I must of been asleep for to many weeks, that's all it takes these days to lose grip on computer advancements. From the new slot I learned AGP slots will soon be history, and Microsoft is bring a new O'S out. Next Generation will be rolling out soon, so stop upgrading your computers, your wasting your money. Microsoft is coming out with a new O/S called Longhorn in 2005. AGP video cards will most likely become obsolete, among other things. A PANEL OF Intel specialists working on the PC Express specifications confirmed today that when products are released it means the death of the AGPx spec, with rev eight being the last. more here PCI Express means death of AGP standard A PANEL OF Intel specialists working on the PC Express specifications confirmed today that when products are released it means the death of the AGPx spec, with rev eight being the last. While PCI Express means X16 next generation graphics delivering 4GBs per second per direction, that may mean that when Nvidia releases its PCI Express card, you'll have to buy a whole new PC to plug it into. more here
The slot and the cards are already out, pre-built systems by companies such as NEC are built already for a couple of thousand UK quids. Id say AGP has some time left yet, so don't worry to much and besides if you plyed the waiting game you would never upgrade!!...always something new around the corner. cheers.
Longhorn was slated for release in late 2005, the latest is that it will be launched in the middle of 2006...2 more years... AGP is very FAST and most games don't even test the potential of AGP 8X at this point. If you test a video card at AGP 4X and then at 8X, the difference is so small that it wouldn't be noticed in 'real-world' game playing. When you will be able to buy the 1st PCI Express video card (at a premium), you will see NO real benefit. As time goes by (estim. up to you) and game makers take advantage of the new technology and as motherboard manufacturers phase out AGP slots, the benefits will become apparent. If you are not interested in gaming, the new PCI Express slot means even less to you for video applications of today. I am sure there will be other applications as well as video applications in the future (HD video?) that will be greatly enhanced by this new standard. I think you have plenty of time, though. In doubt, you can always check into the motherboards with VIA chipsets. VIA has announced that they will 'offer a dual video-interface solution that includes BOTH AGP and PCI Express.
Indded this is very true for this generation of games Very true -- if you suggest waiting then make sure you you wait for a long time because when these new spec's come out -- goddamn they are gonna be expensive! Havnt been a VIA fan since the nF2 but damn thats a very kewl concept! Wonder how they are gonna implement that ... like they did with PCI/ISA slots of old?
A lot of changes are on the horizon which is why I think I'll just keep tweaking what I have for a little longer. http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040628_170449.html _X_X_X_X_X_[small] "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." Sherlock Holmes (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930)[/small]
Ahh, I remember my 12MB voodoo 2's running in SLI, Allowed me to crank up the resolution...that was about it, but its a sweet memory. **mm, ive got 24mb graphics memory**
True, AGP is being phased out but those with AGP cards can still use a PCI Express bridge to work with newer motherboards. As long as there is not much of a performance difference when using the bridge, I don't see why there would be many problems. But as far as upgrading goes, everything becomes obsolete within a year anyways. =) Thank you Moore's Law.
A link to the PCI Express Bridge "thingy." I didn't know of it either. http://embeddedstar.com/press/content/2004/6/embedded14979.html _X_X_X_X_X_[small] "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." Sherlock Holmes (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930)[/small]
