PCI Express

[Tsukiyomi]

Not sure if this has been talked about yet, but it seems this will really help graphics reach to the next level. Intel said that this will replace the existing PCI and AGP making the data transfers much faster. All the big companies are working with Intel and with the upcoming releases such as Half-Life 2 and Doom im sure a lot of people will be excited seeing how many people are worried if their computers will be able to run these new games. Not sure the exact price ,but its probably gonna be a lot less than replacing a motherboard, but overall it looks promising. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Himura_san]

Yes that's why my video card/comp upgrade has to wait.

[MemnochTheCaT]

PCI Express won't make that much of a difference, except in the loading of graphics data TO the card. Think of it this way, most high end cards have 256mb of memory, and once the data is uploaded to the card, it's just the local speed between the GPU and video memory that is relevant, you're not sending anything over the AGP (or in this case, PCI Express) bus.

Of course it's always good to see bottlenecks reduced, but don't look for PCI Express to provide more than an almost negligible performance increase for cards of the same caliber.

Look for ATI r423 vs r420 benchmarks when they become available, should be something like 1-3% at most.

[Tsukiyomi]

Is this also gonna make the AGP8x the last of its kind ? Because ive heard that many of the companies are starting to focus more on the PCI Express? not sure though if someone else knows more please reply

[MemnochTheCaT]

Well, for high-end graphics cards, PCI Express will replace AGP8X, and eventually you will not see AGP slots on motherboards at all. Slot and Interface migrations on motherboards has been a constant over the years.

Some notable interfaces that we have seen :

8-Bit ISA
16-Bit ISA
32-Bit VLB
32-Bit MCA
32-Bit PCI
64-Bit PCI
AGP (1X/2X/4X/8X)

The really nice thing about PCI Express is that you can have two or more video cards that can both work at full speed, as opposed to AGP+PCI systems, in which one card is hampered by the legacy 32-bit/33Mhz PCI interface.

EDIT : As far as 'focusing' on PCI express, well pretty much all the major companies have already put PCI express cards in the pipeline, and for a while (maybe 2-3 years, like PCI is still around for low end/midrange) we will see cards released for BOTH AGP and PCI Express .. with little performance increase until we get a couple generations ahead. The PCI Riva TNT vs. AGP Riva TNT, there was no performance difference because the bottleneck was the graphics chip and ram itself, not the interface. But by the time we get to Geforce 3 PCI vs AGP, AGP had started to show real advantages.

[Chewy]

MemnochTheCat, if I'm not mistakened(searches on google for PCI Express... yep not mistakened)... there are multiple form factors for PCI Express Slots(X1, X4, X8, X16). X1s are to become standard(like PCIs) and X16s are supposed to be used with video cards(like AGPs). So more then likely there'll be a single X16 slot for video cards. So unless a manufactor releases a MB with dual X16s slots you won't be able to run your cards at full speed ^^;

[MemnochTheCaT]

Yeap, that's the general idea .. but with PCI Express, it's possible to have two 16 speed slots, as opposed to AGP where you are stuck with one slot regardless.

[Chewy]

hmm... think its possible to stick a X1 card into a X16 slot?

[MemnochTheCaT]

It's been a while since I looked at the exact details of PCI Express, but I think the whole point was to replace both PCI and AGP with the same interface (although some slots with less speed than others) .. so it shouldn't be a problem to put slower cards in the high-rated slots, just like AGP 4X cards work in AGP 8X slots.

On the dual PCI Express side of things .. check out this link!

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=43

Pretty zany [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Stoopider]

Thats great. Now I can have a Dual Graphics Card!!! For what, I'm not too sure.

[Assertn]

you could always use 2 video cards at the same time......for people who dont take the initiative and buy 1 agp card that has 2 vga outs

although is alienware suggesting 2 video cards to a single output? wow.......im sure thats almost necessary

[MemnochTheCaT]

It's a ridiculous waste of money, but the whole point is to make a hellishly fast system for next-gen games like Doom 3 / Half Life 2 / Stalker and beyond.

[Assertn]

well all you'd need is one of those new video cards from nvidia if you want that....
my roommate tells me that they've tested those cards on all of the most graphic intensive games currently out at the highest graphic settings and resolution AND 8x antialiasing, and games still run perfectly smooth