Gigabyte's Radeon HD 4650: Are AGP Graphics Still Good Enough?

[Mach5Motorsport]

YOu are pointing to a static figure, rather than real world playability.
The whole point of PCIe was that it was out of the box supposedly so superior a video interface standard. That just wasn't the case.
The actual marketplace demand was circumvented by Intel. Multi core CPUs and faster RAM with GPUs prove this fallacy lies flat and that AGP can provide still similar results to PCIe 2.0 equivalents.

fixed

 

[mapesdhs]

Sorry Mach5Motorsport, but as much as I love my old AGP mbd, there are numerous
articles now published which show the benefits of PCIe over AGP for newer games
titles. This is NOT to say that the games themselves are written in an efficient
manner such that they are making the most of whatever bandwidth is available (ie.
coders can get lazy; give them more speed and they add more complexity). However,
fact, some titles definitely benefit from the better speed of PCIe.

What is true though is that there a few titles which have been written very badly
with respect to how they handle texture and other data that the gfx card needs
to run the application. The worst example I know of is the MS flight sim which
slows to a crawl if one deliberately reduces the PCIe bandwidth, whereas other
games hold up reasonably well when the available bw is restricted.

Toms has some articles directly comparing AGP to PCIe for various games, and other
sites have similar articles.

And of course there is one other huge difference between AGP and PCIe: support for
Crossfire and SLI.

Ian.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Oooh, I missed this when it first came out.

So now I'll say: AGP SUCKS !!!

Nice article, look forward to the part2 follow-up when the FULL POWER OF AGP is Un-leashed... no that's too strong a word .... Less-leashed.

 

[Mach5Motorsport]

[citation][nom]TheGreatGrapeApe[/nom]Oooh, I missed this when it first came out.So now I'll say: AGP SUCKS !!! Nice article, look forward to the part2 follow-up when the FULL POWER OF AGP is Un-leashed... no that's too strong a word .... Less-leashed.[/citation]

Guess you didn't yell at Gigabyte loud enough.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]TheGreatGrapeApe[/nom]Oooh, I missed this when it first came out.So now I'll say: AGP SUCKS !!! Nice article, look forward to the part2 follow-up when the FULL POWER OF AGP is Un-leashed... no that's too strong a word .... Less-leashed.[/citation]

Hey Grape! Long time no see!

 

[brown63]

For those with fast single or early dual core core AGP system, adding the fatsest AGP card will give their system a few more legs with minimal outlay. Especially if their needs only encompass surfing the net, email and games over 3 years old. Why upgrade?
But as an Athlon X2/DDR2/PCIe system is pretty cheap these days it's hard to justify not moving on. The upgrade probably costs quadruple than that of a new card, so you can understand why. Although would this system perform any better for the tasks they require?

 

[saint19]

Brilliant....I play the firts need for speed underground with a xfx 6200 AGP...and was really good...even today I have this GPU with a AMD Athlon XP 2600+, RAM 512 and HDD1 120GB HDD2 80

 

[ItaniumX69]

I would like to also see a comparo of OC'd Intel and AMD CPU's w/latest AGP setup. Not for AMD vs Intel thang..that been done years ago. just for us folks w/P4 prescotts and AMD brisbanes OC'd. Then lets test that CPU bottle neck and see what kind of fraps can be achived with these new AGP cards. I for one w/the economy can't afford to build a new sys atm. $100 dollar upgrade to get by on would be much nicer that shelling out $700 to $1100 on a new build. Even if perfomance between a new build and my old reg would be laughable. Just would like this one to get buy for a bit. Looking forward to part 2
Thanks in advance


Win XP X32bit
2g Ram
Radeon 3650 agp
P4 2.4ghz 1mb cache OC'd@3.8ghz

 

[Spathi]

We already knew the HD4650 sucked.

Games like warhammer DOW II don't run real well on my system... P4 3.2 HD3850AGP OC'd to 810, and the games like in these reviews also don't work too well, but as someone said on the first page we who still have AGP are mostly waiting for 2010... well because if I didn't I will have wished I had waited for...

Larrabee
A nicer MB hopefully with some QPI to the Larrabee
better cheaper SSD drives
PCIe 3... probably not by next year sadly

If there is no high end Larrabee in 2010 I will cry so bad, rofl

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]ItaniumX69[/nom] Looking forward to part 2. Thanks in advance[/citation]

It's already up!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/agp-radeon-overclocking,2395.html#BOM_comments

 

[esquire468]

[citation][nom]brown63[/nom]But as an Athlon X2/DDR2/PCIe system is pretty cheap these days it's hard to justify not moving on. The upgrade probably costs quadruple than that of a new card, so you can understand why. Although would this system perform any better for the tasks they require?[/citation]

Here's the thing with some users. Yes, you can upgrade for $400+, but if I have to upgrade I am not going to upgrade as cheap as possible only to have to replace that system again in a few years. I would upgrade to the latest/greatest, either an I7 or a Phenom II, so it would last as long as possible. Of course, such a machinge will cost alot more than $400, so upgrading the current rig for $100 or less until you have the resources for the full upgrade is just fine for now.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

To upgrade or not to upgrade to a new system. Where is the point of dimishing returns?

 

[Psyllicon]

You SKIPPED a step~

When the very first True 3D Rendering was introduced, it came packaged as the 'Monster' card and incorporated an SLI adapter to double the bandwidth.


BTW:
The graphics chipset evolved to be known as the "Voo-Doo"

 

[Guest]

I need a card like this that is Win 7 compatible, for my Intel Dual Core D [4] series, running DDR2 at about 560 MHZ on MB.

 

[Guest]

I have a ASUS M3A78 PRO Motherboard, AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual core Processor 6000+, 3.0GB RAM(4x1gb), ATI Radeon HD 3200 GRAPHICS, a 500GB hard drive and a 750GB hard drive. 500w power supply, I came across a visiontek HD 4850 1GB I was wondering if I should put it in, I am running on XP PRO, and thinking of upgrading a graphics card mabe utilizing the crossfireX and putting in 2 graphics cards. and I was thinking of upgrading windows to windows 7. I was wondering if my machine is getting to old, should I upgrade other parts as well?

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]tyfox[/nom]I have a ASUS M3A78 PRO Motherboard, AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual core Processor 6000+, 3.0GB RAM(4x1gb), ATI Radeon HD 3200 GRAPHICS, a 500GB hard drive and a 750GB hard drive. 500w power supply, I came across a visiontek HD 4850 1GB I was wondering if I should put it in, I am running on XP PRO, and thinking of upgrading a graphics card mabe utilizing the crossfireX and putting in 2 graphics cards. and I was thinking of upgrading windows to windows 7. I was wondering if my machine is getting to old, should I upgrade other parts as well?[/citation]

Even a cheap $70 Pentium G860 is worlds faster than your Athlon X2. That athlon is a huge bottleneck for modern games, and you can't crossfire on that motherboard anyway.

If you can afford it, and you're a gamer, it's probably time to upgrade the whole platform.

If you're not a gamer the system might serve you well for a while yet.