how limited will an x800xl be in my 4x agp 2.0 system?

[corey1505]

I want be able to play games decently without having to buy a new computer so i was wondering if the x800xl would be a good card or if it would be crippled by my system. For the most part I am worried about my agp slot because it is only 4x not 8x. I will upgrade the memory if it will help.
I have looked at the x1600pro card because it is cheaper and supports hdr, but i havn't been able to find anything about it being compatable with an agp 2.0 slot. The x800xl is compatable I just don't know how well it will work.


System Specs

athlon xp 2400+
512mb memory running at pc2100
420 watt power supply (28amps on +12v rail)
agp 2.0 interface
radeon 9000 pro

 

[prozac26]

4X vs. 8X is not an issue. There's no problems, or limitations.

The only thing I see is that you have 512mb of RAM, which could hold back some performance, especially in gaming.

 

[cleeve]

All 8x AGP cards will work in 4x AGP slots. No tangible performance difference.

An X800 XL will kick an X1600's butt. If you can find one at a decent price, the X800 XL is the way to go IMHO, the framerates, resolutions you can play at, and detail settings will be better.

 

[corey1505]

I found this link that says it does matter if it is 4x or 8x
http://www.neoseeker.com/Hardware/faqs/kb/10,63.html

 

[Anoobis]

What's your make and model of motherboard?

 

[cleeve]

It has been well established that 4x vs 8x AGP makes very little difference. Hell, there's very little difference between real-world performance of 4x AGP and PCI express...

[edit] On second read I see you're talking voltage, not performance.
Well, from what I have seen Ati & Nvidia are careful to make all of their 8x AGP cards backwards compatible, I have never seen anyone on this board have a problem with an 8x AGP card in a 4x AGP slot, I suppose it's possible but it's pretty unheard of. [/edit]

 

[corey1505]

I have an old emachines motherboard with no manufacterur listed on the users guide just says that it has a via chipset. The board model number is L7VMM2.

I went ahead and bought the x800xl and hopfully it will work well when i get it. Thanks everybody for your help.

 

[angry_ducky]

I'd also upgrade the RAM to 1GB of good DDR400.

 

[Anoobis]

That's an ECS board. I didn't find much info other than it's AGP 4X compatible like you noted. I don't really see it becoming a problem using the X800XL though. It's a nice card and you should see quite a bit of improvememnt over the 9000.

Unless you plan on overclocking, you do not need to get DDR400 as the board (all versions) only supports DDR266/200. However, adding more RAM is not a bad idea either.