Whats REAL WORLD difference from running @ 2X AGP not 4X AGP

[nemouk]

hi there,

whats the real world difference of my board running at 2x AGP not 4X. I had a quick search of the web and couln'dt find any benchmarks or anything. All im after is a technical explination and some benchmarks in Q3 or something, cheers.

I just want to know if its worth running my CPU at a faster speed (1020 MHZ) instead of 966 with the AGP at 2x or running the CPU at the 966 and 4X AGP and perhaps overclocking my GTS a bit more.

Thanks.

 

[BFG10K]

None. Using AGP x 4 causes many stability problems (driver related) but doesn't really provide any performance benefit. Stick to AGP x 2 and don't worry about AGP x 4.

 

[vss1980]

Honestly, the real world performance difference from using AGP 2x -> 4x is about 200 3DMarks (An overclock can make more of a difference than that so if you disable AGP4x to get extra MHz, then you may end up with a net win).

Although I agree with BFG10K, if you can use AGP 4x without any problems then go ahead and use it.

 

[Mem]

From the benchmarks I`ve seen only 1 or 2fps at maximum,so you will not loose any sleep over this.Btw I use AGP 4x mode only because it`s stable on my rig,if it was not I would not worry about going back to 2x AGP mode.

 

[PeAK]

AGP shows its advantge with small frame buffers. Today's cards that offer 16MB, 32MB and 64 MB will store the texture information in local memory once (precache) and not need to assess information as often over the AGP bus. But, once they do...you'll see 2x, 4x and 8x come into play.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Under heavy geometry loads, the performance difference can be as large as 100%. For today's games, minimal(if any) the overwhelming majority of the time.

 

[nemouk]

thanks for your help all

 

[Sunny129]

hey guys...i just went from using AGP 1x to 2x and noticed no difference in fps in UT. can someone explain why not?

 

[vss1980]

Sunny, depends on your graphics card. If you have one with 32MB of memory and a fast GPU then changing AGP mode will not make much difference.

UT is also a very CPU and RAM intensive game, relying on them more than the speed of your graphics card. Example, at 640x480 resolution in UT an original S3 Savage 3D can perform with an average frame rate 2 FPS lower than a TNT2 Ultra. The only time GPU speed becomes important in UT is as the resolution increases and the graphics card speed comes into play, then the gaps widen.

 

[Smbu]

sunny if you are using the V5 in your rig you won't notice any difference between 1x and 2x agp, because 3dfx cards don't use agp texturing.

If you were using say a Geforce, or TNT2 card, then you would notice a slight boost when going from 1x agp to 2x agp, but the jump from 2x agp to 4x agp is not really noticeable at all w/current games.