AGP vs PCI - suggestions please

[Tuttle]

Hi everyone,

I currently have a Pentium II 233MHz running on an Intel AL440LX mainboard, with Win95 OSR2.1. The mainboard has an AGP slot as well as free PCI slots.

I'm looking to buy a Voodoo Banshee card with 16MB SDRAM on the board. Given that the AGP and PCI versions are priced the same, which one will perform better?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Gollum65]

AGP will always outperform PCI no matter what card it is. AGP is a much faster bus built specifically for video.

Don't even give it any more thought. Get the agp.

Paul

[Perce]

Hmmmm, get the AGP Card But take a close look at the ATI Rage128 Chip Video Card. It is supposed to outrun the VooDooII, has clarity and crispness equal to the Matrox G200 AGP and costs equal to the VooDooII, but the Rage 128 Cards come with 32B of memory for the same price!!! This, the Rage128 is the first version of a "3D" card that ATI has made, the BIOS is reflashable, ATI's first, and the cost is outstanding!!! I am running the Matrox G200, wish I could sell it and get the ATI Rage 128!!!! Tell you what, give a deal on mine?? LOL

[Chanse]

With a P2 , you should get a Riva Tnt based card. It is far superior to the Banshee.
And if you have an AGP slot, you might as well use it, although the simple fact is that although AGP is "faster" on paper, there is little difference in an AGP card and a PCI card. The AGP port is a great idea, but most card companies don't properly utilize it, they just use it as a handy upgrade excuse.

[Tuttle]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Chanse: I appreciate that the TnT is better, but the Banshee is a budget decision - the TnT is at least AU$100 more expensive down here.

[Asmodean]

Im just waiting for games to come out that really truely utilize the agp bus. In FR's agp testing, my p2 and a TnT agp card does 90images/sec with 36mb textures. Running this on the banshee agp resulted in less than 5 images per second, due to it doesnt utilize the agp bus, it only plugs in there.

Most games will run faster with agp over pci, but if they only utilize small textures, the difference is minimal. As soon as the textures get bumped up, the speed difference goes up.