I'd also like to add that running an AGP 8X display card in a system which only has AGP 4X capability will most certainly NOT result in any appreciable loss of performance. Cards with AGP 8X capability are not powerfu; enough for the feature to really make a worthwhile difference, and now that we've moved on to the PCIE display card standard, they never will be!

Thinking that AGP 8X makes a difference is a nonsense!

Actually it does, there is a much higher ammount of data that can be transfered in 8x when compared to 4x, Ive seen it personaly. We moved my friend from a motherboard with 4x to one that supported 8x. the improvement in game play was fantastic.

Considering that card is only a GeForce 4 MX card, and not really up to the task of running modern PC games, i don't think any benefit would be even visible.

Thanks again, Cat and Zach. Very good info. I am very glad that my 4x slot will support the even if not to its full potential (which doesn't sound like its much).
Anyway, one more quick question. I plan on using this card for a little while, but eventually I am going to upgrade to an Athlon 64 system. What graphics card is going to give me the best performance for games like Doom 3 and/or Half Life 2.

I actually have NFS 3 Underground and my 32MB Geforce card is doing very well with the graphics set rather high. I am sure I will see some improvement when the XFX 128MB card arrives.

Best value high performance card available at present is the NVidia 6800GT. The ATi X800 Pro is another good performer. Better cards are far too high priced to be considered economically worthwhile purchases.

Stepping down a peg price wise, the NVidia 6600GT is perhaps the best vale card in the mid-price range. It's available for PCIE slots now, and should be available for AGP slots in the near future. A similar situation will exist for the ATi X700 Pro card. The ATi X600 series is a waste of money.

Actually, it doesn't! Your perceived performance increase came from another source. Either the old motherboard was slow, had poor drivers, or you stuck in some new, faster components (like a new CPU or RAM).

Gaming performance will only differ by a few frames per second.

No i insisted on using the same ram and processor for testing purpuses, it made a huge difference in Doom 3's gameplay

I'm curious here, Zachary. The only real way to test is to benchmark the system with AGP set to AGP 8X, then change the setting in BIOS to AGP 4X, reboot and benchmark again. I've never seen a motherboard produce appreciable difference when tested that way.

Agreed. Your large performance increase could not have come from an increase in AGP transfer speeds (mind you, there probably are exceptions!). If you check that link I provided, you'll find benchmarks that prove this (as well as links to previous benchmarks on older, slower cards).

I'll even give it a whirl myself, if need be (9800 Pro). :cheesy: