Hello, I am curious to know if there is really a jaw dropping difference between a graphics card that is AGP or a PCI-E? I know the specs between the two but IMO specs do not necessarily mean noticeable increases in performance. Throughout my years of upgrading my PC with new cards, faster ram, and faster CPUs, the specs make each upgrade seem like a 500% increase in performance when it only is a hair second faster, not even noticeable change.

So my question is there honestly a really noticeable difference between a PCI-E and AGP graphics card? I want to upgrade to an AMD 64 and I don't want to get rid of my card as well just so I can upgrade to it. Thanks

PCI-E will be much better than agp - in about three years when graphics cards have caught up with it. Unless you are going to get a really top of the line card like a radeon X1000 series, then it will not give you any significant performance increase.

Thanks a lot :) Yeah I always upgrade every year or so, so I may just wait until the graphics card have "caught up" :)

The AGP bus is 66MHz, the PCI-e bus is 100MHz. AGP is 8X, PCI-e is 16X. The performance difference between a 6600GT AGP & 6600GT PCI-e is insignificant, but manufacturers won't be pumping out many high end AGP cards anymore. So if you have your heart set on a 7800GT (or some other such hi-peformance card), you'll have no choice but to upgrade your motherboard...& that may also mean a CPU upgrade, & probably a new PSU as well

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP2