Beware if buying an ArcadeVGA card - AGP is being phased out

[eggedd2k]

just bought an arcadevga card from ultimarc.  as you might know it's an agp card.  the computer i'm planning on using it in is old and on it's way out so a replacement will soon be due.  been doing some research and it turns out that motherboards with AGP slots are slowly being phased out. Dell for example who we get all our work computers from stopped shipping boards with AGP slots in them last year.  This could leave a situation for arcadevga users where it's unusable due to no computers having an agp slot.

some interesting info here...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port

[Brunnen-G]

Dell's small form factor PCs have cases so small they wouldn't hold most AGP cards even if they had the connector.

PCI-e is the new standard for graphics cards, and is on most new higher end motherboards. 

Finding AGP based motherboards won't be difficult for quite a long time, and neither will AGP video cards.

[AlanS17]

It'll be years before AGP cards are completely phased out. I wouldn't be too concerned.

Plus, as long as it runs on the hardware you have now, does it really matter what it'll run on in the future? You're not using a PC from the future to power your emulation.

I guess it might be a problem 2 or 3 years from now if you want to build a whole new machine and pull the ArcadeVGA from the one you already have. Other than that, there's really no need for concern. In a couple of years, that card will have alot bigger problems than just being AGP. It'll be ancient in just about every single way.

If you think you won't be seeing new AGP boards anymore by the end of this year, you've fallen for hype. Hardware companies always push the "latest and greatest" because it showcases their abilities. However, you can still but a brand new PCI video card if you really want to. You can pop it into your machine and it'll work.

[M3talhead]

I guess it might be a problem 2 or 3 years from now if you want to build a whole new machine and pull the ArcadeVGA from the one you already have......

By then, Andy will have a PCI-x AVGA anyways....

[Chris]

Athlon boards seem to be hanging on to AGP for a while; it's the Intel boards that seem to be flooding to PCI-X....

[Brunnen-G]

PCI-E, not PCI-X.

[richms]

Not a nitpick at all, thats like confusing a rotary and a V8 in car terms.

[OldSchool79]

I always let standards (and products) mature before I rush out and buy. Remember EISA? Slot A motherboards? AMR? *waffle waffle rant rant*

[Chris]

VLB?   MCI?

Of course, you could wait forever for things to stabilize and never buy anything...

[OldSchool79]

I only just bought my first DVD drive just last week! LOL

Actually I'm keen on PCI-e, think of the dual display capabilities for VR...

[DaemonCollector]

All the acronyms made me do this....

PCMCIA - People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms

[Scott84]

Andy probably will wait until PCI-E comes down in price...

Wouldnt an argadevga for PCI-E be expensive right now?

[AlanS17]

Andy probably will wait until PCI-E comes down in price...

Wouldnt an argadevga for PCI-E be expensive right now?

Plus nobody wants to go out and but a brand new motherboard just to support their new video card.

If it were up to me, I'd recommend offering a plain ol' PCI version of the ArcadeVGA. That's already been discussed, though, and it's not going to happen.

[Scott84]

What do you mean its been discussed and not going to happen?

Care to fill me in please!

[AlanS17]

I think the whole thing was that Andy only wanted to supply one board to keep costs low, and he decided on AGP rather than PCI since it's a more capable bus. So we'll never be seeing a PCI version of the ArcadeVGA.

[Scott84]

Oh Ok.

AGP is going to be around here for a while so theres no worries.

Can you get AMD64 MOBO's with AGP?

[tristan]

Newegg sells about 31 of them...

[krick]

The thing that people are forgetting here is that the CPU speed wall is about 4GHz.  If you notice, Intel and AMD are moving to things like hyperthreading and multiple cores because the're at the end of the line and have to come up with a reason for people to keep upgrading.  The thing is, none of these things help emulation as we currently know it because it's not really possible to multi-thread emulation in any meaningful way.

See this link for more info from a MAME dev...
http://aarongiles.com/weblog/archives/2005/01/stuck_below_4gh.html

So in effect, as long as your current AGP motherboard will support the latest (single core) CPU technology up to about 4GHz, you'll have no reason to buy a new motherboard to put in a mame cabinet.


As for the total phase out of AGP, don't bet on it.  Consider that I can still buy motherboards today with serial ports.  Honestly, when is the last time you plugged anything into a serial port?  How about the PS/2 mouse?  It seems that USB hasn't killed that port either.  I even saw a motherboard recently that has BOTH AGP and PCI-E slots!

[Chris]

Oh Ok.

AGP is going to be around here for a while so theres no worries.

Can you get AMD64 MOBO's with AGP?

Yeah, I have one with socket 754.  For socket 939 boards with AGP, go to http://tinyurl.com/dfewa .

--Chris