PCI-E vs AGP vs PCI

just leave the driver to me dude are you even watching the road hi everyone and welcome back today we will compare the three main types of expansion slots for graphics cards that were available in the early 2000s this clip is an upgraded version of the original that went online sometimes in January this year the upgrade was required because I rendered the original clip with only 24 frames per second and I also found a graphics card that was essential for this comparison only two days after the original clip went online so if you have seen this clip before you can skip to the second side quest that starts around the 30 second and a half minute Mark if you haven't seen it then enjoy the clip and remember to leave a comment let's start with the parts the motherboard is the ASRock live dual e-serial 882 model this is a name to motherboard supporting ddr2 we have two Serial ATA ports next to the memory slots and another two next to the North Bridge radiator in the lower right side we have two ID connectors and to the left there's a floppy connector the slots we are interested in are the PCI Express positioned immediately under the North Bridge further down we have the AGP and right underneath it there are three PCI slots they are all placed in the chronological order of their appearance with the newest on the top we have the regular 12 volt 4 pin power connector and a 24 pin power connector the reason why this motherboard is important is because besides the North Bridge placed south of the CPU slot there's another North Bridge placed further down this is the enforce 3 that allows for an unrestricted AGP Port unlike many other motherboards from this era where the AGP was actually a PCI slot in the back plate area we have the PS2 connectors a Serial parallel an external Serial ATA connector four USBS one ethernet and 7.1 audio the CPU is the Athlon 64 X2 5600 plus running at 2.9 gigahertz the ram is a generic 512 megabyte module ddr2 running at 543 megahertz we are not picking the fastest Parts as the motherboard was launched in 2007 and the CPU in December 2006 and we are benchmarking video cards from 2004 so we don't want to skew the results with a very fast CPU this is the PCI version of the 6200 and it is made by Zotac and frankly it's a miracle that somebody actually produced a graphics card for the PCI as by 2004 the PCI graphics cards were phased out by almost 6 years this one has DVI and VGA connectors and also an S-Video the next one is the AGP also available in 2004. Nvidia was also launching PCI Express versions of this series and the 7000 series from 2005 would become the last to have an AGP connector this card also has a VGA DVI and the nest video connector the PCI Express version is a low profile graphics card like the PCI and like the other three it only has a radiator without a fan the DVI and VGA connectors are also there but this time this video is replaced by a TV out connector the hard drive is by Western Digital and it's the 250 Gigabyte model with an IDE connector now let's assemble everything we start with the CPU and move to the memory modules and then the idea connector next we add the power supply connectors and then the CPU radiator that is pretty standard we continue with the graphics cards and we start by adding the PCI Express card first then we add the AGP card and we complete the build by adding the PCI last move to Windows and see what gpu-z has to say about the cards unfortunately the PCI card although it gets picked some information is not displayed like the graphics card is disabled or driverless but we will inspect it as a standalone card a bit later we can also use the CPUs utility to confirm our gpu-z findings we can see that no two cards have the same core or memory speed and the PCI version has even doubled the memory capacity let's look at it now in more detail as a standalone card with the PCI Express and the AGP graphics cards removed and we get all the information we need one important thing to consider is that the PCI Express version has turbo cache where the graphics card can expand its memory by grabbing Ram from the system in order to see how much memory the graphics card is using we can go to the adapter tab in this case it only uses its own memory but there are some games and benchmarks coming up and we need to disable the turbo cache so it won't influence the results to do this we use Riva tuner and navigate to power user and under the system node we find the entry RM disable render to system and we set it to 1 and this will disable the turbo cache another very useful thing about Riva tuner is that it allows us to perform overclock on the Fly for the GPU and Graphics memory but sometimes getting the right value can be a bit tedious and we can adjust the value from the keyboard this is the XFX 6200 AGP with 256 megabytes of ddr2 Graphics memory that has the regular DVI s video and VGA connectors and it's also a small form factor like the PCI Express and the PCI that also have ddr2 it will replace the pallet and now that all three cards align we can fit a fan over the free and use them all at once without the fear of overheating from gpu-z we can see that the XFX has the same core frequency as the palette AGP but it's still 50 megahertz down from the PCI Express card but at least the memory frequency aligns with the other ddr2 graphics cards let's go to the updated benchmarks the 3D mark on stock frequencies is no surprise the only surprise here is how close the AGP and the PCI cards are the ddr1 card Trails behind but it's understandable considering the ram frequency still it's faster than the PCI despite having only half the amount of ram then we use Riva tuner to get them to the same frequency except for the XFX card that becomes unstable as soon as I touch any of the frequencies I suspect that some capacitors need replacing and the AGP shines through but this happens because 255 is a really high value for ddr1 and the modest one for ddr2 the last test we look at for 3dmark 2001 is trying to get equal score and it's again the AGP card that has the lowest frequencies we move to 3dmark 2003 and this time the stock AGP and PCI Express cards are pretty close to each other and the PCI is almost 20 percent slower using the same frequencies we again have the AGP pushing ahead aquamarc 3 shows similar results to 3dmark both for default and same frequency tests starting with the game's benchmarks we only look at stock frequencies and Far Cry in high details only looks suitable for PCI Express and AGP in 640x480 or 800 by 600. not presented here is the Benchmark for low settings where every card gets over 30 frames per second even the PCI in 1024x768 for Doom 3 the high settings graphical preset is too much for any graphics card and although the PCI and AGP get over 40 frames per second even 640 by 480 the game lags in crowded areas the medium preset gets a bit better and we can use the PCI Express card in 800x600 the scores for the low preset don't get much better than the medium but at least we can notice as the resolution increases that the PCI card recovers from Lost ground anyway neither of the four graphics cards can be really recommended for playing Doom 3. Quake free arena is an older game and for every demo we tried in any resolution the cards were able to sustain at least 60 frames per second we can notice steep drops for the PCI in the low resolutions where the PCI Express and the AGP card can push almost 300 frames per second but the drop is less noticeable as we increase the resolution [Music] lost the lead stop stop foreign for the game section we will continue with the PCI card as it is the slowest but has the potential to be used with many more motherboards than any of the other cards for this we will start with a game from 2004 and step one year back until 1998. in order to see where it's able to sustain a smooth gameplay with its budget GPU we start with Warhammer 40K dawn of War running in 1024 by 768 with almost all Graphics options set to low and the game plays pretty smoothly for a game launched in the same year as this budget graphics card and the fact that this is a real time strategy also helps making it less noticeable when the frame rate has been destroyed excellent the point is now protected from an awk retaliation we should continue to build listening posts on all our captured points we must not forget our powers will supply us with the power we need to keep our Force going initiated just leave the driver to me dude are you even watching the road I've moved easily ow I lost my buzz [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] cool [Music] take that whoa let's build my puddings [Music] boogers eat asphalt asphalt eaters my butt hurts oh I broke something oh that's a breakdown oh my butt hurts watch it buddy [Music] it felt unjust to speak over the excellent soundtrack of Simpsons Hit and Run the game ran in 1024 by 768 and as good as the sound was it was equally bad when playing it and it came down to three factors a budget graphics card some delay added by my capture card and the lack of any other options to reduce the graphics besides the resolution running the game in 800x600 should be fine the game we are currently looking at is Morrowind running in 1024 by 768 with Max settings and although the game maintains a steady 30 frames per second there are some areas where it lags noticeable why walk when you can ride [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] from 2001 we have Colin McRae Rally 2.0 and this one plays great with the highest preset for graphics so it looks like three years is the interval where our budget card from 2004 is able to max out the settings in the games thank you [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Counter-Strike is next and oddly enough this looks like a step back the card is not able to maintain a steady 40 frames per second lowering the resolution to 800 by 600 should do the trick three left [Music] here we go [Music] as pointed out by CPT close in the original clip the frame rate is way too low for 19.99s Unreal Tournament running in 1024 by 768 and investigating the issue I found out that the game was running in software mode quickly changing the renderer we get well over 100 frames per second in DirectX the original clip is on the right side foreign 1998's Half-Life is as smooth as can be and completes our seven year Journey with the conclusion that the PCI card shines starting with the year 2001 and any game released before this date can be played with Max settings in 1024 by 768 or more [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign there was another question raised by Raptor 9600 since the year of this demo only aligns with the motherboard and the CPU we are going to Target only 800 by 600 and the system is auto detected too low the game sees some heavy lag with all sorts of graphical anomalies on the screen especially rocks appearing out of nowhere once we reach the trees the frame rate drops to under 10 frames per second profit you got me I read you give a sit rep something to explain to me on the way down I'm caught up in the trees okay Aztec hang tight helps on the way Nomad up here come on let's get to Aztec what have you got Aztec been compromised overall I can say that the 6200 PCI version runs the game but it's rather terrible to play like this since our PCI card could be used in a wide range of computers starting with the 486 and ending about a decade ago it's most likely that it will be used for a retro project using it for a retro project it would be important to evaluate its performance in another popular API besides DirectX and opengl for this we will install and glide that will allow us to play games intended for 3dfx Hardware let's start with metal fatigue released in 2000 and playing in 1024x768 with the Glide API selected thank you battle in order ah combat part completed Unreal Tournament from 1999 running in 1024 by 768 is made his button foreign this is screamer 4x4 that unfortunately is unable to get the input from the keyboard if After Burner is started we only managed to capture a short interval where the frame rate looks good but we have already seen that the gameplay leaves no issues foreign [Music] foreign the last game we look at in this section is quick GL that stays constantly over 100 frames per second [Applause] thank you oh using and glide I am happy to say that not only the games look great and could be played in higher than usual resolutions and also the frame rate was very good and we could use afterburner to measure the performance now that the games have completed their run we can safely assume that this GPU was never meant for Speed in 3dmark the PCI Express card is the fastest but the AGP ddr2xfx card is really close despite having a slower core by 50 megahertz the other AGP card here in Gray comes in third despite being the only one having ddr1 and this goes to show that the PCI version although having the faster memory is bottlenecked by the PCI slot and it's not able to use its full potential but the loss is not that great considering 3D Mark score I appreciate it to be somewhere around 10 to 20 percent using River tuner to bring all three graphics cards to the same frequency makes the AGP switch scores with the PCI Express but this is also due to the fact that ddr1 are pushed to ddr2 speeds the PCI version cannot be overclocked even the lowest increase in frequency yields lower scores or errors or the inability to complete the tests my guess is that the PCI slot is fairly limiting not only in bandwidth but with voltage as well when it comes to games the differences between PCI Express AGP and the PCI can increase to almost 60 percent in low resolutions but they will decrease gradually as we increase the resolution we would not recommend this card to anyone looking to play games launched in 2002 or later but for any game launched in 2001 or earlier this card offers a pretty decent alternative for the PCI version you should be aware of some limitations that can occur as the PCI slot is slower in transfer rate being connected to the South Bridge rather than the North Bridge as with the other two we have seen today except for two or three other graphics cards from Zotac this card makes the top 5 fastest PCI cards and you can probably find Windows 98 drivers for it as well also this may be the last GPU where the PCI version of the card can get so close to the AGP or the PCI Express as further gpus will be faster and the PCI Express cards will keep increasing the difference due to their larger bandwidth of the slot and also AGP is one generation away from being extinct and we can no longer measure its performance although some people speculate that the AGP bandwidth was still capable of supporting an extra generation or two all of the cards we tested today are passively cooled and they can get hot if you don't point a fan towards them having a graphics card with such an enduring connector like the PCI I think it may find its way into a retro computer but this isn't a must it's just a modest GPU that was aimed at the budget Gamers or people not having other graphic Sports such as the AGP or the PCI Express I can recommend this card for retro games around 2000 2001 but be aware that it also requires a decent CPU to get some performance out of it the tests today revealed an interesting thing the AGP version doesn't look any worse than the PCI Express version but I think that further investigating this motherboard with similar specification graphics cards would be ideal especially since this is one of the few motherboards that actually fully implements AGP together with PCI Express and the test today wasn't a hundred percent conclusive now let's try to make the test conclusive for this we are upgrading the CPU to a Phenom 2x4 965 and we're going to add some heat stopping power in the form of the thermal right Ultra we're also upgrading the ram to the ocz Reaper foreign first we're going to add the PCI Express version of the Radeon HD 3850 and we're going to follow up with the AGP version the difference between them is that the AGP slot can only provide 48 watts of power and it needs an 8 Pin power connector compared to the 6 pin power connector for the PCI Express slot using both of the cards at the same time is a bad idea as the AGP card gets really hot when the Pista Express is set as primary so all of the tests are done using just one card I didn't encounter this particular heating problem for the 6200 where I was able to Benchmark with all three cards at the same time by setting the priority so it probably comes down to the additional power supplied to the graphics card as you can see the AGP card has the edge but it also has the frequency I can't stress enough the good practice of not using two 3850 at the same time but curiosity and being reassured by using multiple 6200 at the same time that this will work it pushed me to try to get Benchmark results using both of them and I managed to lose the PCI Express card but not before getting the Benchmark results by running it in single mode trying to get them to the same frequency means an almost 20 percent push for the Memories in the PCI Express card and it yielded only a one percent increase in the result of the 3D mark 2001. this is the moment I lost the PCI Express card and the overclock could also be responsible for losing the card but by the looks of it the AGP card still had the edge at least in 3dmark 2001. next we are going to use two gainward 7900 GS and the parts from the PCI Express card sucking heat out of the AGP card I'm happy to report that you can use both of them to do benchmarks at least I haven't broken any of them in order to complete the tests but you should be aware that the AGP card has double the amount of memory the PCI Express has foreign wins some rounds and the AGP wins other rounds but overall I would say that they are evenly matched let's put it all together and have a look at what both ATI and Nvidia had to offer as the last AGP cards from the looks of it the AGP version of the card can match the performance of the PCI Express card unlike the 6200 PCI we've seen earlier that was lagging because it was saturating the bandwidth of the PCI slot we can surely say that the AGP slot is definitely not bottlenecking the cards and these cards can be exploited at their full potential we can also say that the exorbitant prices for the AGP cards can be mitigated by buying the PCI Express version and you will get the exact same performance now let's come back to the ASRock motherboard and it's one of a kind implementation of both PCI Express and AGP asrox Engineers have picked the Uli m1695 for the PCI Express and managed to link it with the aging and force free in order to have full AGP support the specifications on the website say that it has an enforce free as the South Bridge but make no mistake this is also a North Bridge this may raise concerns as the information from the enforce 3 North Bridge has a longer path to travel in order to reach the CPU let's take a look at another motherboard the ASRock M2 and Force 3 that links the enforce redirectly to the CPU using the same Phantom 2 X4 and the same memory modules we get pretty similar scores with a minor Advantage for the M2 and force 3. to be completely fair when I first ran the benchmarks on the am to enforce 3. in some cases I got almost 50 percent lower scores but after a closer look in the bias I noticed that the fast rides and the sideband the dressing were disabled let's see the results for both of these cases this leaves us with two questions which one of the two as rocks is better the live dual or the aim to enforce 3. my Peak is the am2 enforce free because you can overclock the CPU and keep the AGP frequency at 66 megahertz an option that is not there for the alive duel instead the alive duel only has control for the PCI Express frequency the second question is the eternal will it run crisis and we're back with the alive duel and the AGP 7900 GS and the game Auto detects the system to medium specifications and at the start we get around 25 to 30 frames per second that will drop into the low 20s as we hit the jungle foreign I'm caught up in the trees okay Aztec hang tight helps on the way no man up here come on let's get to Aztec compromise [Music] [Applause] talk to me now [Applause] no man just to get to him now go go using the 4850 AGP the game Auto detects the specification to high and the experience is much smoother and we get around 35 to 40 frames per second at the start that will drop into the 30s in the jungle area [Music] ah here's mine to me on the way down oh I'm caught up in the trees okay Aztec hang tight hello on the way no man up here come on let's get to Aztec what have you got asked thank you for watching and see you next time

Channel: Retro Drive-thru

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Id: nSrdi4rVWWQ

Length: 44min 27sec (2667 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 02 2023