First PCI-Express Graphics card

[epicstruggle]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7859

First pci-expr. card released by 3dlabs. According to the inq. Anyways, the article mentions that ati and nvidia will more than likely have their own pci-express card available shortly. My question is how much benefit will either company receive from the increased bandwith of the new pci bus.

later,

 

[RussSchultz]

Are there PCI express motherboards out there in consumerland yet?

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

The coolest thing is this could bring back the old SLI days! Four R400/NV40s in a single box. 8)

 

[StellaArtois]

The coolest thing is this could bring back the old SLI days! Four R400/NV40s in a single box. 8)

Beat me to it!! Exactly what we want to see!!!

 

[Psikotiko]

The coolest thing is this could bring back the old SLI days! Four R400/NV40s in a single box. 8)

Wrong.....

NV40 will take 4 slots

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

The coolest thing is this could bring back the old SLI days! Four R400/NV40s in a single box. 8)

Wrong.....

NV40 will take 4 slots

LOL, I'm sorry, I should have know better!

 

[demonic]

So, would this bring back the Voodoo-II days??

I mean, what is the likely-hood for ATi or Nv to bring out (SLI) dual-capable consumer cards??

A Sapphire ATI Radeon 9700 Atlantis 128MB (non-pro) is around £200, so would I consider spending double that to enable two cards?? Hell yeah..

Anyone in the know, would like to speculate

 

[Sxotty]

if AGP 8x, brought no real performance increases, then why would PCI express. ( I mean the bandwidth) Of course the sli thing would.

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

if AGP 8x, brought no real performance increases, then why would PCI express. ( I mean the bandwidth) Of course the sli thing would.

At first it wouldn't, but the real issue isn't about getting more immediate performance. The reality is there's going to be no such thing as AGP16x. So something must be there when AGP dies off at 8x.

 

[John Reynolds]

The coolest thing is this could bring back the old SLI days! Four R400/NV40s in a single box. 8)

I'd be happy with a 9800 Pro Fury board. My 300 watt PSU, on the other hand, might not like it too well.

 

[T2k]

Are there PCI express motherboards out there in consumerland yet?

I don't think so... seems even chipsets aren't available yet:

http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/press_releases/2002_11_19

First design seminar just finished recently: http://www.pcisig.com/events/expressio

And here comes the first update: "PCI Expressâ„¢ Architecture 1.0a Specification Technical Update" http://www.pcisig.com/events/expresstraining

I don't believe in PCI-Express yet... maybe next year or later...

 

[T2k]

Wow, a fast confirmation: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030218/cgtu044_1.html

Maybe I should play some lottery...

 

[epicstruggle]

So no actuall benefit for a while? I thought maybe with the increased bus speed for the whole system we might see some nice improvement. Is the use of agpx8 only from the graphics card to the cpu, or also to the HD, ram too. Please let me know if im mistaken.

later,

 

[Dave H]

Is the use of agpx8 only from the graphics card to the cpu, or also to the HD, ram too. Please let me know if im mistaken

It works like this:

A motherboard chipset consists essentially of two main chips: the Northbridge and the Southbridge. The CPU connects to the Northbridge over the Front Side Bus (FSB). The Northbridge connects to the system DRAM (system bus), and to the Southbridge. The Southbridge consists of an IDE controller, which connects to the hard drives, optical drives, etc. over the IDE bus; an AGP controller, which connects to the graphics card over the AGP bus; and a PCI controller, which connects to the other cards in your system (sound, network, etc.) over the PCI bus.

So the AGP bus only goes to the graphics card. But PCI-X will replace both AGP and PCI, so all the cards will have a higher bandwidth connection to the system. This is important for e.g. Gigabit Ethernet (and faster) networking cards.

 

[Nagorak]

But just like ISA, your old PCI cards won't benefit at all. It's a step in the right direction, but don't expect it to revolutionize your computer overnight. Maybe the extra bandwidth will help sound cards will finally stop running slower than molasses when doing EAX sound though...

By the way, does anyone know what speed the Audigy and Nforce sound cards are clocked at? Why are sound cards so slow in comparison to graphics

 

[PC-Engine]

PCI-X and PCI Express are two different specifications. PCI Express is a serial I/O interconnect while PCI-X is a parallel bus like the original PCI bus.

 

[stevem]

The Southbridge consists of an IDE controller, which connects to the hard drives, optical drives, etc. over the IDE bus; an AGP controller, which connects to the graphics card over the AGP bus; and a PCI controller, which connects to the other cards in your system (sound, network, etc.) over the PCI bus.

That's not correct. The AGP port is tied to the NB not SB, otherwise SBA, DiME, etc would not be possible as the NB-SB interconnect is too slow to interface to system RAM. Springdale i865pe as case in point.

 

[epicstruggle]

Looking at this picture, I have a question or two. When pci-exp replaces pci and agp, will we not see a great boost of speed from the graphics card to the cpu and ram, whereas right now agp x8 only provides a boost to the northbridge. My other question is wonth the speed to the HD also increase, helping texture intensive games get a boost in speed.

later,

 

[PC-Engine]

PCI Express is not intended to replace Serial ATA.

 

[Althornin]

The Southbridge consists of an IDE controller, which connects to the hard drives, optical drives, etc. over the IDE bus;

There is no "IDE bus" per se. Those integrated IDE controllers reside on the PCI bus, and communicate with drives via IDE channels. Accessing the HD uses some of your PCI bus bandwidth.

Just nitpicking