AGP and mother board selection

WhiteWashMan

I currently have a GF4 Ti4200 which is AGP4x. is this compatible with AGP8x system boards. as far as im aware AGP8x is not backwards compatible because of a voltage difference. is this correct?

if this is so, then what do you suggest as a good board to upgrade to?
im looking at going for either a p4 2.0ghz, or a 2.4ghz processor, with AGP4x.
nothing special needed, but usb 2.0 would be nice, and no onboard video, but could cope with onboard lan and audio.

any ideas, as to be honest, its been a while since i delved intot his and im a bit lost

TacT

a board supporting agp8x will have no trouble running at 4x, they are backwards compatible.

WhiteWashMan

hmmm, some of the MSI boards say that the agp4x is 1.5v.
as far as i knew agp4 is 3v?

BabyEater

Tact is right its backward compatible

TacT

I know they're backwards compatible wwm. AFAIK the motherboards set the desired voltage according to the rate of your card so if you only run @ 4x the voltage switches to 1.5 etc

Kegser

There are different AGP standards available; and not all are cross-compatible.

The main stumbling block will be the voltage; either 1.5v or 3.3v.

The last AGP 3.0 draft I saw indicated that 3.3v cards would no longer be supported. AGP 2.0 allowed for a universal slot which would accept both 1.5v and 3.3v cards so I would imagine the same will hold true for AGP 3.0.

Check the specifications for whatever board your interested in and see what it supports is probably the best thing. And find out what voltage your current card runs at.

Gerry

3.3v are older agp 1.0 ( 2x ) cards like the tnt1, voodoo3 ,etc. Your ti4200 will work perfectly, since the 8x boards can take 1.5v agp 4x cards, and agp 8x ( whatever voltage they run on )

unkel

Yep, Gerry is right.

When I stick in an AGP 1.0 card in my ASUS A7V8X mobo (AGP 8.0), a big red LED lights up even if the pc's powercable is not connected - warning that it is a 3.3v card that is not supported.

I use a gf4ti4200 (AGP 4.0) which is fully supported by any AGP 8.0 mobo

Gerry

Heh, thats correct ok. One thing though, you are getting slightly mixed up with your numbers.
Agp 1.0 , 2.0 , 3.0 are revisions of the official agp standard,
These standards describe everything about the interface.

Whereas agp 1x,2x,4,x,8x are the actual speeds of the agp interface. ( Hope this reduces confusion somewhat )

WhiteWashMan

ahhh smashing.
cheers chaps, i can now happily order my upgrades with peace of mind.
of course, if it doesnt work, i know where you live......