PCI-E Mobo worth the investment?

[Vamp]

How much of an improvment is PCI-E over AGP? I have a Geforce 6800GT so would a PCI-E Geforce 6800GT be much better than an AGP one?

My specs are AMD 64 3400+, Gig ram, 6800GT at Ultra stock speeds and a K8NE-Deulux MB...I only really play games in 1024X768 Res so would this system hold me out at those settings for a longish time, even without PCI-E?

Would it be able to run games like Killzone PS3 and stuff when those games are released on PC? (ie, during the Next-Gen gaming days)

[micolithe]

Right now, for the cost it's not worth it. In a few years it'll be great because it won't be so expensive.

But that's just my opinion.

[browser]

I think the cost is worthwhile for a future-proof (couple of years) system

[S!X]

Id also like to know this myself, I never really thought of how much of an improvment it would have aside from the agp.

[Snee]

How much of an improvment is PCI-E over AGP? I have a Geforce 6800GT so would a PCI-E Geforce 6800GT be much better than an AGP one?

My specs are AMD 64 3400+, Gig ram, 6800GT at Ultra stock speeds and a K8NE-Deulux MB...I only really play games in 1024X768 Res so would this system hold me out at those settings for a longish time, even without PCI-E?

Would it be able to run games like Killzone PS3 and stuff when those games are released on PC? (ie, during the Next-Gen gaming days)
6600GT-cards for AGP, clocked at exactly the same speed, both memory and RAM, are, or at least were, faster than their pci-e counterparts, haven't got a clue why though. 'cos generally pci-e is supposedly faster (it certainly is in theory), but with your setup I'd say you shouldn't worry about it, and if you don't have the pci-e interface on your current mobo :unsure: you'll have to swap that too.

My Advice would be to hold back for at least six months and see what happens. NVIDIA are scheduled to show off geforce 7 on the 22nd of june, after all. And your system should be all right for games for quite some time yet.

If you don't have the urge to max out the graphics settings and resolutions it may well be ok for at least a year. And the longer you wait the better the parts available on the market will be.

[Vamp]

Well, I dont really go crazy with graphics, my AA and AF are set to application controlled and my res is at an average size...I usually play games on the highest detail settings though and that's really good enough for me...

The longer I can play games on these settings for, the better! :)

[Snee]

Seeing as you keep the rez low, it sounds as if you should be fine for a quite some time, though, as I said, so be patient and see what happens.

[clocker]

It's not a question of if you should get PCI-express, it's when.
You won't really have a choice on your next upgrade.

The only question then will be SLI or not.

[Snee]

Note to self: read the titles of threads before clicking on them :pinch:

[lynx]

To answer your question directly, there will be very little advantage in changing from AGP to PCI-Express with the same type of card. As Snny says, there may even be a small drop in performance, but I suspect that's probably down to drivers getting sorted out. So it doesn't make sense to upgrade to a PCI-Express board for that reason.

Put your money on one side for the time being, the time to upgrade would be when you find you can't play those games at the desired resolution. By that time the next generation of cards should be well established, PCI-Express motherboards should be the standard and the whole thing will hopefully be cheaper than they are now. The question of whether SLI is the way to go should have been resolved too.

[Taken Aback]

Also keep in mind that PCI-E on a mobo, doesn't necessarily mean the mobo is high-end. (Dell OEM mobo's have it, and are pretty crap otherwise)

[Adster]

heres the things most games don't even know what PCI -E is so they will run better on AGP cards at the moment

it is the future and will become a standard in the next 2 years