AGP2X or AGP4X ??

[Fubar]

A few weeks ago I noticed that some new G400 cards are specified as AGP4X compatible. These cards had a additional 4A in the product code.

My question is this:
If I have a a card without the 4A in the product specs, does this meen that
1) it's a 2X card, not able to run in 4X mode
or
2)it's not tested at AGP4X when shipped from Matrox, but have a good chance at running in 4X mode

Thanks in advance
Fubar

[SteveC]

1)

It's a card which will only run in AGP2X. The chip can do more, but the card can't.

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Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", he said.

[Fubar]

And now I feel really cheated....

Where do I sign up to have my card replaced with a AGP4X capable card??

Fubar

[SteveC]

You don't. You buy a new one and hope it's an AGP4X one... Sorry!

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Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", he said.

[Fubar]

With the rumour of a G450 traveling the net???

Me thinks NOT !!!

Wouldn't it be nice to get your hands on a G400 with AGP4X, onboard T&L and maybe som DDR ram for that extra little power

Fubar

[cjolley]

Of course you have to find a good answer to the "QUESTION OF THE AGES" regarding AGP 1x vs 2x vs 4x.
Which is "It doesn't make any difference! Why are you wasting time thinking about it?"
chuck

[jasper]

A useful discussion of AGP overclocking vs. sidebanding (1x,2x,etc.) can be found at
http://epsilon.silicon.net.my/adrian/

Bottom line, unless you're using humongous texture maps for CAD or VR you're probably better off using AGP 1x and overclocking the bus. In most cases, 2x only gives a 1-2% improvement and decreases stability, even on non-SS7 machines.

[Fubar]

I was planning to overclock the FSB with a good margin(read: up to 133MHz) on a Abit BF6 BX motherboard where the AGP slot is 2X. I remember reading somewhere that AGP4X cards are more tolerant to higher clockspeeds on the AGP-bus. Since I only have a 2/3 divider on the AGP-bus, 133MHz FSB will overclock the AGP-bus to 89MHz instead of the stock 66MHz.

Fubar

[Unam]

Any of the AGP 4X capable motherboards will give you a 1/2 divider for the AGP bus. Meaning you can be running your processor at 133 Mhz FSB and the AGP bus at 66 Mhz. Because this is within the AGP spec, it should be more stable than an overclocked system in general. The "old" BX chipset only gave you divisors of 1 (66) or 2/3 (100). If you overclocked your system, like my primary system running at 133 Mhz FSB then your AGP bus would be running at 89 Mhz. Not a lot of AGP cards work really well at this speed, but the Matrox cards seem to tolerate it just fine. Lucky us!

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Primary system, Asus P3B-F1, PIII 600B, 128Mb PC133 RAM, 18.2Gb KA drive, HP CDRW & Travan drive, SB64PCI, Intel EPro+ PnP NIC, G400 and a ViewSonic 17" monitor.

Secondary system, ASUS P3B-F1, C366 OC'd to 550, 128Mb PC100 RAM, 10.2Gb DMPlus, 5x CL DVD Kit, ZIP Drive, AWE64, Intel EPro+ PnP NIC, CL TNT(1)and a Sceptre 17" monitor.