Today in DCC Workstation

3D Graphics Cards for DCC

Intro, Why Accelerate?, What to Look For, PCI vs. AGP

Entry-Level, Low-Cost, High-Speed 3D Acceleration: Sub $300 Cards

Mid-Range, High-Speed 3D Acceleration: Sub $1000 Cards

High-End, Maximum 3D Acceleration: Cards Over $1,000

PCI vs. AGP

The PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus is a high-speed data bus used to connect peripheral cards with the CPU and the main memory. It runs at 33MHz and is used not only by graphics cards, but also for cards that control hard drives, networks, sound and more.

The AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) bus is used solely for connecting graphics cards to the CPU and main memory. In AGP 2X mode, the graphics card can communicate with the CPU and main memory at data rates up to 528MB per second while PCI is limited to 133MB per second. AGP 4X mode can support speeds of over 1GB per second.

This makes AGP a better choice, not only because it is faster, but also because the graphics card doesn't have to share its high-speed access with any other peripherals. Because of AGP's speed, less expensive system memory can be used to store textures instead of depending solely on the more expensive on-board graphics memory. Thus, an AGP card can often outperform, and cost less than, a PCI card with the same processor but more memory.

Lead on to the Entry Level Cards

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