In theory AGP will give you better video performance because it uses a
dedicated 66 MHZ system bus instead of the normal 33 MHZ PCI bus.
Additionally, AGP enables your video card to use some of your system memory
for texture mapping, meaning it's own memory is free for actual rendering,
again enahncing performance.  This all sounds great, however, on slower
systems the difference in performance is negligble.  Most AGP card makers
recommend a Pentium II to take advantage of all the AGP features.
As far as price, identical versions of AGP & PCI cards are usually priced
the same.

If you are uprgading to a new Mobo and processor you may want to consider a
"Super 7" motherboard that supports AGP AND 100 MHZ system bus, which would
give you the flexibility to upgrade now, or in the future to the AMD K6 3D
chip, which can run at 100 MHZ and in that mode is much more competitive
with the current Pentium II processors out there.

The "Super 7" type boards are available in both ATX and AT configuration and
cost just over $100.00, which is real competetive with standard Pentium MMX
boards.  Try http://www.anandtech.com for reviews of some of these new
boards.

Dan Shaughnessy

Subject: [PCBUILD] AGP vs PCI


>but could someone please explain the new AGP video?
>I am considering an upgrade soon from my 486DX/100 to a AMD K6 chip and
>board, and would like to know if I should opt for the larger ATX board
>with AGP or stick with my baby AT format and PCI.
>What difference will I see and what about the cost of the associated
>video cards?