PCI Express out-performed by AGP

[busseyja]

Hi Folks,
I have 1 nagging problem that I'm not able to find answers for. It is this:
I currently using a P4 3.0 GHz machine with a front side bus of 800 and a AGP Geforch 6600GT video card. This machine is producing 98 FPS using the Counter Strike video Stress test.

I wanted to upgrade my system to a PCI Express system. So I purchased a Asus motherboard (P4RD1- MX) that supported my current P4 CPU and Ram and I purchased a Geforch 7300 GS 16x PCI Express video card. When I tested this new PCI express system with the Counter Strike video Stress Test it got less than 30 FPS.

The AGP machine outperformed the PCI Express system by 68 FPS.

I was shocked. I thought that PCI Express was to be faster than AGP. Now I concerned about ever using a PCI Express system. Surly I missing somthing.

I am very interested in reading what your thoughts might be on why such a huge performance drop.

Please Advise.

Kind Regards,
JB

 

[agi_shi]

It's not PCI-Express x16's fault, it's the graphics card's.

A 6600GT is faster than a 7300GS. To compare correctly, you should've compared an AGP 6600GT to a PCI-Express x16 6600GT. But even then, results would be the same.

The idea is that PCI-E x16 allows twice the bandwith AGP offers. So to compare, you must use a card that actually takes advantage of the extra bandwith PCI-E provides. For example, compare the fastest AGP card to the fastest PCI-E x16 card (7800GS vs. 7950GTX).

 

[slutz420]

I was gona say you missed the 4pin connector on the card but i was looking at some other 7300gs's and i noticed that most of them dont have the 4pin on the backside. I would say its underpowerd but let me know what psu you are using and if your card has the 4pin molex on it.

 

[KingCody]

Hi JB and welcome to TechSpot

I was shocked. I thought that PCI Express was to be faster than AGP. Now I concerned about ever using a PCI Express system. Surly I missing somthing

agi_shi is correct. the PCI-E interface is faster, but the PCI-E card you bought is slower than your AGP card was.

they are similar in clockspeeds but the 6600GT has 8 pixel pipelines, and the 7300GS only has 4 pixel pipelines. (the 7300GT has 8 pixel pipelines)

the 7600GT is a great budget gaming card (I have one myself). they sell for about $150~$180. the 7600GS is almost the same card but clocked slower (it can supposedly be overclocked to near GT speeds) and they sell for under $100

I was gona say you missed the 4pin connector on the card but i was looking at some other 7300gs's and i noticed that most of them dont have the 4pin on the backside. I would say its underpowerd but let me know what psu you are using and if your card has the 4pin molex on it.

the 7300's for PCI-E do not need an additional power connector. the 75watts provided by the PCI-E interface is more than enough for it.

cheers :wave:

 

[MetalX]

PCI-E actually takes longer to access the system than AGP so in theory since none of the PCI-E cards even use the equivalent of AGP8X bandwidth yet, AGP IS faster than PCI-E... if only very slightly.

 

[Superinc]

sucks ...

did you install the lastest video drivers and bios updates?