That is, a device designed for Gen-3 PCI Express functions at Gen-2 speeds when connected to a Gen-2 device, a Gen-2 device functions at Gen-1 speeds when connected to a Gen-1 device, and so on. The following summarizes the differences in potential bandwidth between the various slot types.

As fast and wide as the PCI bus was, there was one task that threatened to consume all its bandwidth: displaying graphics. Early in the era of the ISA bus, monitors were driven by simple Monochrome Display adapter (MDA) and Colour Graphics Array (CGA) cards. A CGA graphics display could show four colours (two bits of data) at 320 by 200 pixels screen resolution at 60Hz, which required 128,000 bits of data per screen, or just over 937 KBps. An XGA image at a 16-bit colour depth requires 1.5MB of data for every image, and at a vertical refresh rate of 75Hz, this amount of data is required 75 times each second. Thanks to modern graphics adapters, not all of this data has to be transferred across the expansion bus, but 3D imaging technology created new problems.

  1. AGP Accelerated Graphics Port is a Point-to-Point Chip-to-Chip bus using 1.5 Volt or 3.3V signaling. The main use of the AGP bus is as a Local Video bus in IBM compatible Personal Computers PCs. The AGP interface bus is based on the PCI Peripheral Component Interface spec, using the PCI specification as an operational baseline.
  2. The function aGP.R is a prototype R-only version for debugging and transparency purposes. It is slower than aGP, which is primarily in C. However it may be useful for developing new programs that involve similar subroutines. Note that aGP.R may provide different output than aGP due to differing library subroutines deployed in R and C.
  3. An abbreviation for autogynephile - a heterosexual man who practices autogynephilia.

3D graphics have made it possible to model both fantastic and realistic worlds on-screen in enormous detail. Texture mapping and object hiding require huge amounts of data, and the graphics adapter needs to have fast access to this data to avoid the

AGP operates at the speed of the processor bus, now known as the frontside bus. At a clock rate of 66MHz this is double the PCI clock speed and means that the peak base throughput is 264 MBps.

For graphics cards specifically designed to support it, AGP allows data to be sent during both the up and down clock cycle, doubling the clock rate to 133MHz and peak transfer to 528 MBps. This is known as 2x. To improve the length of time that AGP can maintain this peak transfer, the bus supports pipelining, which is another improvement over PCI. A pipelining 2x graphics card will be able to sustain throughput at 80% of the peak. AGP also supports queuing of up to 32 commands via a process called Sideband Addressing (SBA), the commands being sent while data is being received. This allows the bus to sustain peak performance for 95% of the time, according to Intel.

AGP’s four-fold bandwidth improvement and graphics-only nature ensures that large transfers of 3D graphics data don’t slow up the action on screen; nor will graphics data transfers be interrupted by other PCI devices. Being primarily intended to boost 3D performance, AGP also provides other improvements that are specifically aimed at this function.

Agp Slot Definition And Functions

With its increased access speed to system memory over the PCI bus, AGP can use system memory as if it’s actually on the graphics card. This is called Direct Memory Execute (DIME). A device called a Graphics Aperture Remapping Table (GART) handles the RAM addresses so that they can be distributed in small chunks throughout system memory rather than hijacking one large section, and presents them to a DIME-enabled graphics card as if they’re part of on-board memory. The main use for DIME is to allow much larger textures to be used because the graphics card can have a much larger memory space in which to load the DRDRAM) in the second half of 1999. AGP 2.0 was supported by chipsets launched early in 1999 to provide support for Intel’s Katmai processor.

AGP Pro is a physical specification aimed at satisfying the needs of high-end graphics card manufacturers, who are currently limited by the maximum electrical power that can be drawn by an AGP card (about 25W). AGP Pro caters for cards that draw up to 100W, and will use a slightly longer AGP slot that will also take current AGP cards.

Short for accelerated graphics port, AGP is an advanced port designed for video cards and 3D accelerators. Developed by Intel and introduced in August 1997, AGP introduces a dedicated point-to-point channel that allows the graphics controller direct access to the system memory. Below is an illustration of what the AGP slot may look like on your motherboard.

The AGP channel is 32-bits wide and runs at 66 MHz, which is a total bandwidth of 266 MBps and much greater than the PCI bandwidth (up to 133 MBps). AGP also supports two optional faster modes, with a throughput of 533 MBps and 1.07 GBps. It also allows 3-D textures to be stored in main memory rather than video memory.

AGP is available in three different versions, the original AGP version mentioned above, AGP 2.0 that was introduced in May 1998, and AGP 3.0 (AGP 8x) that was introduced in November 2000. AGP 2.0 added 4x signaling and was capable of operating at 1.5V, and AGP 3.0 was capable of double the transfer speeds.

Where is AGP on the motherboard

Note

Today, AGP has been replaced by PCI Express.

DefinitionAgp

A computer with AGP support has one AGP slot next to all other expansion slots or an onboard AGP video. If you needed more than one video card in the computer, you can have one AGP video card and one PCI video card or use a motherboard that supports SLI.

Agp Slot Definition And Function Definition

Tip

Not all operating systems support AGP because of limited or no driver support. For example, Windows 95 did not support AGP. To determine what version of Windows you have, see: How to determine the version of Windows on a computer.

What is AGP Pro?

Agp Slot Definition And Function Examples

AGP Pro is an AGP interface extension specification for advanced workstations. This specification delivers additional power to video cards, includes an extended connector, thermal envelope, mechanical specifications, I/O bracket, and motherboard layout requirements.

Related pages

Agp Slot Definition And Function Definitions

AGP Aperture, AIMM, Bus, Computer acronyms, Expansion slot, Hardware terms, Motherboard terms, Video card terms