Ok, going along with my other post about computers, I need to decide what king of video card I'm going to be getting. I don't know the difference of speed between AGP and PCI Express, so if you do know, let us all know.

The poll is basicly going to decide whether I get an nVidia or an ATI card, but don't let the brands blur your decisions. The two cards I'm thinking about getting are the newest 'top of the line' cards from both brands.

Since PCI Express is still very new, I want to know if I should go with an AGP card or an PCI Express.

Also, what kind of Hard Drive/Optical Drive connection do you think is best: IDE or SATA. :rolling:

Poll Information
This poll contains 2 question(s). 11 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: AGP vs PCI Express and IDE vs SATA... (11 votes.)

AGP or PCI Express (Choose 1)
* AGP - PCI Express sucks! - 45% (5)
* PCI Express - AGP is old and obsolete. - 27% (3)
* Just ther results for me. - 27% (3)

IDE or SATA (Choose 1)
* IDE - The standard still stands! - 45% (5)
* SATA - RAID Arrays rule! - 36% (4)
* Just ther results for me. - 18% (2)

I'd suggest an nVidia card simply because they have better customer support/troubleshooting. Otherwise, both ATI and nVidia's frontline cards are comparably similar in performance.

I sould have made myself more clear...I don't want any suggestions on what *brand* to buy...only what kind of *card bus* is "better" for lack of a better term.

If both brands had their high-end cards in both flavors (AGP or PCI Express) I would already have a brand that I'd side with. :rolling:

It seems that you're going all out on the new PC, sparing no expense. That leads me to recommend the newest gear for you. Personally, depending on the cost difference, I'd go with the high end as well, planning to upgrade someday. :)

In theory, PCI Express offers double the bandwidth of AGP 8X. But currently, results are mixed. PCI Express is probably more of o longer-term solution.

Here's a pretty good article:

http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040310/index.html

Wow...that article put things into perspective for me. At this point I don't know why I should pay extra for a technology that won't be able to be taken advantage of. Thanks Splunge! :rolling:

Good call with Tom's Hardware, Splunge. That's the best place for reviews.

I just got my first job this summer, and am using the money to build a new kickass computer. From what I heard, the PCI-Express will be 16x, which is twice the speed of the current 8x AGP. As a result, AGP cards are going to be gradually replaced with the newer PCI-X cards, I think there will only be 1-2 more generations of the old AGPs. My advice, and what I'm doing, is getting a top of the line AGP card(namely the X800 Pro) and upgrading to PCI-Express when you could actually appreciate it. The newest AGP cards can still own the **** out of Doom 3 and the like, so what's the point of buying a PCI-X card when you won't notice any difference in your games(Or video editing I guess) until about a year from now?


Bottom Line: It's really between the ATI X800 series and the Geforce 6800 Ultra. The ultra is much more expensive, and you need two feeds from the power supply, which needs to be 480 watts. Because of that, I would say go with the X800, the XT outperformed the Geforce anyways.