AGP connector to motherboard

Computer technologies are developing so quickly that computer owners do not have time to complete a complete upgrade of their computer, as manufacturers release another innovation, and it seems that the modernization process will never end. This happened when the AGP connector appeared on the motherboards. What is the story of his appearance and why did he go so quickly into oblivion?

History of appearance

The AGP connector is a dedicated connector for connecting the video card to the motherboard and, accordingly, it is installed on this board. In English, the abbreviation AGP stands for Accelerated Graphics Port, or "fast graphic port." Why did they call him that and how did he appear?

Until 1996, the graphics interface used by video card manufacturers was PCI. But the speed of information exchange on this graphic bus was quite small. And the requirements that gradually arose among software developers could not be satisfied with this interface, not to mention the developments for future periods. Therefore, Intel develops an AGP connector and installs it on the motherboard, in parallel with this, a video card with the same interface is developed. And twenty years ago there is a new set of motherboard and the corresponding video card.

Advantages of video card with AGP connector

If we talk about the advantages that computers with an AGP connector have, it should be noted that the bandwidth of this bus was doubled at once. Due to what it was possible to do? First of all, by increasing the frequency of exchange on this interface. AGP-connector allowed to increase the speed of information exchange up to 66 MHz. This allowed to create more powerful video cards, programmers began to develop appropriate applications for this interface. And just at this time there are new software products, including gaming. These advantages forced computer owners to upgrade their own equipment. But for this it was necessary to replace not only the motherboard, the processor, but also the video card.

It was at this time for those who could not afford a complete upgrade of the computer, an adapter with AGP is being developed (a PCI- connector will be introduced later), which made it possible to save money for a while to replace at least a video card. Of course, over time, one way or another, we had to make a complete replacement of the computer equipment. An example of such an adapter is shown in the photo.

What kinds of AGP connectors are there?

The AGP interface existed until 2004. Over these eight years, developers have significantly upgraded this interface, increasing its performance. If we talk about the width of this bus, then in all its variants it is 32-bit. Computers that have a 64-bit bus appeared a little later. Therefore, developers had to use a 32-bit interface and look for other opportunities to improve the performance of video cards and the AGP-interface itself. What was the way out?

The developers solved the problem using packet data transfer. So, the first AGP-1 card transmitted one packet of information for one clock cycle. But this was not enough, almost immediately was developed AGP-2, which transmitted two packets per clock. At the same time, the data transfer rate has doubled. Two years later, the developers are already releasing AGP-4, and the speed is doubled in comparison with the predecessor card.

At the same time, the performance or throughput of the AGP-4 interface was one gigabit per second. But this was also not enough. A few years later, AGP-8 video cards appeared on sale, which operated with eight blocks of information per clock and an interface bandwidth of two gigabits per second.

But at the same time there was a problem of power transfer through the AGP- connector. The slot AGP-8 could not provide good contact when transferring a large power to the power of the video card. And the developers specifically for high-end gaming cards develop the AGP Pro slot. This was the last modification of this interface.

Further history of the AGP slot

Whatever it was, but over time it became clear that computers needed a new interface that could replace the AGP connector. бы иметь еще большую пропускную способность, с одной стороны, и обеспечить все возрастающую потребляемую мощность - с другой. The motherboard required a new slot, which could have an even greater bandwidth, on the one hand, and provide an ever-increasing power consumption, on the other. And since 2004 the PCI Express slot is replacing the AGP slot.

The advantage of this slot was the ability to work with 64-bit buses, which greatly increased the computer's ability to work with graphics. At this time start to enter the market monitors of large sizes. And in order to qualitatively display on the monitor such an image, it was necessary to work with higher resolutions. In addition, video game vendors are constantly developing products that require even greater system requirements for the computer's video system. In this case, the AGP connector, the photo of which is visible on the motherboard, is hopelessly lost in the past. But, is everything so bad for this interface?

When will the AGP slot disappear?

Is it possible to say that today the era of AGP has irretrievably gone? Probably, there will come soon such days when neither a motherboard with such a connector, nor a video card of such a plan will be found impossible. Unless in specialized museums or on a computer flea market. But today this interface is very actively used. Yes, the equipment with it has not been produced for a long time, and its last stockpiles in warehouses will soon be exhausted. And those copies of equipment that are in computers, will gradually become unusable. And then people will forget about AGP-slots. But this is still far away.

Using AGP-slot in modern conditions

As already mentioned above, computers with AGP-interface can not be used in those machines that work with graphics, video and gaming applications. But the number of computers working with such applications in the total mass of computers is not so great. The largest sector is occupied by computers that work with office applications, and the speed of the video stream for them is not so important.

In addition, quite a lot of computers that have an AGP slot, work to this day. And since the reliability of these machines is large enough, many companies are slow to abandon them in their offices. And it seems that this situation will continue for many years. Of course, sooner or later the AGP-slot will be replaced by a newer and more modern one, but this will take some time.

Compromise solution of motherboard designers

The developers of computer technology assumed that the replacement of the AGP-slot on the PCI Express will go at a fast pace. But this did not happen, at the last stage of its development AGP-video cards were so good that many users do not hurry to refuse them to this day.

On the other hand, this modernization required a lot of money, which meant that it held back many users. With this in mind, motherboard manufacturers have made a compromise. They decided on the motherboard to install simultaneously two video slots AGP and PCI Express. However, it was impossible to use both slots at the same time, and the user could choose the slot, the video card for which he had one.

The possibility of using AGP-connector for other purposes

Many users have a question about what devices can be connected to the AGP connector, as often in the computer systems described above, it is released and not used. But it's worth remembering that this interface was specially designed for video card management. Is it possible to apply it for other purposes? In principle, this is possible, but this requires the management of this interface to be changed, and the effectiveness of such management is unlikely to improve. There are other interfaces that are designed to solve a variety of tasks, so it's better to use one of them.