Q1: What is AGP?
A1:
AGP or Accelerated Graphics Port is a bus interface for graphics accelerators. AGP gives graphics accelerators fast, high throughput direct access to system memory. This allows a graphics accelerator access to more memory than available locally on the graphics card. For example, to display a scene that contains 16MB of textures, a 4MB AGP graphics card could access the PC system memory for the additional 12MB required.
As PC applications become more graphics intensive - with multiplayer 3D games, advanced CAD program, virtual reality "malls" - the bandwidth required to display each screen rises dramatically. AGP graphics addresses this bandwidth bottleneck and provides a high-bandwidth pipeline between the graphics accelerator and system memory so that memory-intensive 3D texture data can be stored and accessed from main system memory.
Together, the Intel Pentium IIĘ processor and AGP provide the processing power and data flows necessary to improve the performance of these bandwidth hungry applications.
ATI's AGP technology is available to the VAR and System Integrator community via ATI AGP add-in boards.
Q2: AGP - Why Do You Need it?
A2:
If you're building a new PC ....you should be looking into an AGP system. AGP is the next generation of PC platforms that enhances high-performance graphics and full-motion video. AGP is a high performance bus designed by Intel with input from graphics vendors. AGP is being embraced by the top PC manufacturers.
The introduction of Intel's AGP specification and AGP-enabled systems is the dawning of a new era in graphics acceleration. Designed to dramatically increase the amount of textures that can be displayed on the screen, the AGP bus architecture permits the use of main system memory for the high memory requirements of 3D display. The result is a system that can efficiently handle graphics with previously unheard of levels of textures, opening the door to the richest and most exciting 3D presentations and spreadsheets, detailed 3D web content, data visualization and professionally designed images.
Q3: The Market Speaks - Top OEMs are Adopting ATI AGP Technology
A3:
Talk is cheap. The truth is that major OEMs (IBM, Compaq, Dell, Sony, Acer and AST - to name a few) are shipping AGP technology, and their choice of supplier is ATI.
Click Here to see the latest systems that have ATI Graphics Power, Under The Hood.
Q4: Beware, Not All AGPs Are Created Equal!
A4:
ATI's 3D RAGE PRO is the most complete AGP controller on the market. Offering performance up to 4 times faster than other AGP solutions, ATI is the only graphics vendor to support the AGP texturing capability recommended in Intel's AGP specification. Other graphics vendors that have not implemented the complete AGP specification run the risk of delivering AGP performance that is even worse than today's PCI performance.
Not only are OEMs opting for AGP technology, and more specifically ATI AGP technology, key market analysts view AGP and ATI as the way to go.
Dean McCarron of Mercury Research: "The graphics industry is undergoing a strategic inflection point as it transitions from PCI to AGP-based systems." "We predict that 45% of new PC systems will switch to AGP graphics within the coming year."
Martin Reynolds, VP Technology Assessment, DataQuest: "ATI¼s full 2X AGP solution delivers on the promise of AGP." "Effective use of system memory through the AGP allows mainstream to support multimegabyte texture maps, delivering consumer applications with remarkable visual impact."
Q5: The Top Six Reasons to Buy ATI AGP 2X Graphics Accelerators
A5:
1. ATI offers the full AGP implementation!
ATI implements all of the performance and image quality enhancing features of AGP. ATI's AGP offers AGP 2X for 528MB/sec data transfer rate, sideband addressing, pipelining and AGP texturing support
2. ATI's AGP technology has been adopted by leading Manufacturers like Compaq, AST, Dell and others!
Where did leading PC manufacturers turn when they needed an AGP graphics solution? ATI. ATI's fully implemented AGP 2X graphics controllers have been selected by Compaq, IBM, AST and DELL for their latest Pentium II based systems. Having a fully implemented AGP 2X graphics system provides a significant competitive advantage over traditional PCI and AGP 1X implementations.
3. ATI's award-winning experience in graphics accelerators brings to you the best in 3D, 2D and video technology.
ATI has long been leading the way in graphics acceleration technology. Awards tell the story: PC Magazine Editor's Choice (All-in-Wonder, June 1997), PC World Best Buy (3D Pro Turbo PC2TV, September 1997), Boot KickAss Product (All-in-Wonder), Windows Magazine 100 Award (3D Xpression+PC2TV, June 1997) - to name just a few.
4. ATI provides Microsoft Certified drivers for Windows 95 and NT 4.0*.
Microsoft certification ensures you that your ATI graphics card is compatible with Windows 95 and NT 4.0*. Furthermore, ATI only releases Microsoft certified driver updates. So when you update your display drivers, your system will still be Microsoft certified and work as intended.
Many other manufacturers do not have Microsoft certified drivers and do not offer certified driver updates - they leave compatibility testing up to you.
*AGP requires Microsoft's Service Pack 3
5. ATI's AGP 2X graphics cards are optimized for performance on Pentium II systems.
Only ATI's AGP 2X graphics cards and display drivers employ write combine optimization for Pentium II systems. With write combine optimization, data is transferred from the processor to the graphics card in large efficient chunks as opposed to one-by-one in small packets. This optimization increases performance on Pentium II systems, so with an ATI AGP 2X graphics card, you leverage the investment and power of the Pentium II processor to improve graphics performance even more.
6. ATI's AGP graphics accelerators let you playback MPEG-2/DVD without expensive DVD player cards.
ATI's AGP 2X graphics boards employ motion compensation technology which allows MPEG-2/DVD to playback 30 percent faster than software only solutions. All you need is an ATI AGP board, a Pentium II 266MHz with at least 32MB RAM, a DVD drive and the ATI software DVD kit which includes DVD player software application. In no time, you'll be watching full-screen DVD movies in true color right on your PC
More Informations here:
http://www.ati.com/na/pages/faq/agp_faq.html
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