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Interface

Posted By: Michael Thomas - 05:56:23 Sun, May 21, 2006

Short Version

The type of slot the card fits in.

Long Version

There are several different types of slots that video cards can fit in. Initially there was ISA, then PCI, then AGP 1x through 8x, and now PCI-E.

Currently almost any motherboard purchased within the last 2 years will support either AGP 8x or PCI-E. While most AGP specifications were backwards compatible with one another, PCI-E is completely different and will not work with an AGP card and vice versa.

On the chips pages, this refers to the best interface the chip was designed to support. Note that chips are sometimes bridged to other interfaces using a separate bridge chip. The interface listed on the chips pages ignores does not take the use of bridge chips into account. 

A complete comparison of interfaces, their specifications, and how to tell the difference is coming soon.


3 Comments
Sunday, February 04, 2007 8:12:23 PM
anonymous
guest
What about boards that have 8x pci-e connectors, where do they stand. how do they comapre
Monday, February 05, 2007 1:13:10 AM
Mike
GPUReview Founder
I think you mean the x16 connectors with only 8 lanes hooked up. These connectors are practically as good as x16 connectors because video cards really don't stress the pci-e interface very much. You might see slower performance with a turbo-cache/hypermemory card that uses the pci-e bus to communicate system memory. Aside from that there shouldn't be a noticeable difference.
Sunday, August 05, 2007 12:36:39 AM
G-man
guest
have a x1600 pro agp 512m...need to know if it will work in a 4x agp slot with 1.5voltage
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