Earlier this month we posted the first part of our “Revisiting AGP” article. Today we have posted the second and final part.

For the most part, in the first part of the last article the AGP cards performed on par with their PCI Express counterparts. In fact, in some cases the AGP parts actually led the tests in terms of performance. The X1950PRO cards, whether they were AGP or PCI Express, performed basically the same.

We continue our tests today starting off with Half-Life 2 Episode 1 and Lost Coast. From there, we will move on to Prey, X3 Reunion, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and Serious Sam 2. We will end the article with noise, consumption, temperature tests, and finally, some brief final words from us. The first part of this article covered various synthetic tests, F.E.A.R., and Oblivion, and can be found here.

Half Life 2: Episode 1 and Lost Coast

In the first Half-Life 2 test it is clear that the game performs better with the PCI Express interface at higher resolutions. In total, the PCI Express video cards hold a 10% lead over their AGP counterparts. The PCI Express video cards are also faster at lower resolutions, but the AGP cards are in the ballpark.

With HDR, the reference ATI board and the Sapphire X1950PRO AGP both experience significant performance diminishment. In this test, however, the GPU frequency is what makes the difference, not the card interface, as we see the overclocked X1950PROs, one of which is AGP and the other PCI Express, top our chart.

In the last Half Life 2 test memory plays a fundamental role in performance, and it gives the Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO AGP the edge to outperform all other cards. Interestingly enough, the HIS IceQ3 AGP experiences a very large drop in FPS as the resolution is increased to 1600x1200. We are not sure what the reason behind this huge drop is, however, it might be the result of a combination of smaller memory and slower AGP interface.