What Is an AGP Graphic Card?

An AGP graphics card uses an Accelerated Graphics Port that was once widely used on many computer systems. AGP is a faster channel that is used to connect a graphics card to a computer's motherboard. A graphics card that used AGP had faster graphics acceleration for better performance. AGP is being phased out and replaced with PCI Express.

Advantages

An AGP graphics card has many advantages over cards that used a PCI connection. AGP, unlike PCI, was a system "bus" or subsystem that was specifically dedicated to graphics adapters. A dedicated channel to the CPU or processor allows for faster communication and information transfer that leads to increased performance.

History

AGP graphics cards began to appear around 1997 on computer systems that were compatible based on the x86 architecture at the time. An AGP graphics card required a chipset based on a Socket 7 or a Slot 1 Pentium processor. AGP support was added to Microsoft Windows 95 when Service Release 2 became available.

Compatibility

AGP graphics cards are backward- and forward-compatible with some limitations. Some AGP cards will not fit into slots that are meant for different types such as a standard and pro version. There are also voltage-compatibility issues because some cards required 1.5v while others required 3.3v. A card that does not have the correct voltage for the slot on the motherboard should not be used because damage can occur.

Uses

There are very few motherboards that are manufactured that feature an AGP slot for a graphics card. This is because AGP is not supported on current chipsets that are used on new motherboards. Motherboards that do have an AGP slot are based on older chipsets.

Manufacturers

There are a few manufacturers that still produce an AGP graphics card. These include ATI, which produces the Radeon and Nvidia, which produces the GeForce 7 series. Most manufacturers are producing cards for the chipsets that support PCI Express.