pipeline

[meboy]

When they say that a card is 8x or 4x are they refuring to the pipeline speed?

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by meboy

When they say that a card is 8x or 4x are they refuring to the pipeline speed?

I think they are referring to the number of pipelines.

[theburan]

Accelerated Graphics Port - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
there's a nice bit in there explaining the differences between 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x there.

[MantaBase]

Originally Posted by meboy

When they say that a card is 8x or 4x are they refuring to the pipeline speed?

Hiya,

Unless my knowledge is out of date (and it may be - I'm not the graphics card reviewer around here)....

The 1x,4x,8x,16x refer to the number of pipes or "lanes" but not the speed of the lanes. That said, with no bottlenecks, the higher number, the more data that can be moved in a set amount of time. Of course, the are often bottle necks.

[screwballl]

It depends on the spec.
If it is AGP, then it refers to speed. A 8x card is 8 times the speed of AGP 1x and it will not fit into a board designated as 2x/4x since the 2x has a different pinout. The 4x cards have specific notches missing to work either way. Most last gen AGP video cards are 4x/8x.

Now if you mean PCI Express (PCIe), then it refers to the number of "lanes" the connection has. More lanes means more data and higher bandwidth and faster cards can use it. A single PCI slot (the white ones found on boards for many years now), is basically 1 lane. There is also PCIe x1, which is a very short black connector on most modern boards. then there is x4, x8 and x16 which is typically a full size PCIe slot. Most video cards with PCIe are x16 unless otherwise specified.
Also PCIe is always mentioned as x4 ("x" in front of the number), versus AGP is always after the number (4x).

[[Dr. V]]

Pipelines are like lanes on a highway - the more the better. More lanes = equal more ability to transfer information. If I had 100 things going through each lane, each new lane gives me 100 more things going through AT THE SAME TIME (that's the key). The more things moving simultaneously = more productivity for...well, anything.

[MantaBase]

Originally Posted by screwballl

It depends on the spec.

Ah yes - with AGP, the number refers to how many times the pipeline has been "pumped". With PCI its the number of "lanes". I didn't consider AGP.

Didn't know there was an actual convention to where the "x" goes. Good info.

Manta

[meboy]

Hay Guy's this helped out a lot. I don' type very well so I don't always say what I know. But this gets me going in the wright way.
Thank's meboy