Conclusion

Without a doubt, the gamers will become quite enthusiastic about AGP 8x, even despite its debatable necessity. However, future games have yet to become complex enough to benefit from AGP 4x. Until this will happen, at least one or two years will pass by.

On the other hand, the additional electrical ID to prevent the motherboard from major damage, in case of the use of unsupported AGP video cards, will come in very handy. Until now, motherboard manufacturers are responsible for implementing some sort of mechanical, or electrical safety device, in order to prevent the motherboard from damage. Still not clear, is the situation for AGP 3.3V video cards in „Universal 1.5V AGP 3.0 Motherboards“, since the specification does not say anything about that specific situation.

The changes clearly point out, that Intel did not focus on 3D games but professional users and workstations. Features, like multiple AGP-Port support or hardware enforced cache-coherency are nothing, games could benefit from.

There’s no doubt, that AGP 8x will become the new standard. However, Intel has no intention to support it in its home user products yet, whereas VIA and SiS announced products which should be available soon. Presumably, the first Universal AGP 3.0 Motherboards will be available for the AMD Athlon processor, since VIA and SiS traditionally are stronger in this market. Universal AGP 3.0 Motherboards by Intel will not be available until 2003.