PCIe and laptops - any idea when?

TheDuke

Hi guys,

I want to get a new laptop but am slow to buy it cause I really want it to have one with PCI Express so that I can get some real longlevity out of it....

Does any one know when I could expect this?

Tnx,

The Duke : ))

netman

Hope you don't mind me asking - why ?

I mean it's not like you're gonna open it up and plug in a different video card or anything... All of that (graphics, sound, network) is on the motherboard, so what difference does it make if it's AGP or PCI or PCI-E ?

I mean there's no performance difference with the PCI-E cards, at least not with anything that's out on the market now, so why bother.

Even if the components are internally hooked up via PCI-E instead of PCI bus, you won't be able to tell the difference.

Unless I'm gravely mistaken by the whole technology, which is why I asked - "why"

TheDuke

tnx for the reply...

as for the upgrading question - you're spot on... that's not going to be an option anyhow....

as for the speed - PCI-Express cards are 4 times faster than an AGP 8... not just that but if you read into exactly how PCIe is architectred in comparison to PCI standard it is like comparing a HUB with a SWITCH....

I do a little video editing in my spare time and would just like to get a bit of extra power...

However, if this is all way in the future then I'll go with something light (it's a work laptop) and replace my 'not quite beast anymore' home PC ...

netman

Well, when you look at the current PCI-E graphics card offerings you'll notice that they're actually slower than their AGP counterparts in all applications.

The main reason behind the performance hit is that they all use a "bridge" between the motherboard's PCI-E interface and the card's AGP interface. In other words, they're all still AGP cards, with an extra chip (nvidia) or extra logic in the GPU (ati) to handle PCI-E.

If you read more into it, you'll notice that PCI-E has much greater theoretical bandwidth, but you'll find that the current graphics cards are struggling even to reach AGP 4X bandwidth levels. Again, it's more of a future-proofing excercise than anything else.

And lastly, I won't pretend I know a lot about video editing, but from what I know the components that get stressed out the most are hard drives and processor. The graphics card doesn't play such a big part, and to be honest going for a laptop for video editing is counter productive. You can't get a fast performing hard drive for the laptop, they're all slower compared to the desktop drives. You'll also find it hard to get fast memory for the laptops etc.

TheDuke

If you read more into it, you'll notice that PCI-E has much greater theoretical bandwidth, but you'll find that the current graphics cards are struggling even to reach AGP 4X bandwidth levels

interresting... the ammount of research I did on this all indicated that it was allot faster and that the bridges where a none establishable delay... ATI do have a native PCI-E card though... it's GeForce that have the bridge...

as for the video editing... it's a work machine and my real best is at home... I am just swaying between not upgrading the home machine and using the laptop instead or upgrading my beast at home and getting something light for on the move...

I think I've made up my mind now...

tnx for the help,

The Duke : ))

Gilgamesh

the fact is, PCI-E IS alot faster,..... in theory, but now that the SLot is the fastest part of the machine, it is bottlenecked by other components, ( ie. Northbridge, Memory speeds etc.)
If you are doing video editing, I wouldn't really start with a Laptop anyway, just from the fact, that the most important piece of hardware is a FAST and BIG HDD.
if you are still going to do , I perosnally would have to recommend the Powermac series laptops.
They are designed for this kind of performence, and you will have a lot less resource problems with them.
I know this from my Uncle who works for Jim Henson's creature shop, hense, is in the film industry.
the biggest plus they have, is that they allready have a Firewire 800 Port on them and the Risc processor really kicks ass in Video and Audio editing and rendering.

Otherwise, if you want a IBM PC Laptop, make sure you have Firewire ports for faster external HArddrives and that you have at least a gig of RAM, that would greatly improve the experience

stevenmu

The PCI bus has been around for 10+ years. In general people still come nowhere near to fully utilising it despite the huge increases in processor and drive speeds, partly thanks to graphics being moved off to the agp bus. I'd imagine it will be some years before pci-e becomes even usefull, let alone essential, by the time it does you'll probably have the ure to upgrade again anyway so you might aswell save your money for something else now.

TheDuke

totally convince by your arguments!

Many tnx!

The Duke : ))

CyberGhost

there you go!

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=41605