Usually, newer, faster technology is reserved for a higher-end range by the manufacturer. However, this is certainly not the case with nVidia’s latest MX-8X series. The 8X stands for AGP 8X which is being introduced in nVidia cards for the very first time. Normally, one would expect the latest technology in their Ti series of cards, but nVidia chose to introduce it with their budget MX series first. Today, we have two cards based on the 440MX-8X GPU- the first one is by MSI and is simply modeled as MX4408X while the second one is from Gainward and is modeled a bit confusingly as Pro/600-8X XP.

GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP 8X

• Fill Rate: 1/1 Billion Texels/Sec
• Triangles per Second: 34 Million
• Memory Bandwidth: 8.0GB/sec
• Maximum Memory: 64MB

"Today, the overall PC experience is increasingly dependent on efficient processing of graphics information. Just consider what you use your PC for:  browsing the Web, playing games, watching videos or listening to music. Even work applications, such as PowerPoint, are taking more and more advantage of 3D graphics.

Already in 1996, the introduction of the accelerated graphics port (AGP) specification defined a more optimized path than PCI for moving data between the graphics subsystem, the CPU and memory. This interface continues to play a vital role, but many forces are stressing the AGP 4X bus today—necessitating the leap to a more robust interface.

With the introduction of version 3.0 of the AGP specification and AGP 8X, graphics bus bandwidth doubles, dramatically improving the overall throughput for today’s graphics-intensive applications. In addition, AGP 8X introduces isochronous operation and texturing abilities. NVIDIA is already taking advantage of current and emerging graphics applications by offering the industry’s first and only top-to-bottom family of AGP 8X-ready GPUs and core logic products.

The benefits of AGP 8X

Increased Performance:  With double the bandwidth of AGP 4X, AGP 8X allows developers to manage scenes efficiently with complex geometries, and dynamically switch to new scenes in real time, improving the overall performance of today’s fast-paced “fly-through” applications and games.
Optimized Graphics:  Increased performance yields significant improvements for complex visualizations, allowing for more realistic graphics environments.

Uninterrupted Streaming:  The isochronous mode operation feature of the AGP 3.0 implementation specifically improves graphics operations that require predictable, uninterrupted data flow, such as real-time flows of digital information for video broadcasts and network downloads.

New NVIDIA GPUs and PC platforms will incorporate AGP 8X capabilities and take full advantage of the AGP 3.0 specification. As always, NVIDIA solutions incorporate new technologies and advances without compromising the overall stability and quality of the system, and the NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) makes it painless to take advantage of new capabilities as they are introduced.