Editing Accelerated Graphics Port (section)

==History==
[[Image:AGP-Video-Card.jpg|thumb|An AGP card]]

The AGP slot first appeared on [[x86]]-compatible system boards based on [[Socket 7]] Intel [[P5 (microarchitecture)|P5]] [[Pentium]] and [[Slot 1]] [[P6 (microarchitecture)|P6]] [[Pentium II]] processors. Intel introduced AGP support with the i[[440LX]] Slot 1 chipset on August 26, 1997, and a flood of products followed from all the major system board vendors.<ref name=Intel440LXdata>{{cite web |url=http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/290564.htm |title=Intel 440LX AGPset |access-date=15 September 2014}}</ref>

The first Socket 7 chipsets to support AGP were the [[VIA Technologies|VIA]] [[Apollo VP3]], [[Silicon Integrated Systems|SiS]] 5591/5592, and the [[Acer Laboratories Incorporated|ALI]] Aladdin V. Intel never released an AGP-equipped Socket 7 chipset. [[First International Computer|FIC]] demonstrated the first Socket 7 AGP system board in November 1997 as the ''FIC PA-2012'' based on the VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, followed very quickly by the ''EPoX P55-VP3'' also based on the VIA VP3 chipset which was first to market.<ref>{{cite web |author=Lal Shimpi, Anand |url=http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=155&p=1 |title=Chipset Guide |publisher=AnandTech |date=August 1, 1997 |access-date=2015-03-03}}</ref>

Early video chipsets featuring AGP support included the [[Rendition (company)|Rendition]] Vérité V2200, [[3dfx]] [[3dfx#Voodoo Banshee|Voodoo Banshee]], [[Nvidia]] [[RIVA 128]], [[3Dlabs]] PERMEDIA 2, [[Intel740|Intel i740]], [[ATI Rage|ATI Rage series]], [[Matrox]] Millennium II, and [[S3 ViRGE|S3 ViRGE GX/2]]. Some early AGP boards used graphics processors built around PCI and were simply bridged to AGP. This resulted in the cards benefiting little from the new bus, with the only improvement used being the 66&nbsp;MHz bus clock, with its resulting doubled bandwidth over PCI, and bus exclusivity. Intel's i740 was explicitly designed to exploit the new AGP feature set; in fact it was designed to texture only from AGP memory, making PCI versions of the board difficult to implement (local board RAM had to emulate AGP memory), though this was eventually accomplished much later in the form of AGP-to-PCI bridges.

Microsoft first introduced AGP support into [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] via the USB Supplement patch for OSR2 of [[Windows 95]] in 1997, also known as OSR2.1.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000145.htm |title=Which version of Windows 95 supports AGP? |access-date=15 September 2014}}</ref>{{efn|After applying the patch, the Windows 95 operating system became ''Windows 95 version 4.00.950 B''.}} The first Windows NT-based operating system to receive AGP support was [[Windows NT 4.0]] with [[Service Pack]] 3, also in 1997. [[Linux]] support for AGP-enhanced fast data transfers was first added in 1999 with the implementation of the AGPgart [[Loadable kernel module|kernel module]].

===Later use===
With the increasing adoption of PCIe, graphics cards manufacturers continued to produce AGP cards as the standard became obsolete. As GPUs began to be designed to connect to PCIe, an additional PCIe-to-AGP bridge-chip was required to create an AGP-compatible graphics card. The inclusion of a bridge, and the need for a separate AGP card design, incurred additional board costs.

The GeForce 6600 and ATI Radeon X800 XL, released during 2004–2005, were the first bridged cards.<ref>Gasior, Geoff. [http://techreport.com/articles.x/7624 Nvidia's GeForce 6600 GT AGP graphics card: Bridging backwards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011020529/http://techreport.com/articles.x/7624 |date=2007-10-11 }}, Tech Report, November 16, 2004.</ref><ref>Gasior, Geoff. [http://techreport.com/articles.x/8344 ATI's new AGP Radeons: A bridge is born] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024110508/http://techreport.com/articles.x/8344 |date=2007-10-24 }}, Tech Report, May 20, 2005.</ref> In 2009 AGP cards from Nvidia had a ceiling of the [[GeForce 7 series]]. In 2011 [[DirectX]] 10-capable AGP cards from AMD vendors (Club 3D, HIS, Sapphire, Jaton, Visiontek, Diamond, etc.) included the [[Radeon R600|Radeon HD 2400, 3450, 3650]], 3850, [[Radeon R700|4350, 4650, and 4670]]. The HD 5000 AGP series mentioned in the AMD Catalyst software was never available. There were many problems with the AMD Catalyst 11.2 - 11.6 AGP hotfix drivers under Windows 7 with the HD 4000 series AGP video cards;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=152471&highlight_key=y&keyword1=agp |title=AMD community forums |access-date=15 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007084211/http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=152471&highlight_key=y&keyword1=agp |archive-date=7 October 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> use of 10.12 or 11.1 AGP hotfix drivers is a possible workaround. Several of the vendors listed above make available past versions of the AGP drivers.

By 2010, no new motherboard chipsets supported AGP and few new motherboards had AGP slots, however some continued to be produced with older AGP-supporting chipsets.

In 2016, Windows 10 version 1607 dropped support for AGP.<ref>{{Cite web|title=AGP support in Windows 10 Anniversary Update (1607)|url=https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-security-winpc/agp-support-in-windows-10-anniversary-update-1607/bfcdf4ba-2c94-4ede-90a8-0bf587f27332?auth=1}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=November 2022}} Possible future removal of support for AGP from open-source Linux kernel drivers was considered in 2020.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AGP Graphics Card Support Proposed For Removal From Linux Radeon/NVIDIA Drivers |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AGP-Radeon-Nouveau-Drop-RFC |website=Phoronix |author=Michael Larabel |date=11 May 2020}}</ref>{{update inline|date=January 2024}}