Definitions for "Accelerated Graphics Port"
Keywords:  agp, pci, intel, bus, motherboards
An industry-standard expansion bus found in most modern PCs, specifically designed for graphics cards. It is a faster alternative to the PCI bus and allows graphics programs to store large amounts of data temporarily in the computer's system memory. The speed at which a GPU can access and use the information across the AGP bus has a large impact on graphics performance. NVIDIA's GPUs are fully optimized to take advantage the fastest AGP speed currently available.
The single expansion slot designed to allow high bandwidth video cards direct access to main memory. The standard AGP slot is a 32-bit bus operating at 33MHz. AGP2X and AGP4X are successors to the 32-bit AGP bus and operate at 133MHz and 266MHz respectively.
Developed primarily by Intel, this technology provides for a dedicated "port" to be used exclusively by graphics adapters to access the system bus directly.  Technical innovations incorporated into AGP provide for very high bandwidth, suitable for real-time 3D graphics.  Additionally, AGP adapters are permitted to utilize system memory for storage and processing of 3D images (texture mapping, z-buffering, etc.)  This capability greatly enhanced the ability of the system to deliver 3D graphics.
Keywords:  hub, architecture