Expansion card. Photo used under CC-BY license from Emilian Robert Vicol.
Since PCI was too slow for the newest 3D games that were becoming available in the late 1990s, a new standard port, dedicated to graphics, was needed. In 1996, the advanced graphics port (AGP) was announced and was embraced by 3D gamers for their high-speed video needs. It originally was introduced as a 1x variety, but as faster speeds were needed other varieties were added, including 2x, 4x, and 8x AGP. Each variety uses a different amount of power, as shown in the table below.
| AGP Card | Voltage Required |
| 1x and 2x cards | 3.3 V |
| 4x | 1.5 V |
| 8x | 1.5 V or 0.8 V |
| AGP Pro | 3.3 V |
AGP card. Photo used under CC-BY-NC-ND license from Grant Hutchinson.
AGP was dominant for a long period of time, but the introduction of PCIe (PCI express) ultimately led to a large decline in popularity, because PCIe speeds were able to outperform AGP and provide a singular slot type for all devices.
Motherboards that provide AGP support have a single AGP slot. Several different versions of AGP have been implemented over the years:
- AGP 1.0 1x: Runs at 66 MHz with a data throughput rate of 266 MBps.
- AGP 1.0 2x: Runs at 66 MHz with a data throughput rate of 533 MBps.
- AGP 2.0 4x: Runs at 66 MHz with a data throughput rate of 1066 MBps.
- AGP 3.0 8x: Runs at 66 MHz with a data throughput rate of 2133 MBps.
Motherboard with AGP slot identified inside the red rectangle. Photo used under CC-BY-SA license from Mario Sanchez Bueno.