AGP Pro is an extension of the AGP4X specification that is primarily designed to deliver additional electrical power to the graphics add-in cards. The AGP Pro definition includes an extended connector, thermal envelope, and mechanical specifications for cards, I/O brackets, and motherboard layout requirements. It is designed for professional level video cards, such as the Intergraph/3Dlabs Wildcat 4220.
AGP Pro extends the existing AGP connectors on both ends to deliver additional power on the 12 V and 3.3 V rails. AGP Pro is intended to supplement, but not replace, the existing AGP connector set. There are an additional 20 pins at the start and 28 pins at the end of the normal AGP slot.
An AGP Pro slot will accept and operate with standard AGP cards (although certain restrictions apply in the case of i845 and i850 motherboards). AGP Pro cards however, are not compatible with standard AGP4X slots.
The common AGP slot can supply up to 25 watts of power to a video card. AGP Pro introduces two additional AGP card types that can consume more than 25 watts.
Low Power AGP Pro cards that consume 25 to 50 Watts of power are classified as AGP Pro50 cards. In addition, the AGP Pro standard calls for at least one PCI slot to remain unoccupied adjacent to the AGP Pro50 card for cooling purposes.
A High Power AGP Pro card consumes 50 to 110 Watts of power, and is called an AGP Pro110 card. The standard requires at least 2 PCI slots to remain unoccupied adjacent to the AGP Pro110 card for cooling purposes.
There is no performance difference between AGP4X and AGP Pro.
There are currently no consumer level AGP Pro video cards.
