Intel has launched the 440LX AGPset, a chip-set aimed at improving graphics on a PC by making full use of the new Pentium II processor. Several Hong Kong original equipment manufacture motherboard makers, however, are delaying their products while they wait for Intel to deliver its own graphics chip for the first time. Consumers who buy a Pentium II-equipped PC may not experience greater performance until Windows 98 is released next year. Accelerated graphics port (AGP) technology could increase 3D-graphics speed by up to three times. However, most of its features are not exploited by Windows 95. Henry Quan, vice-president of marketing for ATI Technologies, a graphics board manufacturer said: 'You'll get some benefit immediately from AGP. But it will really require the software to support and that's expected to come next year. That's when AGP becomes a mainstream product.' Partially as a result, SAR motherboard makers are delaying the release of some products. Anders Cheung, president of the QDI group of Legend Holdings, said his firm had four motherboards designed for the AGP chip-set. QDI is holding three of them back until Intel's graphics chip is available. Code-named Auburn, Intel's graphics chip primarily will compete with S3, which makes more than 50 per cent of graphics chips worldwide. In the meantime, QDI will release one motherboard with a compatible graphics chip from Canadian firm ATI. Mr Cheung said this was to meet demand until Intel's graphics chip was ready, early next year. PC Partners senior sales manager Sam Lam said the firm also would prefer to wait for the Intel chip-set. 'We [also] will keep our eyes open to other competitive solutions,' he said. Meanwhile, graphics-chip vendors are welcoming the arrival of AGP. S3 Asian general manager Chris Tang said: 'S3 is in the leading position of 3D, and AGP will open up the 3D market, so AGP is absolutely going to help us out.' Jag Bolaria, marketing director for Intel's platform components division, said the AGP standard would allow better use of 3D and the development of visual computing PCs. By using the Pentium II's dual independent bus architecture, AGP puts the graphics accelerator on a separate, faster bus than with PCI. As a result, data from the graphics card is not delayed by bottlenecks caused by data coming from the hard drive and other peripherals. AGP also allows the graphics card to set aside part of the PCs main memory for its use, rather than relying on its own memory. As data can be accessed faster than that on graphics cards' memory, images appear on the screen faster.