Re: 9600GT vs 880GT
What's the deal with PCI Express 1.0 however? Do you know if the 8800GTs will work on that now?
As Lord worte above the 8800Gt will work just fine in a PCI-E 1x slot.
Think of PCI-E 2.0 as simply a new revision of an existing technology, not a new technology in it's own right.
PCI-E 1.x and PCI-E 2.0 are designed to be both backwards and forwards compatible.
You can use a PCI-E 1.0, PCI-E 1.1 or PCI-E 2.0 card in any of the aforementioned slots.
The only real difference is the data throughput rates of the revisions.
PCI-E 1.x delivers 250 MB/s of data in both directions. PCI-E 2.0 delivers 500MB/s. in both directions
As 16 lanes is the norm (32 lanes can exist but are way too expensive to produce at a cost-effective level)
Given that, the throughput for each spec can be expected to be PCI-E1.x 8GB/s bandwidth. PCI-E 2.0 can deliver up to 16 GB/s of bandwidth (both directions combined).
Newer cards also demand more power than the old PCI-E slots could deliver, so you'll probably need to connect a power connector from your PSU to the graphics card.
Consider this when buying. If the card needs a PCI-E plus straight from the PSu as opposed to a molex, you might need a PSU upgrade if your current one lacks the necessary connector. Although i'm sure adaptors are available, you might find the power supplied might be weak as the rails weren't designed to handle the extra wattage the card draws. Just food for thought
Given that no card really saturates the current available bandwidth you'll, the card will run ''slower'' on your board than on a PCI-E 2.0 compliant board, but this speed decrease shouldn't be too noticeable