About PCI-E 2.0

zapoqx

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I just need to know something as I have been trying to search for it for a while but I haven't found any info to my answer that I'm looking for.

From what i've seen, a PCI-E 2.0 board will still work with PCI-E 1.x cards.

So my question is...
Will a PCI-E 2.0 Graphics Card work with a PCI-E 1.1 board?

Someone please enlighten me so I can put the question out of my mind :cry:
 
Wikipedia said:
PCIe 2.0 is completely backwards compatible with PCIe v1.x. Graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.1 and v1.0, and vice versa.


mm... looks like it
 
I think that's a case of forward compatability as well as backwards - I can only assume that a PCI-express v2.0 graphics card would run more slowly in a v1.0 motherboard. There wouldn't be much point in v2.0 otherwise :)
 
possibly, which then would be sort of funny. I would almost want to see how that works by getting that Radeon 3870 just to see if that is true... I just don't wanna throw $260 down just for testing purposes though.

Though thinking about it, it probably wouldn't be that much slower. I don't think the 3800 series cards broke the limit in terms of transfer rate other than the max that it would go to.

Does nVidia have any cards on the horizon then that will be PCI-E 2.0?
 
Does nVidia have any cards on the horizon then that will be PCI-E 2.0?

All the nvidia 8800 cards based on the g92 gpu are pci-e 2.0

But interestingly enough there is a thread in the abit forums on the compatibility of pci-e 2.0 card with v1.x boards like the ip35 pro and a few others, it seems alot of people are finding these cards are not working in these boards. Reasons for this is yet unclear.
http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=131643
 
hmmm... this does really persue questions. Thanks for the link. Now I wonder if I should try it. Curiosity is such a douche.
 
Some of the first versions of the 8800GT had problems which Nvidia said will be or have been fixed.
 
My PCI-e HD3870 worksa perfect with my MSI 1.1 board. So yes it is compatable.
 
So Steevo, with the current drivers, would you say that the HD3870 works much better than the 2900 XT?
 
I was in agreement with the above "PCI-e 2.0 will be backwards compatible with PCI-e 1.x until about an hour ago... It is not always!

My new EVGA 8800 GT will not work in my ECS K8t890-A PCI-e 1.0 MB! I just got off the phone with EVGA (who have the best tech support I've ever encountered!!!!!!!!). Some of the older PCI-e 1 MB's are not compatible with the latest generation PCI-e 2 cards, ECS does not.

EVGA does offer a firmware flash to make the 8800 GT a PCI-e 1 card. I graciously declined shotting my new card in the foot. Some MB makers may have bios upgrades to support the PCIe- 2 video cards.

Check with your the vendors before buying a PCI-e 2 video card if you don't want to be stuck upgrading MB/CPU/RAM too.

Since I already upgraded the PSU to support the new card thinking the 400W PSU was the problem I've bit the bullet and am going with a full system upgrade. See my other post in "general hardware" I'm looking for ideaas on the new MB/CPU. i.e. talk me out of going ATI again.
 
The general rule is that PCI-E 2.0 is both backwards and forwards compatible, so that PCI-E 2.0 cards will run perfectly fine in older PCI-E 1.0 boards. However, just as mentioned, certain older boards don't play nice, so it's worth doing some research about your specific motherboard ahead of time.
 

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