PCI Express 2.0 Question

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Limp Gawd
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Nov 24, 2007
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Hello all, im new to these forums and this is my first post! :D . I just recently ordered a MSI 8800GT online, and i was wondering what the pci-e 2.0 was about. Will i be losing performance on a 1.0 motherboard if there is such a thing?

This is my Motherboard

Im kinda a noob to computers so please clarify it for me in an easy way :p
 
PCIe 1.0 and PCIe 2.0 are backwards compatible. Also, you won't lose any performance if your mobo is only PCIe 1.0 unless you have a video card that's 5 years from the future.
 
PCI-Express 2.0 is both backward and forward compatible with PCI-Express 1.1

You can:
Put a PCI Express 1.1 card into a PCI Express 2.0 slot and it will work at 1.1 speeds
Put a PCI Express 2.0 card into a PCI Express 1.1 slot and it will work at 1.1 speeds
Put a PCI Express 2.0 card into a PCI Express 2.0 slot and it will work at 2.0 speeds

I don't know about the "nForce4 Ultra" chipset but i'm sure it doesn't support PCI-e 2.0
so u'l work on 1.1 speed

from here

PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007.
CIe 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 2.5 Gbit/s to 5 Gbit/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GB/s in each direction.

PCIe 2.0 is completely backward compatible with PCIe v1.x, so graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.0 and vice versa.

According to Anandtech:
The transition to PCIe 2.0 won't be anything like the move from AGP to PCIe. The cards and motherboards are backwards and forwards compatible. PCIe 1.0 and 1.1 compliant cards can be plugged into a PCIe 2.0 motherboard, and PCIe 2.0 cards can be plugged into older motherboards. This leaves us with zero impact on the consumer due to PCIe 2.0, in more ways than one.

The PCI-SIG also said PCIe 2.0 also features improvements to the point-to-point data transfer protocol and its software architecture.

In June 2007 Intel released the specification of the P35 chipset which does not support PCIe 2.0 only PCIe 1.1.[5] Some people may be confused by the P35 block diagram[6] which states the Intel P35 has a PCIe x16 graphics link (8 GB/s) and 6 PCIe x1 links (500 MB/s each), for simple verification one can view the P965 block diagram which shows the same number of lanes and bandwidth but was released before PCIe 2.0 was finalized. Intel's first PCIe 2.0 capable chipset is the X38 and boards are already shipping from various vendors (Abit, Asus, Gigabyte) as of October 21, 2007.[7] AMD starts supporting PCIe 2.0 from its RD700 chipset series. NVIDIA has revealed that the MCP72 will be their first PCIe 2.0 equipped chipset.
Click to expand...

so YES 2.0 is better and faster, it's available in X38 and X48, and the 7 series from nForce
anyway i'm waiting for PCI Express 3.0 in 2009 :D
 
ahh i see, thanks alot guys. So how much performance would you say im losing if my mobo is 1.1? Like 40%? or is it a small difference? :confused:
 
Nope it's released. There just isn't any video card right now that can actually saturate a PCI-e x16 v1.1 slot.
 
ok so im not losing any peformance on my 1.1 motherboard and my 2.0 8800gt ? :confused:
 
ok then whats the point of the pci-e 2.0? is it for future motherboards or drivers?
 
Try future graphics cards. (Probably a couple years in the future, at least, at this rate.) Think of it as future-proofing much as SATA II (3 Gbps) is to original SATA (1.5 Gbps) even though there isn't a drive out there that can, alone, saturate even PATA/133.

Also, just as SATA II has fringe, non-speed-related benefits compared to SATA, so does PCI-E 2.0 compared to PCI-E 1.1. At the very least, PCI-E 2.0 slots deliver more power to the graphics cards than PCI-E 1.1 slots, so more cards can go without a supplemental connector from the power supply.
 
When you get a new computer altogether or the video cards start to go over the bandwidth allowed by the 1.0 version of PCI-E.
 
firas said:
PCI-Express 2.0 is both backward and forward compatible with PCI-Express 1.1

You can:
Put a PCI Express 1.1 card into a PCI Express 2.0 slot and it will work at 1.1 speeds
Put a PCI Express 2.0 card into a PCI Express 1.1 slot and it will work at 1.1 speeds
Put a PCI Express 2.0 card into a PCI Express 2.0 slot and it will work at 2.0 speeds
Put a PCI Express 2.0 card into a PCI Slot and it will work no more.
Click to expand...

*fixed
 
He’s talking about the PCI between the graphic card and the mobo
X38 based mobo’s (which is available now) support PCI-e 2.0
X48 based mobo’s (will be available after couple of months) will support PCI-e 2.0
700 series nforce chips will support 2.0
8800GT supports PCI-e 2.0 and I guess all future cards will (like that upcoming G92 GTS or whatever its name)
 
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