PCI-E 2.0 vs 3.0

[BuilderTheBeast]

Hey guys, I want to upgrade my GPU, but dont know how will the PCI-E slot affect my new GPU. What will be the performance loss of the PCI-E 16x gen 3.0 GPU in a PCI-E 16x gen 2.0 slot? I will upgrade my MB after some time too so this is going to be temporary. Thanks

[79wjd]

Don't worry about it. Even PCIE 2.0 won't bottleneck any modern gpu/s. 

 

PCIE 2.0x4 will only bottleneck some cards in some situations, and thats equivalent to PCIE 3.0x2. 

[Lotus]

PCIE 2.0 @ 8x speed won't bottleneck a modern GPU, so you're fine.

[EarthboundHero]

There will be none, any modern graphics card can run fine on as low as a PCI-E 2.0 8X slot.

[Enderman]

it wont make any performance difference unless you use 3 or more GPUs

[CorruptDataFiles]

is there even any motherboard with pci-e 2.0 these day this is just a stupid q

[79wjd]

is there even any motherboard with pci-e 2.0 these day this is just a stupid q

AMD FX boards are all PCIE 2.0 

[Taidi]

is there even any motherboard with pci-e 2.0 these day this is just a stupid q

I'm also running PCIE 2.0 because i just have an older motherboard...

I dont think that is very rarely

[Briggsy]

any one with sandy bridge or older, or an AMD FX processor will be using pci-e 2.0. 

 

still good. SLI/crossfire might have some performance hit with 2.0 @ 8x though.

[Coeleborn]

Don't worry about it. Even PCIE 2.0 won't bottleneck any modern gpu/s. 

 

PCIE 2.0x4 will only bottleneck some cards in some situations, and thats equivalent to PCIE 3.0x2. 

OK, then what card should I be running on my LGA 775 mobo? Everything on the net I could find said the GTX 750 series was the only card that would successfully run on 2.0, so I got EVGA's GTX 750 Ti FTW --- I love the thing! (So much better than the Intel G43/45 Chipset on the mobo)! But if I can do better --- tell me!

[79wjd]

OK, then what card should I be running on my LGA 775 mobo? Everything on the net I could find said the GTX 750 series was the only card that would successfully run on 2.0, so I got EVGA's GTX 750 Ti FTW --- I love the thing! (So much better than the Intel G43/45 Chipset on the mobo)! But if I can do better --- tell me!

Any GPU can run on that board. It's just a question as to whether or not your cpu will hold you back....so you have two choices: Get a mid-high end gpu now, and then upgrade your cpu (and take advantage of the GPU power WHEN you upgrade); or go with a low tier gpu now (one that won't be held back by your current cpu) and then just upgrade both the gpu and cpu in the future. 

 

Other factors to consider is how large of a GPU can your case fit? And whether or not your PSU has the power adapters to power a certain gpu. 

 

So what CPU, PSU, and case do you have? 

[Coeleborn]

Any GPU can run on that board. It's just a question as to whether or not your cpu will hold you back....so you have two choices: Get a mid-high end gpu now, and then upgrade your cpu (and take advantage of the GPU power WHEN you upgrade); or go with a low tier gpu now (one that won't be held back by your current cpu) and then just upgrade both the gpu and cpu in the future. 

 

Other factors to consider is how large of a GPU can your case fit? And whether or not your PSU has the power adapters to power a certain gpu. 

 

So what CPU, PSU, and case do you have? 

Corsair CX 500 PSU & E5700 Core 2 Duo upgradeable to Core 2 Quad. Casewise, my height & width is maxed with the CX 500, but I've got 3" in length to go --- don't know what direction a bigger PSU will go. I've got 6 more inches GPU length to go, so, I'm good for anything in card length, lol!

[79wjd]

Corsair CX 500 PSU & E5700 Core 2 Duo upgradeable to Core 2 Quad.

Well....then two choices: either get the best gpu you can afford and upgrade the cpu later on to take advantage of the gpu, OR get a low tier GPU, which will yield similar performance. 

[Lotus]

Have you overclocked that CPU? It predates the whole K series CPUs, and so overclocks very differently from modern CPUs. I've got my i7-920 at 3.9 GHz (stock is 2.66). If you overclock, you can increase your CPU power enough so that it wont hold you back as much and you can get a nice middle-of-the-road card like an R9 270. Of course, the whole overclocking also depends on your cooler and motherboard in addition to your willingness to overclock.

[Clyne]

AMD FX boards are all PCIE 2.0 

*MOST FX BOARDS are PCIE 2.0

This one has PCIE 3.0

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_990FXGEN3_R20/overview/

[SteveGrabowski]

is there even any motherboard with pci-e 2.0 these day this is just a stupid q

 

H81, AM3, AM3+ all use PCIE-2.0

[Jabberwookie]

even on a 3.0 you have to force a nvidia card to run 3.0, which makes me wonder why they even advertise it as such, even so a radeon that will run native in it with out tweeking the performance boost in very slight and 2.0 even beats 3.0 in certain cercumstances, its basically architecture thats not being utilized in this gen so, dont waste money, just wait for good numbers.... if any because even the difference in 1.1 to 2.0 is slight enough to where its kinda stupid... invest in a better card if you want to spend money.... waiting is better if you can.

[SteveGrabowski]

OK, then what card should I be running on my LGA 775 mobo? Everything on the net I could find said the GTX 750 series was the only card that would successfully run on 2.0, so I got EVGA's GTX 750 Ti FTW --- I love the thing! (So much better than the Intel G43/45 Chipset on the mobo)! But if I can do better --- tell me!

 

I run a mildly overclocked GTX 970 on a PCIE-2.0x16 slot, and its Firestrike graphics score is 12300, right in line with scores I have seen for similar overclocks on PCIE-3.0x16 boards.

[Humbug]

Everybody says PCIE3 does not make a difference. And I beleive them.

But at the same time it's hard to find up-to-date benchmarks from reliable websites who have tested and confirmed this using modern games (2014-2015) and frame latency data.

[Coeleborn]

Just zipping through Heaven & Valley @ 70+fps; if it really gets better than this, I definitely want it!