Graphical improvement by upgrading from 1.0 PCIe to 3.0 PCIe?

[Paul567]

I am looking to upgrade my system and I'm thinking of keeping my old graphics card for the time being.

 

My current system uses a 3Ghz Core2Duo, Radeon 7770 HD and a P5G41-M motherboard with only a 1.0 PCIe x16 slot.

 

My hope is that by upgrading to a motherboard with a 3.0 PCIe x16 slot (ASRock Z97 Anniversary with a G3258) I can properly utilize my graphics card.

 

Will upgrading from 1.0 PCIe to 3.0 PCIe significantly improve my graphical performance while gaming?

[smjpl]

Good question. I don't think it would make a significant improvement. I would suggest checking the performance you get in some games and comparing them with online benchmarks for the same games. Might not be accurate but you should get a general idea. Again though my guess would be no. I wouldn't think a HD7770 would bottleneck a PCI-e gen 1 (but I am guessing)

[RevoltTrain]

Yes it would definitely help. I transplanted my 7770 from an old system with PCIE Gen 1 to my current system and saw a huge boost in performance.

[Sousuke]

I think it would be awesome if you could do a comparison but of course that would be majorly difficult to do.

[Paul567]

Yes it would definitely help. I transplanted my 7770 from an old system with PCIE Gen 1 to my current system and saw a huge boost in performance.

Any chance you can put a number on that boost? Like X more FPS on this game?

[Rolling Potatoe]

PCIe 1.0 16x is equal to 2.0 8x or 3.0 4x, for a single GPU it doesnt seem to make any tangible difference whatsoever

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/

 

Your stoneage dual core will reduce your performance an many games though, even if a 7770 is not a very powerfull card.

A G3258 at 4,5 or something will be a good bit better.

[Paul567]

PCIe 1.0 x16 is enough for that GPU, but a G3258 has better performance than your actual CPU

Oh yeah. Cpu boss scores it about twice as good.

[Paul567]

PCIe 1.0 16x is equal to 2.0 8x or 3.0 4x, for a single GPU it doesnt seem to make any tangible difference whatsoever

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/

 

Your stoneage dual core will reduce your performance an many games though, even if a 7770 is not a very powerfull card.

A G3258 at 4,5 or something will be a good bit better.

So your thought is that my Core2Duo is limiting my 7770?

Any idea how high I can go with video cards before I start limiting the G3258?

[RevoltTrain]

Any chance you can put a number on that boost? Like X more FPS on this game?

I'd say maybe 20 FPS gain average.

[Rolling Potatoe]

So your thought is that my Core2Duo is limiting my 7770?

Any idea how high I can go with video cards before I start limiting the G3258?

That depends alot on the game and your settings. Many games in the past used 2 cores, in those the G3258 will be just as good as new I7.

The development is using more cores though, load on 4cores/threads is becoming the standart now and some graphicly high end games make use of up to 8 cores (like crysis 3). 

Some multi core optimized games will be hard to get to 60 fps with a dual core, even with a good GPU and low settings. What you will notice in those is that turning up the eyecandy/resolution will hardly reduce the framerate. If you care about the graphics and are content with 40ish fps in some games you could go up to a to around a 270x/280/285 without loosing too much performance.

[Paul567]

I'd say maybe 20 FPS gain average.

And what did you upgrade your CPU to and from?

[Paul567]

That depends alot on the game and your settings. Many games in the past used 2 cores, in those the G3258 will be just as good as new I7.

The development is using more cores though, load on 4cores/threads is becoming the standart now and some graphicly high end games make use of up to 8 cores (like crysis 3).

Some multi core optimized games will be hard to get to 60 fps with a dual core, even with a good GPU and low settings. What you will notice in those is that turning up the eyecandy/resolution will hardly reduce the framerate. If you care about the graphics and are content with 40ish fps in some games you could go up to a to around a 270x/280/285 without loosing too much performance.

Good to know. Thanks for the advice.

[-rascal-]

And what did you upgrade your CPU to and from?

The 20 FPS gain is not going from PCI-E 1.x to 3.0, but it is from upgrading the CPU. Essentially, the CPU was holding the graphics card back -- bottleneck if you will.

As someone has already mentioned, PCI-E X16 1.x has the equivalent bandwidth as PCI-E x8 2.0.

2.0 @ x8 won't even bottleneck something like a...GTX 770 or a R9-280X / 290. There is no way a little HD 7770 will get bogged down by it.

[Paul567]

The 20 FPS gain is not going from PCI-E 1.x to 3.0, but it is from upgrading the CPU. Essentially, the CPU was holding the graphics card back -- bottleneck if you will.

As someone has already mentioned, PCI-E X16 1.x has the equivalent bandwidth as PCI-E x8 2.0.

2.0 @ x8 won't even bottleneck something like a...GTX 770 or a R9-280X / 290. There is no way a little HD 7770 will get bogged down by it.

 

And to me that is still fine because I'm buying a CPU and motherboard and I'll be able to get more performance out of my current video card from it.

 

The question that I'm sort of faced with now is what do I do next and should I be looking to put a little more money into my CPU or look to upgrade my GPU? Is there some kind of chart that I can get that will tell me where what CPU will bottleneck what GPU and vice versa?

 

Also if I'm looking to upgrade my GPU, and I have the cash for a R9-290, why don't I just spend a little more and get a GTX 970? 

[-iSynthesis]

I dont think the 1.0 pcie slot will be bottlenecking the 7770.

[-rascal-]

And to me that is still fine because I'm buying a CPU and motherboard and I'll be able to get more performance out of my current video card from it.

The question that I'm sort of faced with now is what do I do next and should I be looking to put a little more money into my CPU or look to upgrade my GPU? Is there some kind of chart that I can get that will tell me where what CPU will bottleneck what GPU and vice versa?

Also if I'm looking to upgrade my GPU, and I have the cash for a R9-290, why don't I just spend a little more and get a GTX 970?

It doesn't matter which one you upgrade first, but in my opinion, I'd upgrade your CPU first. If your C2D CPU is holding even your HD 7770 back, it will be exactly the same for a GTX 970.

If the CPU bottleneck is huge, you'll get the same performance of your HD 7770 with a GTX 970. Remember, your system is only as fast as the weakest link / component.

Unfortunately, there is no chart to indicate what CPU will bottleneck which GPU -- and vise-versa. All you can really do is look at actual physical reviews / tests, and user experience.

I used a R9-290 as an example. Go for the GTX 970 (or whichever you like) by all means.