are current video cards really taking advantage of the PCI 2.0 bandwidth?

[nageov3t]

is bandwidth even the right word to describe what I'm talking about?

I'm shopping for a new video card to (finally) upgrade my 8600 GT and it seems like every video card today is PCI-X x16 2.0; my current motherboard only has an x16 1.0 slot.

do I really need a new motherboard to see the benefits from a 2.0 card? I kinda want a new video card now-ish, but I wasn't planning on even thinking about overhauling my box with a new motherboard for awhile yet.

 

[yh125d]

Bandwidth is the right word. And no, current cards aren't really saturating the pci-e 1.1 bus. A couple cards (namely GTX295/4870X2) might need the extra bandwidth of a 2.0 slot, but the vast majority can get all the information they need from an older slot. PCI-e 2.0 cards work just fine on older slots, so you can buy a card now and it will work with your current board as well as the new one whenever that is

 

[dflynchimp]

answer in a nutshell: not really

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...-pci-express,2095.html

 

[nageov3t]

thanks! I'm kinda thinking I can get a good performance boost for not a ton of money by upgrading to a 9800 GTX and upgrading my 2.6 cpu to a 3.2, both of which I'll be able to throw into my new motherboard when I'm looking to buy a new motherboard/case/power supply in the summer/fall.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: loki8481
thanks! I'm kinda thinking I can get a good performance boost for not a ton of money by upgrading to a 9800 GTX and upgrading my 2.6 cpu to a 3.2, both of which I'll be able to throw into my new motherboard when I'm looking to buy a new motherboard/case/power supply in the summer/fall.

you are OK with that card

evidently a GTX280 does use a bit more bandwidth than the PCIe 1.0 spec can supply,at least from my testing at 16x10 and 19x12

 

[lavaheadache]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: loki8481
thanks! I'm kinda thinking I can get a good performance boost for not a ton of money by upgrading to a 9800 GTX and upgrading my 2.6 cpu to a 3.2, both of which I'll be able to throw into my new motherboard when I'm looking to buy a new motherboard/case/power supply in the summer/fall.

you are OK with that card

evidently a GTX280 does use a bit more bandwidth than the PCIe 1.0 spec can supply,at least from my testing at 16x10 and 19x12

really, I'd be interested in seeing your results. I can't imagine it is the difference between playabilty and not when there is a difference

 

[alcoholbob]

Even PCI-E 8x still holds itself up fairly well with single GPU setups with % differences < 5% vs 16x...so no way is 16x even close to being saturated.