PCIe 2.0 Backwards Compatibility

[bizzyd1441]

I've been reading some of the posts about PCIe 2.0 and I'm still not sure about its compatibility. It sounds like PCIe 2.0 is backwards compatible, but does that mean a mobo with a 2.0 slot is compatible with x16 cards? Or does it mean 2.0 cards are compatible with a x16 mobo slot?

I have an Asus P5B Deluxe which has two pci-e x16 slots, but I don't know if it has the right pci specification to support a 2.0 card, such as the HD 3870.

 

[zod96]

Your motherboard is fine for any pci express 2.0 video card out their. It will just revert to pci express 1.1

 

[BernardP]

Just in case you haven't seen this:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...AR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

 

[bizzyd1441]

When you say revert to pci express 1.1, would that cause any loss in graphical capacity of the video card?

 

[GundamF91]

So what does 2.0 offer that 1.1 doesn't? more bandwidth? Are the current generation of cards up to the bandwidth to take advantage of PCIe 2.0? 9800GT, or HD3850?

 

[Lithan]

What did pci-e offer over agp when it came out?

 

[zod96]

The loss is almost nothing really probably like 1% if that...

 

[GundamF91]

I guess by the time that PCIe 2.0 is really useful and affordable, PCIe 3.0 or another Graphics interface would've been introduced.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: bizzyd1441
When you say revert to pci express 1.1, would that cause any loss in graphical capacity of the video card?

Not necessarily since the new PCIE 2.0 cards do not really utilize the extra bandwidth yet. This is subject to change when the next generation of cards are released.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Lithan
What did pci-e offer over agp when it came out?

More power and more bandwidth.