Quick Question: PCI express compatability?

[letsgetsilly]

I've got an old socket 939 board, and I want to upgrade the video card.

My board supports v1.0a PCI express. Does that mean I am in-elligble for anything above 1.0a, or are 2.0 cards backwards compatable?

TIA!

 

[shangshang]

I think you're ok. Pcie2.0 cards are backward compatible with pcie1.0 slots. You'd only take a performance hit if the vid card uses more bandwidth than the pcie1.0 bandwidth can allow, and I don't think the 4850 uses more.

 

[adlep]

Originally posted by: letsgetsilly
I've got an old socket 939 board, and I want to upgrade the video card.

My board supports v1.0a PCI express. Does that mean I am in-elligble for anything above 1.0a, or are 2.0 cards backwards compatable?

TIA!

Go for it, you should be fine. The PCI-E 1.0 x16 slot still offers a lot of data bandwidth capability. And of course, you will be able to trasfer that card to a new rig once you'll upgrade.

 

[letsgetsilly]

That's exactly what I'm thinking: transfer the card to my new system when I build it. I'm running Athlon XP 3800, but a graphics card update should get me through all my gaming requirements until the new intel architecture comes out.

Thanks for the help. I'll be picking up the 4850 from Sapphire I believe, combined with a 3rd party cooler. I hear they are loud.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

You're fine, you'll just use the x16 pci-e 1 bandwidth, vs the card's potential to have twice as much available. Unless you're using very high resolutions, or high AA settings, there should be much (or any?) difference in performance. However, if you're using crossfire, you might be losing some performance.

 

[sandorski]

ahh, that's the difference. My x800xl is getting a little old and I too have been pondering an Upgrade. Nice to know that the PCI-e difference won't be an issue(other than potential performance).

 

[SergeC]

Yeah, the difference is a PCI-E 2.0 lane has twice the bandwidth of a PCI-E 1.0(a) lane.

 

[firewolfsm]

There's a 0-5% performance hit in games. Other than that you're fine.

 

[Dkcode]

Originally posted by: firewolfsm
There's a 0-5% performance hit in games. Other than that you're fine.

Do you have any further information that you can back your post up with?

If anyone has tested performance hits of using a variety of cards on different revisions of PCI-E then a link to some data would be excellent.