Stupid question of the day...

[racolvin]

Are PCI-e 16 2.0 cards backwards compatible to just PCI-e 16 slots? And if so, what do you lose in doing so?

 

[racolvin]

Ok, nevermind on the first part since the answer is "yes"

So the more important question is, if you were to buy a PCIe 2.0 card and use it in an older slot (PCIe 1.x), what sort of limitations do you get in terms of performance of your video card? I mean, is there a reason to buy a 9800GTX 2.0 card if the slot might limit its performance to the equivalent of an 8600GT?

 

[Schmide]

Yes. For the most part a 2.0 card will work in a 1.0 slot. There are some pci-e 1.0 chipsets that don't like some pci-e 2.0 cards. Cough Cough VIA.

As for performance, you may loose 1-5% max.

 

[racolvin]

Ah, cool. Thanx for that ... seems its harder to buy a 1.0 card with any horsepower at all (nothing in the 9xxx series apparently), so it made me curious