Are pci 3.0 graphics card backward compatible to 2.0 motherboards?

Michael Lange

Honorable
Jan 16, 2014
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10,510
I bought a used MSI Cosmos ii computer and I'm finding it was probably pretty dated.

It came with the Hydralogixs which appears to have been a pretty short term technology and doesn't seem to be supported any longer.

The machine had a nvidia 250 card and a amd card because of the Hydralogixs.

Anyway I bought two of these machines So I was able to swap the cards and put two 250s in one and two amds in the other.

Apparently the 2 250s are the weaker of the two because that is the one that really struggles.

Now to my question. I want to upgrade my computer to a better graphics card or cards and the mobo has support for pci-e 2.0. In looking for a new graphics card that issue seems to really limit my options as the better cards are all 3.0

So I'm looking for which direction to go from here.

Thanks in advance for anyone who takes the time to answer.