Would PCIe 2.0 bottleneck the GTX 980?

Gatortribe · Sep 20, 2014

I'm looking to upgrade to the 980 and, as the title says, I'm hoping I wouldn't get bottlenecked by my lack of PCIe 3.0 slots.

DukiNuki · Sep 20, 2014

I don't think its a bottleneck . well PCI 3.0 is faster But its not like having weak CPU i guess .

But it seems like your board is old and your CPU might be old too . so why don't you just go for totally new System ? you can make your GTX 980 fly if you choose the right parts for it .

Suggestion :

CPU : i5/i7 Intel CPU ( they dont have much difference when it comes to Gaming ) . if your not overclocking then grab a non-K Cpu
Motherboard : if your not overclocking then go with H boards ( Z board are for OCing )
RAM : 8GB is great but go for 16GB if you wanna be more futureproof
PSU : At least 650Watt Quality brand . i Suggest 750Watt for futureproof thing again

5th Gen of intel is coming . you might wanna consider that too . and AMD 390x will come out too ( not too soon but it will come with very good features like water cooling system and great performance boost )

So first of all just wait a bit . dont wanna wait and feel like your ready ? then go for new parts too . still no ? then your gonna be fine but you might experience 80-90% of the fun . good luck

Gatortribe · Sep 20, 2014

DukiNuki :

I don't think its a bottleneck . well PCI 3.0 is faster But its not like having weak CPU i guess .

But it seems like your board is old and your CPU might be old too . so why don't you just go for totally new System ? you can make your GTX 980 fly if you choose the right parts for it .

Suggestion :

CPU : i5/i7 Intel CPU ( they dont have much difference when it comes to Gaming ) . if your not overclocking then grab a non-K Cpu
Motherboard : if your not overclocking then go with H boards ( Z board are for OCing )
RAM : 8GB is great but go for 16GB if you wanna be more futureproof
PSU : At least 650Watt Quality brand . i Suggest 750Watt for futureproof thing again

5th Gen of intel is coming . you might wanna consider that too . and AMD 390x will come out too ( not too soon but it will come with very good features like water cooling system and great performance boost )

So first of all just wait a bit . dont wanna wait and feel like your ready ? then go for new parts too . still no ? then your gonna be fine but you might experience 80-90% of the fun . good luck

My board is the only old part, it's a P67, but my CPU is an i5-3570k @ 4.5GHz. If PCIe 2 won't bottleneck, I'll wait to upgrade.

nikoli707 · Sep 20, 2014

no pcie 2.0 will not bottleneck and will likely not anytime soon. gpus dont even come close to the bandwidth limit. though $4000 ssds are approaching the bottleneck.

this will answer all your questions....
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/

pcie 3.0@x8 is the same speed as pcie 2.0@16x. even if you ran sli 980s on 2.0@x8, you still wouldn't bottleneck. a single 980 on 2.0@x16 will be fine.

Thomas Creel · Sep 21, 2014

PCIe 2.0 x16 = 8,000 MB/s = 64,000,000,000 bits
PCIe 3.0 x16 = 16,000 MB/s = 128,000,000,000 bits

GTX 980 Memory Clock = 7,000 Mb/s = 7,000,000,000 bits

As you can see, PCIe 2.0 x16 can EASILY handle the mere 7 billion bits with its 64 billion bit threshold.

Source:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_2.0

EasyLover · Sep 23, 2014

Read this and you will be surprised:

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/

Your CPU is still solid, don't change it. 980 would come in handy with this CPU. No issue at all.

Sturmgewehr_44 · Sep 24, 2014

nikoli707 :

What exactly is the bandwidth limit for PCIE 2.0? I heard even PCIE 1.0 16x runs well with modern cards. Is that true? The 980 has something like 300 mbps (is it mbps or MB/s??). I believe that is also over PCIE 3.0 16x bandwidth. I think it's the wrong thing. What spec on the 980 determines bandwidth anyway?

OP: I doubt you'll have any problems. I just installed a 980 and I'm using a 2700k. Everything looks fine to me so far.

ADHL1985 · Oct 30, 2014

I would also love to know if there is an easy way to look up how much bandwidth a GPU runs through PCIE? I think what you read on the 980 is the memory bus bandwidth, which i don't think has to do with PCIE. I asked a similar question last night as i might possibly end up doing SLI with one of the cards in a PCIE 2.0 x 8 slot. People said it might be a 5-10% hit in performance in 2.0 x 8.

nikoli707 · Oct 30, 2014

ADHL1985 :

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa

might be a 5-10% hit, but it will be at ultra high frame rates where the cpu bottleneck is opens. at 60hz in something like crysis 3 your only going from 60fps to 58fps, hardly a deal breaker. even if your on a 120/144hz monitor its going to be hard to notice the difference between 115fps and 105fps, where the bandwidth starts exposing itself do to so many frames being ultimately shoved on thru taking up bandwidth per/sec. they are using tahiti part, but you get the picture.

honestly i would wait gm210 and avoid sli unless you absolutely need it "right now". we are also so close now to skylake that its worth waiting. otherwise, if you live near a microcenter, maybe you can snag a sweet deal on an intel cpu/mobo combo on black friday, and you should be able to keep everything else in your rig.

Sturmgewehr_44 · Oct 30, 2014

nikoli707 :

I'm using a 980 on PCIE 2.0. Everything is fine and I meet or exceed benchmarks on several sites. Really, I don't think even PCIE 1.0 16x bottlenecks any current graphics card. I've read it somewhere, and I believe that to be true. It probably wouldn't be wise to throw a 980 in a PCIE 1.0 motherboard though.

I'm skeptical about GM210. From what I know, it probably isn't going to be on a consumer-grade card, or at least not anytime soon, maybe on a next-gen refresh.

PCIE 2.0 8x is fine. See this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djvZaHHU4I8

Linus mentions that AMD tested 290x Crossfire on PCIE 2.0 8x and had no noticeable performance issues.

The 290x is far more inefficient and has a much higher TDP than the 980.

If you think I'm citing BS, see this: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2930119

ADHL1985 · Oct 31, 2014

So is the gm210 going to be the next 980 ti or is it going to be like the titans and partially for professional use? Im in no hurry as im still on 1080p and 60 hz, but i am very interested in going 4k, gsync, and maybe over 60 hz refresh in the next year depending on what selection comes out. Im not firm on sticking with the 980 and i might trade up. I would definitely prefer a consumer grade gaming card prices over something like titan prices. My PCIE 2.0 x8 would only get used if i went 3 way sli. I have two PCIE 2.0 x 16 which i think ought to be fine for a long time. My cpu is an i7 990x thats at 4.4ghz which i think is still a solid CPU for gaming. I am pretty sure i could go even higher cpu overclock if need as my temperatures are only ~55C on full load. If PCIE won't be a problem, i'd much prefer to put money towards GPU(s) and a fancy monitor.

nikoli707 · Oct 31, 2014

ADHL1985 :

will likely be the gtx1000 and gtx1000ti and should be around soon. nvidia very quickly wants to get back into the $700-1000 "gaming" gpu market as they made a ton of money last time. its possible we may see it as early as q2 2015.

DukiNuki · Oct 31, 2014

If you meant Pascal then its not going to be out till 2016 i guess . we might see GTX 980Ti or GTX 990 soon but its hard to tell for GTX 1000

Sturmgewehr_44 · Oct 31, 2014

DukiNuki :

I really doubt the whole 980ti thing. The 900 series is pretty much the successor to the 600 series. The 600 series, as many are aware, didn't have a 780ti or anything like it. The 780ti was a pretty impulsive release in my opinion and seemed to be relatively impromptu. The 980 is a fully unlocked GM204. All Ti cards in the past have been based on the same core as their non-ti counterparts, so a 980ti is against Nvidia naming conventions and really doesn't make any sense. Nvidia has made a tonne of money with the 980 (I believe more so than the 780) so why would they undercut it anytime soon?

GM210, for at least a year or so (until presumbly 1000 series refresh) will be used for Quadro, possibly Tesla. It might not reach consumers at all.

A Titan successor (2???) is possible, but the rumours of it have stopped short recently. I have't heard anything since the first week the 980 was released.

Sturmgewehr_44 · Oct 31, 2014

ADHL1985 :

Read my asbove post. Most likely professional use at this timeframe. It could all change later down the road, but I personally believe it is unlikely, at least more so than the 780ti was.

Think of it like this, the -ti suffix is supposed to mean "Titanium" (TI).

Titanium is exactly Titanium, nothing else.

If Nvidia were to defy this scheme and realise a 980ti on a different core (which they would have to if it happens) it wouldn't be "Titanium" anymore because it would then be based on a different element (core).

matthew3288 · Nov 5, 2014

Thomas Creel :

i have the gtx 980 running on a pcie 2.0 and in nvidia inspector the memory clock is displayed as only 3505 and i was wondering why

nikoli707 · Nov 5, 2014

matthew3288 :

Thomas Creel :

i have the gtx 980 running on a pcie 2.0 and in nvidia inspector the memory clock is displayed as only 3505 and i was wondering why

3500mhz divided by 2 is the 1750mhz base clock of the memory. 7000mhz effectively. normal.

Would PCIe 2.0 bottleneck the GTX 980?

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