PCI-E!!!!!

I am 99% sure that it will work fine. I am also quite sure that the other 8800 cards were pcie 1.0. I also believe that all future cards will be 2.0, 3.0, etc.

From what I recall, there won't be many compatibility issues because pcie is basically just how fast you can transfer things.

1.0 = 8gb(I think)/sec
2.0 = 16...

-Adam

PCI-e 2.0 is backwards compatable, it should work with your system. Speaking of which, what's the rest of your stuff?

All 8800GT's are PCI-e 2.0. Everything else is the standard PCI-e 16x. PCI-e 2.0 seems to be the direction that things are heading, but for now it shouldn't matter since current cards don't use the full bandwidth of 16x.

My only concern is to make sure your power supply is strong enough. What unit do you currently have?

Sofar reports are that the GF8800GT has alot of trouble with PCIe 1.0 and some PCIe 1.0a boards/slots , whereas PCIe 1.1 is fine.

Here's the official FAQ statement from ASUS;

The PCIEX16_1 slot has been designed based on PCI express 1.1 specification, while PCIEX16_2 slots adopts PCI express 1.0/1.0a specification.
As PCI express 1.0/1.0a standard is not compatible with PCI express 2.0 specification, installing PCI express 2.0 cards onto PCIEX16_2 slot will result in system fail to detect expension cards installed on both PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slot.


http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.as [...] uage=en-us

To further complicate things some MoBos used the fallback PCIe1.0a in their literature, but have PCIe1.1 slots. Some early P965 boards did that, but most are updated (some original intel literature had the P965 outside the PCIe1.1 grouping and just put it as PCIe 16x).

So check with your MoBo mfr to be sure, and also check to be sure you can return a card if it doesn't work.

* you can stick a PCIe 2.0 card in a 1.0 slot and it will enable a max transfer rate of 8GB/s.
* you can stick a PCIe 1.0 card in a 2.0 slot and it will enable 8GB/s.
* you can stick a PCIe 2.0 card in a 2.0 slot and it will enable 16GB/s.

this also means that in the case of SLI and Crossfire, a PCIe 2.0 configuration of 2 slots at 8x is the same bandwidth as 2 PCIe 1.0 slots at 16x bandwidth.

since most cards still have not maxed out the bandwidth offered by PCIe 1.0 x16, SLI or Crossfire on dual 8x 2.0 slots will do fine too. just a tangiental thought.

i should revise my statements. i have indeed heard of the issues TGGA is mentioning about PCIe 2.0 falling back to 1.0a. i'm not sure how wide-spread the issues are, but they do exist. asus was the first one to document these issues.

i'm not sure about your motherboard as a google search or five doesn't reveal anything. i wonder if it's visible somewhere in the BIOS whether the slots are 1.1 or 1.0a?

ooh great thnx alot for ur effort, so does it mean that my motherboard is good or bad? or shouldi consider an upgrade soon?