PCI 2.0 vs PCI Express x 16

[GinoS]

I searched the board for an answer to this question but came up with nothing. This answer will be obvious to many. Please excuse my ignorance.

I'm looking to upgrade my video card. My motherboard is an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe. It has two PCI Express x 16 video card slots.

I'm thinking about getting a video card that requires a PCI 2.0 slot. Not sure if it'll be ATI or Nvidia, Comparison shopping now. This is a Crossfire mobo so it'll have to be ATI if I want two video cards.

The question is, will a video card that needs a PCI Express 2.0 slot work my mobo that has PCI Express x 16 slots? For all I know these are exactly the same and I'm being confused by a term of art. Thanks for the help.

 

[cleeve]

PCI express 2.0 is 1.0 compatible. you can get any PCIe card, no problem.

 

[matt266507]

I have the same issue on my Dell XPS 420. So it sounds like PCI X 2.0 is backwards compatible with PCI X 1.0. Tehn I'm assuming it's also true that any card I get, even if 2.0 spec'd, will be limited to the 1.0 throughput? If that' tru then I'm probably better getting an older model card that's 1.0 spec'd? I have a new 30" 2560 x 1600 monitor I need to upgrade from my 78000 GTX for and I'm shopping now. Thanks!

 

[hunter315]

PCI-X is very different from PCI-E, make sure you dont confuse the two when you are buying a card. Depending on the card it might not be hinder too much by the reduced bandwidth because most PCI-E cards do not need most of the bandwidth and a PCI-E 2.0 8x slot has the same bandwidth as a PCI-E 16x slot so cards that run well in a 1.0 16x slot will work find in a PCI-E 2.0 8x slot without being bottlenecked by the bandwidth

 

[julianday17]

HI I have just tried to find the answer to this but had a lot of conflicting info so thought best to post here for others to see.

P5W DH deluxe BIOS 3001

i have now replaced PCI express x16 Saphire 1950XT v1.0 card for a Saphire HD5770 Card this card is PCI express X16 version 2.1 but on this motherboard it works with no isues.

The new card shows up in the ATI catalyst driver info as pci express 2.0 its a massive performance gain too and in addition the HD 5770 is a lot quieter than my old 1950 card.