PCIe 1x vs 16x

[sbcuser666]

Core 2 Duo PC running Win XP.

Will I 'feel' a difference between a 1x and a 16x video card if all I do are Office applications? No games, photo editing, etc. I have 2 22" screen and will probably be adding a 3rd. My current video card is 16x and drives the 2 screens fine. The PC has only 1 16x PCIe slot. But it does have 2 1x PCIe slots. So I would take out the 16x and install 2 matching 1x cards capabile of driving 2 monitors each.

 

[skittle]

No, it should be fine. PCIe 1x is more than enough for a discrete card... even the mighty 8800 series doesnt use all of the bandwidth PCIe x16 provides.

 

[Guest]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/27/pci_express_scaling_analysis/index.html

Office apps should be fine.