Best Graphics Cards that run on a PCI-e 1.0 motherboard?

[Guest]

Hi all - I did a search on this but to no avail. I want to buy a new graphics card but, after doing some research, I believe my motherboard (an Intel D945GCZ) will only run PCI-e x16 (1.0) cards and not the newer cards that require a PCI-e x16 2.0-compatible motherboard. (and I'd rather not change out my motherboard right now.)

It seems that the GeForce 8800 GTXs and Ultras would be okay, can anyone confirm that? Also, anyone have any idea why the Ultras are going for cheaper (about $200 now) than the GTX's when the Ultras are newer, faster cards? Some problem with them?

Maybe I'm overkilling and should just go for a 8600-range card. This is, of course, for games ex. Oblivion, Civ4, Stalker, HL2, Bioshock etc. that I like to play. The card I currently have is a 7300 GS. (Yeah, try running Stalker on that!)

Any comments much appreciated.

 

[mactronix]

No you are fine the PCIE 2 spec is compatable with PCIE 1 meaning that a PCIE 2 card will run in a pcie 1 slot. The extra bandwidth isnt an issue right now. There are some exceptions out there so its worth checking even though they are few and far between. Your Motherboard manufacturers site should have a list of compatable GPU's and a quick ask back on this forum when you have picked will help you find out any issues there may be.

Mactronix

 

[jaysins]

I'd say the only card you need worry about would be the 4870x2 as it would over saturate the bus and be limited on certain games if your using higher resolutions and AA. Other than that you should be fine with any card and only get a slight reduction at worst case scenario.

 

[Crashman]

If you can get an 8800 Ultra for under $200, it's probably the best card you'll find for the price. It's just an overclocked 8800 GTX

 

[foxhound009]

wait... you mean real pci-e x16 1.0? or the 1.1?
1.1 won't limit you that much with most current cards(discard 4870x2 and 280gtx) however 1.0 .... not sure

 

[dagger]

While it's true that pcie2.0x8 (x16 effective) or pcie1.0/1x16 will bottleneck newer cards horribly in cf,
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/7/page_7_benchmarks_crysis/index.html
you have to keep in mind that due to the nature of cf, where the 2 cards use extra bandwidth to communicate with each other, resulting in much higher pcie bus load than in single cards.

Basically, you're not limited to 8800gtx. The new gtx280 weren't usually tested using pcie1.x, but considering that the old 9800gx2, which outperforms gtx280,
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=14
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=16
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=17
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=18
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=19
is not bottlenecked by it, it's reasonable to assume gtx280 won't be bottlenecked either. So don't worry, you're good.

 

[Guest]

wait... you mean real pci-e x16 1.0? or the 1.1?
1.1 won't limit you that much with most current cards(discard 4870x2 and 280gtx) however 1.0 .... not sure

Thanks for all the help, guys.

I've read that my mb only supports 1.0 and does not have the 1.1... hence, there are some compatibility issues with cards that run 2.0. It's supposed to be backwards-compliant - but this is only true for 1.1 and not 1.0.

From Wikipedia - "PCIe 2.0 is backward compatible with PCIe v1.x. Graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.1 and v1.0. In some cases it is possible that a PCI-E 2.0 card will not work correctly on a PCI-E 1.0a slot. This is only limited to certain video cards."