Are PCI-e 2.0 cards backwards compatible with PCI-e slots?

[skyturnred]

^^What the title says. Also, is it uncommon for a 9400 gt to NOT need a power cable directly plugged into it? Because I am looking for a good 9400 but looking at the pics and reading the specs, I can't tell if any of them need that or not.

 

[daedalus685]

Pci 2.0 is backwards compatible. Learn to use wikipedia...

No, the 9400 does not need additionaly power.. but that is par for the course for such a low end card.

 

[outlw6669]

There is no such thing as a 'good' 9400gt
They are all to slow for gaming (half the speed of a 8600gt/9500gt) and outclassed by the low end ATI 4xxx series for media box usage.

As for your other questions, though.
Yes, you can use any PCIe 2.0 card in a PCIe 1.x slot.
No, the 9400gt does not require an additional power plug.
A PCIe 1.x slot can deliver 75w and it only requires 50w peak.

 

[AKM880]

All said above is true..

You don't need external power, it takes it from the PCIe slot. PCIe 2.0 cards will work in PCIe 1.0 slots.

 

[skyturnred]

are you saying that a 8600gt would be a better choice than a 9400gt? do they have pixel shader 3.0?

 

[outlw6669]

Yes, an 8600gt/9500gt (basically the same card) will give you twice the performance of a 9400gt.

An even better option would be a 4670.
It would give you nearly twice the performance of an 8600gt (that is four times the performance of the 9400gt if you are counting) while drawing nearly the same amount of power and costing not much more ($55 after MIR).
It also has better video decoding and offers an onboard sound chip for output through HDMI.

All of these cards support PS V3 (DirectX 9.0c) as well as PS V4 (DirectX 10.0).
In addition to this, the 4670 supports PS V4.1 (DirectX 10.1).

 

[skyturnred]

Yes, an 8600gt/9500gt (basically the same card) will give you twice the performance of a 9400gt.

An even better option would be a 4670.
It would give you nearly twice the performance of an 8600gt (that is four times the performance of the 9400gt if you are counting) while drawing nearly the same amount of power and costing not much more ($55 after MIR).
It also has better video decoding and offers an onboard sound chip for output through HDMI.

All of these cards support PS V3 (DirectX 9.0c) as well as PS V4 (DirectX 10.0).
In addition to this, the 4670 supports PS V4.1 (DirectX 10.1).

Thanks for all your help I found a perfect combo on newegg for 80 bucks that comes with a 500w psu and an 8600gt. I just assumed that 9400 was better than 8600 because it's a higher number... won't do that again.