PCIe 3.0

[dragonfire321123]

I found this on MSI's websight and I thought it would be interesting to share on these forums. I was also wondering if anybody had any more info on PCIe 3.0, like will it support PCIe 2.0 graphics cards?

http://event.msi.com/mb/Gen3/

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

Yes, PCIe 3.0 is fully backward-compatible with the other PCIe standards. The main advantage to PCIe 3.0 is that has double the bandwidth of PCIe 2.0, so future powerful gaming GPUs won't be held back by the bus.

The first CPU to support PCIe 3.0 will be Sandy Bridge "Extreme" that will be introduced in November 2011 or January 2012 depending on which internet rumor you believe. Ivy Bridge will also support PCIe 3.0, and should arrive around April 2012.

 

[illfindu]

Just as a little side note there was actually just a article here on tom's talking about how PCI-E 4.0 is all ready in early stages of development.

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

The PCI SIG (Special Interest Group) is working on the specification already, yes. Of course, it's still in the early paper stages right now. It won't become a reality on mainboards for two years at least. I predict late 2014.

 

[Zenthar]

Does any single GPU card actually even saturates PCIe 1.0 x16 bandwidth???

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

Does any single GPU card actually even saturates PCIe 1.0 x16 bandwidth???

No ... but just like the 8GB system out-performs the 4GB system even though the programs used only need 2GB of RAM, having more headroom will improve performance. It might be only a couple of percentage points at first, but as GPUs get even more powerful the difference will become more pronounced. Personally, I like the fact that the bus is further ahead than the GPUs ... that way the bus is ready to deliver the extra performance that comes with every new generation of GPUs.

 

[Zenthar]

No ... but just like the 8GB system out-performs the 4GB system even though the programs used only need 2GB of RAM, having more headroom will improve performance. It might be only a couple of percentage points at first, but as GPUs get even more powerful the difference will become more pronounced. Personally, I like the fact that the bus is further ahead than the GPUs ... that way the bus is ready to deliver the extra performance that comes with every new generation of GPUs.

You are right. It might be like the C300 SSD, even though it doesn't max-out SATA II bandwidth, it does get better performance from SATA III.