PCI-E 3.0

[wrenaudrey]

Like the GTX680, it runs on PCI-e 3.0
So i suspect the oncoming video card whether it be ATI or nVidia, they will all be running in 3.0
Questoin is:
Do i need a motherboard that supports PCI-e 3.0 to be able to use these video cards running 3.0?
Can i insert a video running 3.0 on a PCI-e 2.0/2.1?

thanks in advance

 

[gary1]

Nope, PCIe 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0/2.1

Video has nothing to do with PCIe 3.0 or 2.0, the number simply refers to the memory bandwidth of the PCI slot.

 

[willard]

You're fine with 2.0/2.1, and might even be with 1.0/1.1.

Like gary said, the revisions are all about bandwidth. Version 2 doubled the bandwidth of version 1, and version 3 doubles the bandwidth of version 2. Thing is, the best video cards in the world barely made use of half the bandwidth of 2.1.

3.0 is a future proofing thing. By getting the specifications decided upon and deployed early, nobody ever has to worry about their system having enough bandwidth for new cards, so long as your system isn't more than a generation out of date.

 

[wrenaudrey]

So there is no drop in performance at all?

 

[willard]

Like I already said, no.

Think about it like speed limits. If you're in a car that can go 100 mph, but the speed limit is 55, you can't make full use of the speed your car has available. If it's 100 you can go full speed. If the speed limit is 200, however, your car can still only go to 100. Change the speed limit to a billion if you want, it's not going to make your car go any faster.

Similarly, video cards can only make use of so much bandwidth. A PCIe bus that's ten times faster doesn't make the card go ten times faster.