I5 2500k and PCI-E 3.0?

[Arlen10]

So I have an i5 2500k (specs are below) with a ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 motherboard. I have a GTX 660 on the way and I started seeing stuff about PCI-E 3.0 not compatible with the i5 2500k since it is not ivy bridge. I'm guessing the 660 will just run at 2.0 to be compatible with i5, however is their going to be a significant performance decrease with the graphics card not running at 3.0? Also is their no possible way to get the 2500k to run with the 3.0?

Thanks

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Yes the 660 will just run at 2.0 speeds and no there won't be any real difference. Around 1% slower, if that, with just a single card.

Along with that, the 660 isn't really high end enough for that to be a consideration. PCIe 3.0 is really only important for the top end cards (680, 690, 7970) and SLI and CF. Otherwise it's a non-factor.

And no, there's no way to get PCIe 3.0 with a 2500K. It's 100% exclusive to Ivy Bridge and SB-E.

 

[Arlen10]

Yes the 660 will just run at 2.0 speeds and no there won't be any real difference. Around 1% slower, if that, with just a single card.

Along with that, the 660 isn't really high end enough for that to be a consideration. PCIe 3.0 is really only important for the top end cards (680, 690, 7970) and SLI and CF. Otherwise it's a non-factor.

And no, there's no way to get PCIe 3.0 with a 2500K. It's 100% exclusive to Ivy Bridge and SB-E.

So would it be a problem if I wanted to SLI GTX 660's in the future?

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

So would it be a problem if I wanted to SLI GTX 660's in the future?

Not really. I was talking more about SLI and Crossfire with the top end cards, as well. Something like 2x+ SLI 690's, or 3x+ SLI/CF for 680's and 7970's. Meaning that's what it would take for 2.0 to start being a bigger problem.

2 660's shouldn't be bottlenecked much. Again, not strong enough to be, really.

 

[Arlen10]

Best answer selected by Arlen10.