Will PCIe 2.0 x16 (@ x16) Bottleneck A HD6990/GTX690

[Idonno]

I am thinking of getting one of these cards in the future for the system listed (below, Right) in my signature.

This card would be for a triple monitor set up with a resolution of 5760 X 1080

My question is simply "Will PCIe 2.0 x16 (@ x16) Bottleneck A HD6990/GTX690" not which card is better.

I already know which card I will buy, if I do buy one and I purposely listed them both because I am interested in the answer to my question and I would rather not have this thread degenerate into another AMD vs Nvidia fanboy thread.

At this point I don't think it will be a bottleneck but, in searching for the answer I have seen all kinds of answers, anything from yes to no and everything in between.

"Only at high resolutions" seems to be a common answer, however this review http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/53901-nvidia-geforce-gtx-690-review-25.html seems to suggest that the opposite is true.

 

[wavetrex]

1. Don't get HD6990 ! It's last generation, HD7990 already out ! ( GTX690 is ok )

2. If you have a motherboard which only knows PCIe 2.0 it means you have a slow(er) Core2 age CPU... the PCIe bus will be the least of your problems...

 

[mclovits]

There will be little to no bottleneck on a 2.0 slot. Even a first Gen PCIe slot doesn't get all of its bandwidth used up nowadays, though a 3rd generation would be slightly faster, you're looking at an almost unnoticable difference in performance (maybe ~5 FPS is what I would think, roughly 5 percent below a 3.0 slot). If I were you, I'd purchase the 690 only because TomsHardware's team who reviewed the 7990 said they thought the 690 was a bit smoother (not necessarily FPS, but less jittery) or you can always wait for the 700 series from Nvidia supposed to release in the next month or two. Either way, don't worry about any bottleneck.

 

[Idonno]

1. Don't get HD6990 ! It's last generation, HD7990 already out ! ( GTX690 is ok )

2. If you have a motherboard which only knows PCIe 2.0 it means you have a slow(er) Core2 age CPU... the PCIe bus will be the least of your problems...

1.) This post is not about which card, I thought I made that abundantly clear.

2.) Read the post, I specifically stated in the first sentence "for the system listed (below, Right) in my signature"

 

[Idonno]

There will be little to no bottleneck on a 2.0 slot. Even a first Gen PCIe slot doesn't get all of its bandwidth used up nowadays, though a 3rd generation would be slightly faster, you're looking at an almost unnoticable difference in performance (maybe ~5 FPS is what I would think, roughly 5 percent below a 3.0 slot). If I were you, I'd purchase the 690 only because TomsHardware's team who reviewed the 7990 said they thought the 690 was a bit smoother (not necessarily FPS, but less jittery) or you can always wait for the 700 series from Nvidia supposed to release in the next month or two. Either way, don't worry about any bottleneck.

Yea, I have seen the review and have come to my own conclusions. As far as the other info goes, that's about what I figured.

I do find it a little interesting (and perplexing) that on the review that I posted the link for, the frame rates for PCIe 3.0 actually dropped a little lower than 2.0 when the resolution was increased.

 

[mclovits]

3.0 is going to be the better option in the long run, though I'm sure there might be some driver issues or just the fact that there's so much available bandwidth. To be honest, if those results are realistic then I have no answer as to why 2.0 would ever perform better. To answer your question though, don't worry about a PCIe bottleneck, it's really only relevant when you reach tri-quad SLI/CF at higher resolutions.

 

[Idonno]

To answer your question though, don't worry about a PCIe bottleneck, it's really only relevant when you reach tri-quad SLI/CF at higher resolutions.

Thanks for the response, I didn't think that 5760 X 1080 with one or those cards on my motherboard would cause a bottleneck but with all the conflicting answers out there I wanted to check. Thanks again.

 

[mclovits]

Sure thing, I mean, people were using that resolution before 3.0 was even released, so it's not like no one has ever been worried about bandwidth, but you should be good to go.