Quick question about PCIe 2.0

[chinesekidx]

I've had this question in mind for a long time now. Would a PCIe 2.0 card perform better on a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot vs a PCIe x16 slot (if so by how much) or would they perform the same? Thanks in advance.

[stroyal]

AFAIK it is going to depend on the card, as only a few of the most expensive/ fastest card exceed the speed of PCIe 1.0.
I don't know by how much though.

Most likely, an older board with PCIe 1.0, will have a processor that bottlenecks the card worse than the PCIe bus.

[ShyguyXPC]

AFAIK it is going to depend on the card, as only a few of the most expensive/ fastest card exceed the speed of PCIe 1.0.
I don't know by how much though.

Most likely, an older board with PCIe 1.0, will have a processor that bottlenecks the card worse than the PCIe bus.

This.

[stroyal]

This what?
Take a look at the triple monitor one, also.
That Matrox unit is a new one for me.

[ShyguyXPC]

oh, sorry, just quoting what you said, and agreeing, rather than typing out a duplicate post of the same basic thing. in other words 2 people saying the same thing so they have more than just one person replying, to assure them.

(I hate the "QFT" thing in peoples posts, as it means two different things and can be confusing, Quoted For Truth, and Quit F*cking Talking, LOL...)

Which is why I quoted and said "This."

[stroyal]

Don't tell anybody, but I learned half that reply from you.

[ShyguyXPC]

LOL, no problem.

as to the Matrox thing, last time I knew anything in detail on Matrox Video cards was the old Matrox Millenium and Mystic cards, and a little about the Parhelia, after that though any interest I had in matrox as far as myself was concerned was down hill.

sure their capable of 3 displays or more, but now with ATI Eyefinity, and even some of the 3 and 4 display low end geforce cards on the market ($100-200 Geforce 6200, 8400, ATI 3400 series, etc, quad display capable cards, kind of makes the matrox products more of a niche product than anything really.

for what one pays for a Matrox card/adapter (TripleHead2Go), and additional card to output to it, one can shell out less for a card (in that threads case, a low end card) with 3 or 4 display capability from the get go.

the triplehead2go is nice if your into gaming, and say your running some higher end cards, Radeon 4000, or Nvidia cards, but pointless if your going to run a single low end card.

Matrox Product: Newegg.com - Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital Edition T2G-D3D-IF

$300

(for that same $300 you can get a single Radeon 5850 with a display port and have 3 monitor capability, using a Display port to DVI adapter, costs extra, but worth it)

Factor in another $20-50 for a low end card to the Matrox device, and your sitting at same price range as the 5850 gaming card with 3 display capability and adapter.

or run one of these for even less: Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Video Cards & Video Devices,Desktop Graphics / Video Cards,4 x DVI

[chinesekidx]

I see. So about how much powerful does a GPU has to get in order to exceed the bandwidth cap of a PCIe x16 slot in which you will have to consider buying a motherboard with a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot for more performance?

[stroyal]

Shyguy will know more, but here is an artical on the HD5870. There are only a few single cards faster than that.

It looks to me, like it is just barly getting bottlenecked @ PCIe 2.0-8X (same speed as PCIe1.0-16X)
techPowerUp :: AMD Radeon HD 5870 PCI-Express Scaling Review :: Page 26 / 26

Don't forget porocessor speed is important also. I don't know where that line is though.

My guess is most PCIe 1.0 boards, will have a slow enough processor to be the bottleneck, before the PCIe 1.0 slot.

[chinesekidx]

So there wouldn't be any difference running a PCIe 2.0 x16 card on a PCIe x16 slot unless you have something equivalent to a 5870 or better?

[stroyal]

The tests in the article show 2% drop, but that is with a processor with absolutely no bottleneck.

[ShyguyXPC]

unless your running a Radeon 5970, or GTX 480 (though latest drivers are still not letting this card run at its best, and the current ones are still the gimped models with only 480 Stream processors, instead of the original designs 512)

then you'll be fine with a 5850 or 5870 in a 1.0 slot.

[chinesekidx]

Thanks!