Pci-e X16, Pci-e 2.o Whats The Difference?

[Berzer]

As you may have read i'm looking into buying a new video card. i was reccommended an 8800GT. i checked the specifications on the interface and saw on newegg that its PCI-E 2.0. I checked my mobo and saw that mine supports PCI-E X16. I did not see a PCI-E 2.O slot. I feel abit confused with this as i looked at both cards connectors and they looked very similar if not the same. Could someone explain what the difference is in these two? I'm assuming that PCI-E 2.0 is the newest one out, and possibly my mobo does not support it. If i am correct then maybe i cannot install an 8800GT and an 8600GT would be the max for me?

 

[link590o]

there is no difference.

i think only NOW are they making PCI-e 2.0 slots which if i'm not mistaken are now optimized for pci-e 2.0 cards.

but don't worry. an 8800gt will fit and will work just fine in a pci-e 16x slot.

 

[Berzer]

i guess i was confused thinking the pci-e x16 had something to do with the way it fit into the mobo. i read somewhere through google that the x16 refers to the number of lanes of data. i could never figure out the 2.0 thing though. from what i understood it was the version of software. it stated something about v1.1 was up to x32. the 8800GT said the interface type was pci-e 2.0 but that the interface type on the 8600GT was pci-e x16. i think maybe they are the ones confused on newegg? look at the specs on both of these. does it make sense to you?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143116

from one point i would take that the pci-e x16 was the slot type, yet another would suggest that pci-e 2.0 is, or is just the interface type. seriously confused.

 

[vnf4ultra]

PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007.[4] PCIe 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 2.5 Gbit/s to 5 Gbit/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GB/s in each direction.

PCIe 2.0 is not completely backward compatible with PCIe v1.x. Graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.1 and vice versa, however v2.0 cards will not work in v1.0 and v1.0a motherboards.

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PCI-E 2.0 also supports outputting more power to the video card through the slot. Hopefully that means that future cards will either not need a pci-e power cable or at least not 2, like some high end cards.



[CENTER]read more about pci-e 2.0[/CENTER]