A silly question on PCI Express

[sc055]

If I add a Pci Xprss 2.0 x16 graphics card into Pci Xprss 1.0 x16 slot..what is gonna happen....does da card gonna work or not??

I know this is a silly qstn..but jst want to know wat's gonna happen...plz reply..

Tx

 

[red1776]

Hi sc,
not a silly question at all, pcie gen 2 cards are backwards compatible with pcie 1.0, so it will work just fine. if this is a newer motherboard, you may be able to activate your pcie slots to gen 2. as sometimes they come defaulted to pcie 1.0, just something to check.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Not to mention the fact that whatever PCI-E 2.0 card you'll be using in a 1.0 slot won't saturate the bandwidth anyway. It is indeed backward compatible as noted by red1776 - and there's plenty of headroom in 1.0, so go for it.

 

[sc055]

Tx for da reply......

My motherboard is Foxconn MCP61SM2MA..its kinda old model...it has x16 slot...how do I know i can upgrade its slot to x16 2.0...by Bios upgrade?

Another question... If i install how can figure out which Graphics card needs how much power supply...is there any software or something like this out there...?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Whether or not "upgrading" to 2.0 is a feature of your motherboard is irrelevant - like I said, even if you install a 2.0 card it won't saturate a 1.0 slot's bandwidth. Either way... take a look in your motherboard manual (which can be found on the manufacturer's website, if you don't have a physical copy).

To figure out the power requirements of a video card, check out its manufacturer's website, or run a Google search (e.g. GeForce 8800GT power requirements). I'm sure you'll get more than enough information - otherwise, feel free to post the card here.

 

[red1776]

put it this way, pcie 1.0 is 250 gb/s pcie 2.0 is 500 gb/s and i believe that the biggest of cards (the gtx 295) is pushing 222 gb/s a sec, so just something to keep in mind for if you get a monster card next year when the new ones come out pushing 250gb/s + or get a newer board. yours is only capable of pcie 1.0 though

 

[klepto12]

you cant update and get 2.0 it is hardware based not software but any card you get now will be fine on 1.0 spec.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

you cant update and get 2.0 it is hardware based not software but any card you get now will be fine on 1.0 spec.

I don't think anyone is arguing that. Red1776 suggested that the original poster's motherboard might feature an option to enable and disable the PCI-E 2.0 (Gen 2) speeds. This is indeed an present among some boards.

If it was aimed at me for saying, "Whether or not "upgrading" to 2.0 is a feature of your motherboard is irrelevant" - please note the quotes around "upgrading" and how the post prior to mine referred to the possible enabling/disabling of PCI-E 2.0 as an "upgrade".

Thanks for the rere..reconfirmation that PCI-E 2.0 is backward compatible with 1.0.