PCI-E 3 Graphics card in a PCI-E 2 mobo?

grey_areagrey_area Switzerland Member
edited March 2012 in Hardware
Hi all. Just wondering - would I notice any major problems if I bought a new video card - possibly a 7850 - and put it in my current set-up, which includes a Gigabyte X58A-UD3R mobo? The 7850 is a PCI-E 3 card, but my mobo only runs to PCI-E 2. Would the card down rate itself to run in the lower bandwidth of my motherboard, and would I actually see any major issues?

I'm thinking of future-proofing a graphics card against possibly doing a major upgrade later, but I can't afford to upgrade my whole system now. OTOH, I do want a better card than my current GTX460.

Chur all.

Comments

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
    The card will certainly work in a PCIe 2.x slot. You shouldn't run into any bandwidth issues at stock speeds. Overclocking might change that though.
  • AlexDeGruvenAlexDeGruven Wut? Meechigan Icrontian
    edited March 2012
    Yep. The communication is the same between generations of PCI-E, the only difference is the speeds. They're fully forward and backward compatible.

    As @mertesn says. If you don't do anything crazy with it, then there shouldn't be any bandwidth issues at the stock speeds of 2.0/2.1
  • grey_areagrey_area Switzerland Member
    Excellent, thanks all!
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