More current generation graphics cards on old motherboard, help.

[jonowee]

I need some clarification to whether current generation graphics cards that have PCIe 2.0 support whether they will firstly work, and secondly what if any relevant performance drawback that may occur when installed into an older motherboard.

I am currently searching for a 'good enough' gaming graphics card (460-6850-6870-560) to install in my current system, and which I will carry over this new graphics card to a new computer system in the future and return the good video card and have the old system as a back-up/second computer.

The motherboard in question: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2457#ov

The PCIe 16x slot might be physically compatible, but will the new graphics card function?

 

[JezEngland]

Hi.

You can get clarification from the retailer and manufacturer.

New cards should be compatable. The NVIDIA GTS 250 is.

Electronics is programmed, hardware is software driven, intelligent and more than what usualy meets the eye. Theory is the new cards will work.

I think the cards you listed will be OK in a PCIE 1.0/1.1 @ x 16. They are less powerful to the NVIDIA GTX 480. I use a GTX 480, it has about 1.5 Gig memory and evidence shows it's nearly OK in a PCIE 2.0 @ x 8 wich is equivelent to the PCIE1.0/1.1 @ x 16 bandwidth. It is bottlenecked only with tripple monitor/very high resolution like +5000x1200px in some of the best games today and less than 10% decrease in performance. Here is a link to the GTX 480 tests: http://hardocp.com/article/2010/08/23/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x8x8/1

This is from Wikipedia Online Encycolpedia: PCIe 2.0 motherboard slots are fully backward compatible with PCIe v1.x cards. PCIe 2.0 cards are also generally backward compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards, using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1. Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v 2.0 will be able to work with the other being v 1.1 or v 1.0.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

GL

 

[jonowee]

I got a reply from Gigabyte which essentially said the newer PCIe cards are backwards compatible with older motherboards with PCIe 16x slots, but they were unable to give an insight to what performance bottlenecks that could be in the system.



Anyways...

To the graphics card to be acquired, I'm looking at around a $200 budget but I am willing to suck it in to stretch it to $300.

The contenders:

• Gainward GTX 460 2GB Golden Sample $249
• MSI GTX 470 1.2GB $259
• ASUS GTX 560 Ti 1GB $299
• Gigabyte 6850 1GB $209
• ASUS 6870 1GB $269

I think I will be keeping this new card with this machine, and just buy the latest and greatest mid-range card some time in the future for that new system to keep the technology updated.

Thoughts, ideas...

 

[S_I_N]

out of those listed I'm certain the 560ti will be the best performer iir TTL said it in his video review of the 560Ti that it basically walked past all those others you listed

http://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToLiveCustoms#p/u/12/8-dM_TSQSbg