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Thread ID: 85239 2007-12-04 09:14:00 What is PCI-E 2.0? EviLClouD (12981) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
617836 2007-12-04 09:14:00 Like the title says, what is PCI-E 2.0? And how is it different from the current PCI-E?

Thanks
EviLClouD (12981)
617837 2007-12-04 09:38:00 PCI-E 2.0 is the next version of PCI-E with twice the bandwidth capability

electrically and physically it is the same as PCI-E, so PCI-E cards will work in a PCI-E 2.0 slot, and vice versa.

Obviously, just slower
Agent_24 (57)
617838 2007-12-04 09:46:00 Info here as well (en.wikipedia.org)

Looks like there's a PCI-E 3.0 as well.

2.0 is 5 GT, 3.0 is 8 GT.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
617839 2007-12-04 18:59:00 Ok cool. And if I buy an X38 chipset motherboard and a PCI-E 2.0 graphics card, is PCI-E 2.0 enabled by default or would I have to tweak some settings? Also, is it supported by Windows Xp or is it a new vista only thing?

Thanks
EviLClouD (12981)
617840 2007-12-04 19:33:00 Ok cool. And if I buy an X38 chipset motherboard and a PCI-E 2.0 graphics card, is PCI-E 2.0 enabled by default or would I have to tweak some settings? Also, is it supported by Windows Xp or is it a new vista only thing?

It should run at PCI-E 2.0 speed by default, though its not likely you'll notice any difference :)

As for compatibility, that would depend on the motherboard drivers - it should have support for XP & Vista. If anyone has gone Vista only at this stage, they'd be crazy.
autechre (266)
617841 2007-12-04 20:13:00 Oh ok, one last thing. How can you tell if PCI-E is 1.0 or 2.0?
Because i've been doing some searching and found a couple motherboards that say PCI-E 2.0 capable, but i checked their pci-e specs/multiplier and it says x16, just like the old pci-e. Is it meant to be x16 or should it be x32?

Thanks
EviLClouD (12981)
617842 2007-12-04 21:20:00 I would think that all the 1.0/2.0 would be done at hardware level, so no matter what OS you use, if both motherboard and card support 2.0 then it will run at 2.0

To be able to use the full potential of it running at 2.0 you likely need the right chipset and gfx drivers for your OS, and I'm pretty sure that XP is going to be sticking around for some time yet, so I wouldn't worry about that

How to tell 1.0 from 2.0? look at the specifications of the hardware.

en.wikipedia.org ts says the X38 has 2 x PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots

No, it wouldn't be x32 for double the speed. The whole idea with PCI-E 2.0 is that it doubles the speed for each lane. x(whatever number) refers to the amount of lanes the slot can support. so you can have PCI-E 1.0 x16 and PCI-E 2.0 x16, the 2.0 being twice the speed than that of the 1.0, because while the number of lanes don't increase, the speed of the lanes doubles

it's a little bit confusing because AGP doesn't use 'lanes' (or you can think of it having just one), and the x(insert number here) refers to the speed directly.
Agent_24 (57)
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