Do I benefit a lot more with pci express 2.0?

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youngrd2005

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Aug 20, 2011
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Hello,
I'm new to the forum and I have a few questions. Sorry if I should have posted on a different thread. My main thing is I want to be able to play battlefield 3 on amazing settings.
Here Re my specs:

AMD phenom II 1045t six core 2.7 ghz
8 gigs of RAM
Nvidia gtx 550 ti 1 gig card

1. I have a pci express 1.1 motherboard with a 2.0 card (Nvidia gtx 550 ti 1 gb card). If I upgrade the motherboard to a 2.0, would I see a huge improvement?

2. Do I need a better processor or could I just use the one I have in the new motherboard?

3. Should I upgrade the graphics card or would two be sufficient?

Any info is appreciated, thanks.
 
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Yea, sorry, meant to say two 550 ti , but I read on another post its better to have just one. So there wouldn't be a noticeable improvement to graphic quality by upgrading to 2.0?
 
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I don't know about Battlefield, but PCIe 2 has double the bandwidth of PCI 1.1. So, if the game is texture rich you should see difference.
Another 550ti should be a good upgrade and will came chaeper as buying a more powerfull and expensive card and trashing the current.
 
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I've been doing a little research, and I've hear multiple sides to an argument, opinions everyone :)

2 GTX 550 ti cards on SLI or maybe 1 GTX 570? I know a 580 would completely demolish the 550 ti sli, but I'm on a budget and not sure I want to dish out over $500 for both a card and a motherboard. New motherboard with pci 2.0 and sli, plus a 550 ti would run me around $350. Anyone?
 
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You will see pretty much no improvement from upgrading your PCI-E slot, no matter the game. A second card would certainly improve things though.
Overclocking your processor is a good idea as the base speed is pretty low. Many games can still only utilize 2 cores.
 
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I'm assuming your current mobo isn't SLI compatible... if you were to get an AM3+ mobo that would be a great investment for an upgrade path and it would be easy to find one that has SLI capability. 2x 550ti with a slight overclock would rival a 570 in most games. So if you're looking for the best value, I'd go with the new motherboard and another 550ti.
 
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I think I would definately need a new motherboard to OC, as the pc i have was OEM (HP) I just changed a few components (PSU, GPU, etc..) BIOS wont allow me to OC. I think I will buy a new MB and another 550ti and try to OC. Will AM3 CPU's work on AM3+ MB's?
 
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You can OC a GPU with an OEM BIOS, it's all done with software from within the OS. And the other cost effective alternative is what mdd1963 said, just hold off on the mobo and get a more powerful card. PCI-e 1.1 x16 is going to give you the same bandwidth as PCI-e 2.0/2.1 x8, and plenty of people run cards on x8 slots with negligible, if any performance penalty.
 
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Points about bandwidth:

Testing has shown that the following cards are the best you can get before bottlenecking the PCIe bus:

PCIe v1: HD5870 or GTX560Ti

PCIe v2: 2xHD5870 or 2xGTX560Ti (or much better, single graphics card)

Your best bet is to get a single GTX560Ti. That maxes out your system nicely and your CPU should be fine.

You must make sure your PSU supplies enough AMPS on the +12V rail or rails. Usually it's printed on the PSU or in the manual.

A GTX560Ti should have at least 40A to be stable.
 
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I should add that not all motherboards have the same bandwidth, even among versions. Some V2 PCIe motherboards can handle TWICE the amount of data.

It's still most likely that a single GTX560Ti is the best bet. I'd have to know your EXACT motherboard model to confirm this.
 
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The motherboard i have is N-Alvorix-RS880-uATX (Alvorix). I've started thinking more about it and most games don't even support SLI, so I think a good upgrade path at this point is a 560 ti or 570, and then later on I can SLI with another card. How do I OC using software? I always assumed it was through BIOS (I've never OC'ed)?
 
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I hope you don't mean the card itself needs 40A.
 
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Almost all current games support SLI.
To overclock a video card I recommend Afterburner;
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Afterburner-2.0.0-Final-download-2562.html
It's easy to use with a nice interface and many options.
What is the native resolution of your monitor?
 
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To my knowledge there are only PCI-E 2.1 versions of the HD6850 and they sometimes have issues with 1.x slots. It will vary depending on the board and the card. It is possible a BIOS update deals with the problem but I believe that's a bit rare.
 
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