Enable PCI 3.0?

[konkorfour]

Hi, I've just realized that my GPU supports 3.0 x16 so naturally I wanted to enable this. After looking in my BIOS I found settings for something like (Default Graphics Output) and it was set to PCI, but when selecting the drop down it has PCIE x4, x8, 16 and PCI. I checked with GPU Z and it said I was running PCIE-x16 v1.1 so I enabled the PCIE-x16 in the BIOS instead of PCI and it says the same. After checking online some sites say it's PCI 2.0 and others say 3.0, some say to use PCIE 3.0 you need a CPU with a 22nm capacity but mine is meant to have 32nm. Any ideas?

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68AP-D3
CPU: i5 2320
GPU: Radeon HD 7850 2GB

 

[InvalidError]

The x16 PCIE controller is built into the CPU and Sandy Bridge i5 only supports up to PCIe 2.0. If you want PCIe 3.0, you will need to upgrade to an i5-3xxx.

 

[andy_Man]

Your cpu supports pci-e 2.0.
http://ark.intel.com/products/53446/Intel-Core-i5-2320-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz
All your pci-e slots are 2.0 standard
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3897#sp
None of this even matters though, because PCI-E 2.0 is plenty fast enough not to bottle neck your graphics card. This is actually true for all video cards out right now.

 

[George Mulligan]

Yes, the PCIe controller is built into the CPU itself. Although the motherboard is capable of 3.0, your CPU does not provide it. That said, there is little to no performance gain from 2.0 to 3.0, as the bandwidth has not yet been saturated by current cards (3.0 is more future safe, though).

 

[konkorfour]

Thanks I didn't know it was due to my CPU, though GPU Z showing v1.1 is that normal or should be be v2.0 for PCIE 2.0?

 

[andy_Man]

Your motherboard is pci-e 2.0 not 3.0.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3897#sp

Like everyone is saying, there is no reason to worry about this. PCI-e 2.0 is not slowing down your graphics card.

 

[konkorfour]

I never said that it was slower, there is no real difference between 2.0 and 3.0 regardless. As far as I researched you only needed 22nm which is why I asked and why I was wondering it shows v1.1 on GPU Z instead of 2.0.

 

[andy_Man]

It's being miss-reported. Both your cpu and motherboard are pci-e 2.0.
Your card is pci-e 3.0.
So you are getting at least 2.0 .
Google reveals this happens a lot in gpuz.