GTX 1060 with PCI-E 2.0 slot ?

[Guest]

Hi, I want to buy 2.0 pci-e motherboard and the upcoming GTX 1060 gpu, wil it work fine ?, becuase in the gpu specs it says : bus support : PCI-E 3.0 .
Thanks .
- Nasr

 

[weberdarren97]

Will it run on PCIe 2.0? Yes.

Will you be able to use it to its full potential? Probably not.

The main difference between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 is bandwidth. Having a higher bandwidth means that it's able to move more data faster between it the card and the other components such as memory and the CPU.

 

[Gam3r01]

There is not a card that can fill the entire bandwidth of the 2.0 interface. You should be able to run the card just fine without any performance impact because of the interface.

 

[Guest]

Will it run on PCIe 2.0? Yes.

Will you be able to use it to its full potential? Probably not.

The main difference between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 is bandwidth. Having a higher bandwidth means that it's able to move more data faster between it the card and the other components such as memory and the CPU.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind and change the CPU, But is a 16 PCI-E lanes will be enough for me, I want to buy GTX 1060 plus a Network card, and maybe a sound card if needed, But do i really need a sound card ?
Thanks.
- Nasr

 

[Rogue Leader]

This has been tested multiple times and has been found to produce about a 1% performance difference.

In short, you would never notice it, nor care.

 

[rgd1101]

which exact motherboard?

 

[weberdarren97]

I've found that even my R9 280X's gained performance when going from PCIe 2.0 to 3.0. There was almost a 10% increase in graphics.

For some reason, they also ran 3 degrees cooler on PCIe 3.0 than they did on 2.0... I wonder why... Same case and airflow. I even used the same CPU and memory. I simply switched from the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard to the Asus Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard.

 

[Guest]

which exact motherboard?

I've not chosen the motherboard yet, If you're asking for the sound card needing, I'll buy a monitor with dedicated speakers, Do i still need a sound card ?

 

[Guest]

does anyone knows if this monitor has speakers https://www.asus.com/us/Commercial-Monitors/VS229HP/specifications/

 

[Rogue Leader]

I've found that even my R9 280X's gained performance when going from PCIe 2.0 to 3.0. There was almost a 10% increase in graphics.

For some reason, they also ran 3 degrees cooler on PCIe 3.0 than they did on 2.0... I wonder why... Same case and airflow. I even used the same CPU and memory. I simply switched from the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard to the Asus Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard.

This has been tested extensively and I do not agree. Very likely there was some other issue with your old board either related to the power phases with your processor or something else to cause this change. There has never been a true instrumented test showing a 10% performance difference between 2.0 and 3.0, and its been tested with many cards, boards, and configurations.

 

[weberdarren97]

I think you're misunderstanding the purpose of a sound card.

If you have onboard audio on your motherboard, the only reason to get a sound card is if you're an audiophile and just need to have the highest quality audio possible. However, if you're not using headphones costing more than $250, you probably won't notice the difference between onboard audio and a sound card.

A sound card doesn't do anything that the motherboard doesn't do, it just does it better, usually for a hefty price premium.

Most speakers on monitors are not very high quality unless it's an expensive monitor from a reputable company. Having a sound card vs using onboard sound will likely produce no difference when coming out of speakers on a monitor.

Please also note that most monitors that have speakers get their audio through HDMI or another display connector. Not many get them through a dedicated audio connector like a sound card has. Sound cards will usually not connect to monitors.

A sound card does not produce sound on its own either, you still need speakers whether you have a sound card or not.

 

[weberdarren97]

I've found that even my R9 280X's gained performance when going from PCIe 2.0 to 3.0. There was almost a 10% increase in graphics.

For some reason, they also ran 3 degrees cooler on PCIe 3.0 than they did on 2.0... I wonder why... Same case and airflow. I even used the same CPU and memory. I simply switched from the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard to the Asus Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard.

This has been tested extensively and I do not agree. Very likely there was some other issue with your old board either related to the power phases with your processor or something else to cause this change. There has never been a true instrumented test showing a 10% performance difference between 2.0 and 3.0, and its been tested with many cards, boards, and configurations.

Seeing as you've earned the rank of moderator, I'll take your word for it.

 

[burdenbound]

I've found that even my R9 280X's gained performance when going from PCIe 2.0 to 3.0. There was almost a 10% increase in graphics.

For some reason, they also ran 3 degrees cooler on PCIe 3.0 than they did on 2.0... I wonder why... Same case and airflow. I even used the same CPU and memory. I simply switched from the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard to the Asus Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard.

Perhaps you noticed more of a difference due to multiple GPUs? I suspect on your old motherboard your cards were running PCI 2.0 x8, or one was x16 and the second was x8. That was very typical some time ago.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I've found that even my R9 280X's gained performance when going from PCIe 2.0 to 3.0. There was almost a 10% increase in graphics.

For some reason, they also ran 3 degrees cooler on PCIe 3.0 than they did on 2.0... I wonder why... Same case and airflow. I even used the same CPU and memory. I simply switched from the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard to the Asus Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard.

This has been tested extensively and I do not agree. Very likely there was some other issue with your old board either related to the power phases with your processor or something else to cause this change. There has never been a true instrumented test showing a 10% performance difference between 2.0 and 3.0, and its been tested with many cards, boards, and configurations.

Seeing as you've earned the rank of moderator, I'll take your word for it.

Well don't just take my word for it:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/pci_express_scaling_game_performance_analysis_review,10.html

Although I will agree if you throw SLI and Crossfire into the Mix it can make a bit more of a difference but thats not what we are talking about (and of course at that point twice the lanes makes sense). Now that I see you did say you had more than 1 (didn't notice before) then 10% is feasable based on tests above.

However for a single GPU the minimal difference holds true.

 

[weberdarren97]

You just made me think about something that I never realized before...

PCIe 3.0 x8 is about equivalent to PCIe 2.0 x16, isn't it? Well on both boards, the first card was running at x16 and the second at x8. Maybe it was the second card slowing it down? Since it was on PCIe x8 which would be equivalent to twice the bandwidth of PCIe 2.0 x8...

I probably should have put more thought into the circumstances before posting.

 

[burdenbound]

You just made me think about something that I never realized before...

PCIe 3.0 x8 is about equivalent to PCIe 2.0 x16, isn't it? Well on both boards, the first card was running at x16 and the second at x8. Maybe it was the second card slowing it down? Since it was on PCIe x8 which would be equivalent to twice the bandwidth of PCIe 2.0 x8...

I probably should have put more thought into the circumstances before posting.

Yarp, so on your first board the second card would have been running at the equivalent of PCIe 3.0 X4.

 

[TheeSaltyDog]

I've found that even my R9 280X's gained performance when going from PCIe 2.0 to 3.0. There was almost a 10% increase in graphics.

For some reason, they also ran 3 degrees cooler on PCIe 3.0 than they did on 2.0... I wonder why... Same case and airflow. I even used the same CPU and memory. I simply switched from the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard to the Asus Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard.

PCIe 3.0 almost certainly came with energy efficiency improvements. More energy efficient design = less waste heat. Since PCIe 3.0 is an optimization of the PCIe 2.0 architechture, it stands to reason that it'd translate into some energy efficiency improvements.

I'm not an electrical engineer, but I'm a software engineer, so I at least have *some* idea what I'm talking about. I'm no expert by any stretch, so I could be wrong.