GTX 780 Ti and PCIe 2.0?

[clutchc]

I was contemplating getting a GTX 780 Ti. I am still using a Sandy Bridge processor (i5-2500K) , and therefore only have access to PCIe 2.0.

I was wondering what the opinions were as to if there would be any performance loss with a card of that class running at PCIe 2.0...

 

[deadmaufive]

No performance loss at all. the 3.0 slots say they can push more data more quickly, and it's true, however, the cards themselves can't push out that much data to use all of 2.0 let alone 3.0 slots.

 

[alienworkshop]

no, there won't be. it can't fully utilize the interface anyways. even if you put it in a 1.0 it still would work fine.

 

[Supernova1138]

You'd only lose out on a little bit of performance if you ran two 780 Tis in SLI, in which case you'd get 8 lanes of PCI-E connectivity per card. 16 lanes of PCI-E 2.0 is more than enough for a 780Ti. It's still going to be a while yet before PCI-E 2.0 becomes a significant bottleneck for single GPU configurations.

 

[clutchc]

Thanks for the quick answers, folks. That was kinda what I was thinking/hoping. It seems the 3.0 tech was developed mainly for the advances in PCIe SSDs more so than graphic cards. But I'd hate to spend that kind of money for a new card and have to change processors just to get full performance from it. Thanks.

 

[alienworkshop]

lol, you'd lose no performance supernova, it can't fully utilize even 8x's on pcie.

 

[apower101]

Nope. Used a titan with a q6600, worked perfectly. The cpu will bottleneck it though, albeit very slightly

 

[clutchc]

Nope. Used a titan with a q6600, worked perfectly. The cpu will bottleneck it though, albeit very slightly

I'm hoping a mild O/C at ~4.2GHZ will keep the bottle neck at bay. What Ivy Bridge would I need to better the SB i5-2500K enough to not bottle neck?

 

[Supernova1138]

The 2500k at stock clocks is still pretty good, especially considering after Sandy Bridge Intel pretty much gave up on really improving their CPUs in any way outside of power efficiency and integrated graphics. Ivy Bridge wasn't much of an improvement over Sandy Bridge, only about 10% clock for clock, so there is little sense in buying a 3570k or any other Ivy Bridge CPU in your position. I don't think you'd hit a CPU bottleneck with a 2500k at stock clocks, and if you are already running it at 4GHz, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

 

[clutchc]

The 2500k at stock clocks is still pretty good, especially considering after Sandy Bridge Intel pretty much gave up on really improving their CPUs in any way outside of power efficiency and integrated graphics. Ivy Bridge wasn't much of an improvement over Sandy Bridge, only about 10% clock for clock, so there is little sense in buying a 3570k or any other Ivy Bridge CPU in your position. I don't think you'd hit a CPU bottleneck with a 2500k at stock clocks, and if you are already running it at 4GHz, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

That's kinda the assumption I have been going under too. But good to hear someone confirm it.

 

[nikoli707]

i have no problems whatsoever with my 2500k and 780 and i bench pretty heavy numbers with my high overclocks.

 

[apower101]

if you overclock it'll be good, however on stock clocks there could be a miniscule bottleneck. at 4.2 ghz your well and truly fine though

 

[clutchc]

I hate to do a switch mid-discussion... lol. But, I just changed my mind again and ordered an R9-290X (ASUS R9290X-DC2OC-4GD5) instead. Newegg had a sale... $580 looked a whole lot better than $700+
But I do thank everyone for their helpful input. Sorry to have turned the tables on everyone.