I need to know whats the difference PCIe 2.0 x16 and PCI Express x16.

[generis777]

I am buying a new graphics car wath needs PCI Express 16x.

http://www.amazon.fr/MSI-OC-graphique-Geforce-PCI-Express/dp/B0099AOAP8/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1358350468&sr=1-4


I need to know whats the difference PCIe 2.0 x16 and PCI Express x16.
becouse my motherboard has 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (blue) *1
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black) *1
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
3 x PCI
Is it compatible?

 

[AZCompTech]

Ok, the PCIe xXX is the amount of lanes the slot has. so x16 has 16 lanes, x8 has 8 lanes and so on.

The physical slot on x4, x8, and x16 are all the same.

If it says 2 PCIe x16 slots it means that there are 2 slots on the board that are capable of 16 lanes.

If it says 2 PCIe X16 (and then in brackets says x16, x4 or x8, x8) it means when you have 1 slot being used it uses all 16 lanes for that 1 slot. But if you plug multiple things into the PCIe slots (most common 2 GPU's) it will divide the lanes between the cards. So that (x16, x4) you will have the first GPU running with 16 lanes, and the second GPU running with 4 lanes.

The manual for any board is going to say what the slot is at natively (x16, x8, x4) and how it reacts if in SLI (multiple GPU's)

For GPU's most of the time you are not going to notice a difference between 16x and 8x because GPU's can not fully saturate the bandwidth of the slot, therefore it is hardware limited, not bus limited.

2 GPU's in xfire / SLI on 2 8x slots will not fully saturate the bus.

 

[Traciatim]

It's nothing to worry about, just plug it in your blue slot. PCIE 3 and PCIE 2 are essentially the same thing when it comes to plugging a single video card in to it.

 

[shopperen]

AZComTech already gave a good explanation.

But I have the feeling, that you are interested in the simple difference between PCIe 2.0 x16 and PCI Express x16.

It is a follows. The PCI Express x16 is the type of motherboard slot and the number indicates the speed (or lanes as AZComTech wrote).

PCIe 2.0 x16 is just the next version of the "Express" slot. So it is newer and faster.

There is often some confusion because of the name change. It used to be called PCI Express, but now it is called PCIe. There are tree versions; PCI Express, PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0. It is just the different versions.

And as for the speeds, AZComTech already explained that. And as Traciatim wrote, PCI Express x16 or PCIe 2.0 x16, both have the same size and standard, so the graphics card will plug in.

 

[gcatalin]

To simplify, PCI Express x16 is the equivelant of PCIe 1.0, it was the first revision of PCI Express, after revision two was launched (PCIe 2.0), people didn't bother to use PCIe 1.0 .

 

[generis777]

Thank you so much guys!

 

[Skippidy]

So if I put this graphics card into a Black PCIE x16 slot would it still work given the right power supply?




MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G graphics card - Radeon R9 270 - 2 GB

 

[Idratherbediving]

What was changed in the different versions? Would my PCIe x16 motherboard handle a PCIe 3.0?

 

[ZLoren]

any answers to Idratherbediving's questions???? i have the same questions??