List of working 3.0 PCIe cards and 1.x slot motherboard combinations

[Chakonari]

Hello everyone. After completing the LGA 771/775 mod, my graphic card is struggling whilst the CPU barely goes above 55% when gaming. So I went hunting for the answer to the question of compatibility of 3.0 cards in older 1.0a slots (like in my MSI P35 Neo2 FIR). As some of you may know, the answer is "Maybe". So I am trying to compile a list of 3.0 cards and motherboards with 1.x slots that work together. I've started a similar thread on the forum where I began the discussion, as I can imagine that I'm not the only one, who after doing the mod, is faced with this problem.

If I get at least 10 together, I'll post the results here and in the other forum. (and for the next 10 and so on)

So if you have a 3.0 card running in a motherboard with a 1.x slot, please post details about your board (including BIOS version) and the card you are using and add if you needed to do anything extra to get it to work. Thank you very much in advance.

Here are the relevant points on the matter that I had posted as a summary(Please add or correct if you notice anything. Thanks):

* PCIe 1.0a will sometimes take 3.0 cards.
* PCIe 1.0a specification means it delivers 75 Watts through the slot.
* The issue is often the BIOS.
* PCIe 1.1 is more forgiving than PCIe 1.0a (probably because of newer BIOS)
* New NIVIDIA cards are more compatible with PCIe 1.0a than AMD - irrespective of power consumption.
* In terms of bandwidth, anything HD 7970 and below is ok in PCIe 1.x.
* Compatibily issues for PCIe 1.0a slots started with PCIe 2.1 cards.
* Some pre built systems with PCIe 1.0a slots only deliver 25 Watts on the PCIe slot (possibly set that way due to power supply limitations)

 

[4745454b]

For what it's worth, I had my PCIe 3.0 7950 in a Gigabyte P55 PCIe 2.0 board. It ran stable, mostly. At least once a day however I would either blue screen, or more commonly I'd lose my monitors. (I have 3 hooked up.) The problem went away when I moved to my PCIe 3.0 system. I didn't try updating the bios, and I don't know if my number of monitors was an issue. Good luck with the list. If possible I'd honestly just move up to something newer.

 

[millwright]

It is my understanding that only PCI-e 1.0, 1.0a, or 1.1 boards that have a BIOS upgrade, will run a 3.0, or 2.1.card.

2.1 broke backward compatibility with the power increase.
Some 1.0 boards have a bios update.

From Wikipedia
"PCI Express 2.1

PCI Express 2.1 supports a large proportion of the management, support, and troubleshooting systems planned for full implementation in PCI Express 3.0. However, the speed is the same as PCI Express 2.0. Unfortunately, the increase in power from the slot breaks backward compatibility between PCI Express 2.1 cards and some older motherboards with 1.0/1.0a, but most motherboards with PCI Express 1.1 connectors are provided with a BIOS update by their manufacturers through utilities to support backward compatibility of cards with PCIe 2.1.
PCI Express 3.x"

here is the link to the article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
EDIT
It seems to imply that only 1.1 boards have a BIOS update.
Edit
It also implies only some 1.0, and 1.1 boards, had compatibility broken.

 

[Chakonari]

I agree that a new system is the better solution overall. On the other hand the second hand Xeons are cheap, making the prospect of upgrading to a R7 250x or 650Ti (or even a 750 Ti) very tempting. In my case I have a HD 3850 that was paired with a E8400 and now a Xeon E5450 (comparable to Q9650).

EDIT:
@ millwright: (Was posting the above when you wrote). Yes I did read the Wiki article (as the first source) and spent 'several' hours trying to find more information. The confirmation re. the 75 Watt through the PCIe 1.0a slot, is something I found in a German article from 2003, which was introducing PCIe.

EDIT 2: (Didn't want to bump) @ below on the other hand there are people who have new cards running in old slots. Hence the idea for a list.

 

[millwright]

I have seen at least 3 dozen posts here and other foams, where people got burned with a newer card in a old board.
And there was no BIOS update.

 

[Nodyjoe]

im running a Radeon R9 270 on a PCI1.0 i think 1 issue my CPU is a MASSIVE bottle neck i say just get a full system upgrade

 

[Chakonari]

Just for a final update:

Currently on the MSI P35 Neo2 Fir: 8GB (4x2) DDR2 800, Xeon E5450, GTX560Ti(1 GB) + 2 ARC100 240 SSDs (The offer on one of the big market sites was so good, I had to get 2).

The above plays GTA V @ 1920x1080 with the Nvidia recommended settings(mostly high). Generally around 60 fps but sometimes drops to 40-something - so I set the half V-Sync to on (30fps) and am very happy