PCI Express Compatibility

[Tabouzar]

Hello.

This past Feb i built a new computer.
I bought an Asus M4A89GTD PRO Mobo.
It supports pci express 2.0.

I am looking into finally buying a video card for this board. However i was told that i will not be able to use any cards that are 2.1 on the board.

I have feverishly looking for any info to back this up and cant seem to find anything out on this.

I am actually looking to buy a SAPPHIRE 100312-3SR Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16

Will this work on my board?
Thank you!

 

[kilo_17]

Yep, it will work fine with your board!

 

[HugoStiglitz]

as a note i do believe a PCI express 2.1 card will work fine in a 2.0 slot.


http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/290252-33-does-work-slot

 

[Tabouzar]

thank you for the fast reply.

All the info i was sorting out was telling me i could use it. Thanks for the conformation.


I guess i had better tell my original source to maybe do more research before telling me false info.....lol

 

[axlrose]

I just asked a similar question of EVGA because I have an older board from them that offers 2.0 support. I'm looking at two 6950's too.

Your Question:
I am looking to upgrade for BF3 and wondering about compatibility.

1) Can I use two 6950's in crossfire?

2) They seem to be pci express 2.1 (along with every other card out there) and the 790i ultra appears to do 2.0 only. What does that mean?

I am also hoping to add a vertex 3 120gb with windows 7 64 to make better use of the 4gb of ram I have as vista 32 doesn't seem to use 4gb as effectively.

Thanks.
Your Answer:
Matthew,

Yes you should be able to run two of those in Crossfire without issue. PCI-E 2.1 implements some power management and troubleshooting features of PCI-E 3.0, but still has the same bandwidth of PCI-E 2.0. You will not see a loss of performance using them in the PCI-E 2.0 slots. Upgrading to a 64-bit OS would allow you the full use of your 4GB of memory. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,
EVGA

 

[Tabouzar]

well to be fair, i was thinking it might not necessarily be a 2.0 vs 2.1 compatibility issue.

I was just hoping it wasnt a specific board set up problem.