PCIe 3 vs 2 Video Card

[winnar]

Hello,

I have an i7-980X, and my motherboard only supports PCIe 2.0x16. I'm looking to upgrade my video card and I like the GTX 660 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696) but I see it's only PCIe 3.

I read in another thread (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/359704-33-express-work-express-express) that the card should still be compatible with my system, but the speed per lane is going to drop from 1GBps to 500MBps.

Are there any other performance losses I would incur from using a 2.0 bus?
Would I be better off getting a GTX 570 at 2.0 and save $30-40?

I confess, I do not know as much about video cards as I'd like to.

Thanks!

 

[dudewitbow]

there are no performance lossess. the only thing pci-e lanes turn on is the max speed of data transfer in the lane(i.e pci-e 3.0 at x4 ~= pci-e 2.0 at x8). Gpus atm do not saturate the pci-e 2.0 slot enough, to the point where the only real performance gain is when large crossfire/sli setups of high tier cards are involved.

 

[winnar]

A thoughtful answer, and just what I wanted to hear! Thanks so much!

 

[Formata]

That's a crazy processor you got there pci-e 2.0 vs pci-e 3.0 so far hasn't turned out to create a very significant bottle neck on GPUs:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/07/18/pci_express_20_vs_30_gpu_gaming_performance_review/14

gtx 660 vs a gtx 570... depends how much $30 is worth to I guess.

In this review Toms actually compares the 2

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-24.html

 

[winnar]

Best answer selected by winnar.

 

[winnar]

Thanks Formata! That's great info!