Upgrading my 7900 gs...

[hnugz3]

I found a what looks to be a pretty good deal on an evga 250 gts 512mb card which is pci-express 1.0 for $50. The other card they have is exactly the same but uses pci-express 2.0. It costs about $100. I have a p5n-e sli motherboard which from what I can tell is only pci-express 1.0.

First question, how much of a difference is there between the same cards using pci express 1.0 vs 2.0? If I only have 1.0, will 2.0 cards work just at the slower speed? Looking at the graphics card chart I see this card is way above my 7900gs, but I'm wondering if that is for a 1gb card instead of the 512mb with pci-express 2.0. Is this card worth purchasing? Thanks.

 

[spentshells]

1.0 or 2.0 with this card it will not matter
with pretty well all vid cards this wont matter at all
there will be no difference running this 2.0 in a 1.0 slot

 

[4745454b]

I heard some people in a different post talking about this $50 GTS250. First, as you mentioned it only has 512MBs of ram, so it will suffer in higher res gaming (1680x1050 and up). More so if you apply lots of AA. If your just using it for 1680x1050 with no AA or a lower resolution you should be fine. Second, the clocks are lower then the GTS250 specs. This will make it slower then a normal GTS250. As someone else mentioned however, who cares. What else is available for $50 that comes close in performance?

It should work in your PCIe 1.0 slot. It shouldn't be much slower then if it was in a PCIe 2.0 slot. The 2.0 slot allows for more information to be transferred per second. Seeing as you don't have a lot of ram or stock clocks, it shouldn't even come into play.

 

[hnugz3]

Perfect, thanks for the info I will pick it up tomorrow.

 

[4745454b]

Do you have the link handy? I did a search for it real fast to look at the clocks myself and I can't seem to find it.

 

[hnugz3]

This is the one I found:

http://www.frys.com/product/6159169?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

[4745454b]

Not bad, in store only at this point it seems like. I checked on newegg and the core clocks are anywhere from 675 -740. This isnt' even down clocked. The thread I remember reading said newegg so I think I'm remembering something else. For $50, I doubt you'll find anything better.