pci-e 2.0

[dilly dally]

So what exactly does pci-2.0 mean?
I am going to buy the HD3870 very soon and it says it is pci-e 2.0, do i have anything to worrie about or is my pci-e 16x slot ok for this?

Also i am upgrading to a XG 450w powersupply with a pci-e power conecter.

Should i be ok with what i have?

[JDowdall]

no dw basically pci e 2.0 gets double bandwidth from... somwhere so basically your pci express x16 port instead of giving 16 lanes of badwidth you get 32! Dont ask me how cos i dont know i jsut know it works :D nd that its compltetly compatible

[dilly dally]

YAY!!!!!! woooo im gunna buy the HD3870 512mb GFX card then!! has anyone else got it yet if anyone knows?

OMG its soooo cheap aswell!

[JDowdall]

yah lol! they r brill i think djgandy has a pair

[vconor]

ur buying a new card already, didnt u only buy ur 8600 like a month ago
also it look like the 8800 gts 320 are going pout of date already :S

[JDowdall]

yeah they are the new gts' should be better than the 8800gt

[dilly dally]

Yeah i did get the card about 3 or 4 weeks ago actually :oops:

BUT this one will be soooo much better. They done some benchmarks on it vs the eVGA 8800GT 640mb and the 3870 bet it at higher resolutions~!

[vconor]

lol
u were complaining that, thats acard was too much b4 u bought it lol, where u gettin the money for this one?

[JDowdall]

i do seem to recall telling him not to get the card :D

[vconor]

lol
fair enuff

[dilly dally]

tell me not to get what card?

[Bert]

I thought you had to have a PCI-E 2.0 compatible motherboard to actually use the 2.0 feature on the newer GFX cards?

Still backwards compatible to 1.0 though...

From what I've read isn't it just better ports on the board, or have I mis-read something?

[Jonny2Bad]

Your right the motherboard has to support the new bandwidth for it ti work, but the cards will work in either type.

[dilly dally]

i see. well it supports phenom so im hoping that it will support pci-2.0

Its a Asrock AliveNFG6-VSTA motherboard by the way

[Lustral]

YAY!!!!!! woooo im gunna buy the HD3870 512mb GFX card then!! has anyone else got it yet if anyone knows?

OMG its soooo cheap aswell!

I have got the Sapphire HD3870 since last Thursday and i have spent the weekend overclocking and testing the **** out of it.

Very nice card indeed ..

Lusty

[Majinvash]

*cough* Nvidia *cough*

[vconor]

lol why not try the 8800gt, i hear there better

[Majinvash]

Yeah Charlie you noob :P

[Lustral]

Yeah Charlie you noob :P

Haha Matthew !

[Jonny2Bad]

How does it rate in your eyes? Do you think with newer drivers it will match the 8800gt? As im hanging on whether to change to x38 and an ati card in the new year or just stick with my striker and sli 8800gt's or whatever nvidia's newest offering is

[JDowdall]

imo (and it is a good opinion being the resident ati fanboy :D) i would get the 3870 then you could tell us first hand which u think is better as you wud have the 3870 and the 8800gt but i think it will match the 8800gt with newer drivers to eke out that last 10% ish of performance... or you could overclock it btw lusty how dus it overclock cos tax said it overclocks mad

[Jonny2Bad]

Ive got 8800gts so wouldnt be able to test really.

[JDowdall]

yeah but ur son has an 8800gt? and you would ahve a 3870?

[Jonny2Bad]

No he has the same as me a bfg 8800gts 640 oc so when a new card comes out they can be put in sli on either of our boards.

[JDowdall]

ah kk i understand :D but u wer on about a 8800gt werent u?

[Jonny2Bad]

Yeah i was thinking of getting 1 or 2 lol, but im holding fire just for now i think it is worth hanging on till after xmas to see what is brought out.

[JDowdall]

good plan :D now lusty do enlighten us with how dus the old 3870 overclocks?

[dilly dally]

never been with ATI before so will be good to see how well they perform against Nvidia. although i would like to sell my 8600GT if i get the 3870 lol.....

[dilly dally]

lol why not try the 8800gt, i hear there better


HAHAHAHA they may be better... but they are certainly a better price!

[JDowdall]

i aint been with nvidia but then agin i've only bought two graphics card and 1 was a low end ish agp card for my sis' computer 2 play the sims 2 lol and my x1950 pro which had better perf than the 7900gs. Oh tell a lie i had a x1600xt overclocked before that but then i really should ahve gone with a 7600gt

[Jonny2Bad]

Had both makes and really couldnt care less as long as i get the best performance for my £. Same with intel and amd, who really cares any1 who suffers lesser performance because of a make or some sort of mislead loyalty really is beyond me.

[JDowdall]

yeah but you've gotta love the underdog :D

[Jonny2Bad]

Well the amd and intel and ati and nvidia thing will always be there and why every1 squabbles about it i'll look after no1 and have the best equipment i can afford whether its made by the umpa lumpas or green pixies.

[JDowdall]

lmao yh when it comes down to it i'll choose best performance but if its a tie i'll go with ati :D

[dilly dally]

I think i will wait for my tax return before i get another graphics card. april 2008 lol probly

[Lustral]

imo (and it is a good opinion being the resident ati fanboy :D) i would get the 3870 then you could tell us first hand which u think is better as you wud have the 3870 and the 8800gt but i think it will match the 8800gt with newer drivers to eke out that last 10% ish of performance... or you could overclock it btw lusty how dus it overclock cos tax said it overclocks mad

I running @ 850 / 1200 at the moment which i think it is about max that it will overclock and run Crysis stablely. I heard that there is a bios going around that can unlock the cards multiplier and make the card go beyond 900 Mhz on the Core, im considering getting a Zalman VF900 or the Fatality version GPU cooler soon.

Lusty

[Majinvash]

Everyone is so hyped about Crysis.. but its not that good a game.. tbh its quite poor!

Its just Farcry with... no no.. wait ..its just Farcry!

Majin

[Lustral]

Everyone is so hyped about Crysis.. but its not that good a game.. tbh its quite poor!

Its just Farcry with... no no.. wait ..its just Farcry!

Majin

All big games are hyped out to the max , is Crysis good ? I would yes , but it is far from being up there with the classics. Crysis will be forgotten in about 6 months, but it will be used as benchmarks for a long time.

[Jonny2Bad]

Everyone is so hyped about Crysis.. but its not that good a game.. tbh its quite poor!

Its just Farcry with... no no.. wait ..its just Farcry!

Majin
Thats a bit much to say its poor, its a good game just not as good as the hype

[JDowdall]

tbh i cant think of many games that live up too the hype, they are either hopelessly underhyped or overhyped. only game i can think of atm (and i'll kno u'll disagree but wateva) was halo 3 but the story was 2 short on that and the difficulty was all over the place

[Jonny2Bad]

Havent played it as yet so cant comment, but i think that teamfortress 2 has to be right up there this year for the most fun and best looking games. Better start a new thread on this i reckon lol

[dilly dally]

having 850 / 1200 is way better than my current 550 / 800!

[Lustral]

having 850 / 1200 is way better than my current 550 / 800!

But u have a different video card , i assume you have a 8600GT right ?

Im running a 3870 which works on a higher frequency and uses GDDR4

Lusty

[dilly dally]

yeah thats what i mean. Im definitly going for the 3870 rather than staying with my albatron 8600GT... Might give it to a friend lol

[bodgeup]

make sure you read the specs before buying. I bought an 8800gt 512mb, but did it work no.

My Mobo is GEN1 pcie so GEN2 cards wont work, so make sure they are backwards compatible.

Or youll have to find someone with a GEN2 mobo and flash you card to GEN1

[dilly dally]

how can you tell if your mobo can take Gen1 Or Gen2 cards?

[bodgeup]

when u buy the mobo its says in specs. u need to get pcie 2.0

[djgandy]

PCI-E 2.0 is nothing to do with GEN2. I've never seen anything that Indicates GEN1 or GEN2. All I know is the Asrock VIA chipset is GEN1

[bodgeup]

I think you will find that gen2 cards are pcie v2 and gen1 are pcie v1. I know this as i have a via chipset and got a pcie v2 card. I found out thta you can flash gen2 (pcie v2) cards to gen1 (pcie v1) if you find a mobo that surports gen2 (pcie v2) then they work on GEN 1 (pcie v1 MOBOs

[djgandy]

Sorry. My post above made no sense. Let me clarify.

The only PCI-E 2.0 mobos are X38. PCI-E 2.0 is backwards compatible anyway. The problem is more than simply a PCI-E issue. Boards out long before PCi-E 2.0 was even finalized can run the 8800GT. I think this is more a VIA chipset issue and mabye a poor implementation on their behalf and not recognising the card wanting to run in PCI-E 2.0 mode. I've only seen VIA chipsets affected.

[dilly dally]

so by what you just said bodgeup is doesn't know what he is talking about? the 3870 would work on any board aslong as it has a pci-e 16x slot?

[djgandy]

I don't know about the 3870. Via chipsets do not get on with PCI-E GEN2 cards though. -NF6? Assuming thats nvidia and you may be okay. It's best to look around the net. There may be more problems like with the via chipset. PCI-E should be backwards compatible though, and I think this is just a problem with the via chipset.

[bodgeup]

I was only stating that make sure your MOBO is PCIE v2 or If not Get a card thats backwards compatible toc PCIeV1

Bodgeup

I do know what im talking about had lots of experience.

Some PCIEv2 cards dont stat that they arnt PCIev1 caompatible so check before buying.

Gen 1 is PCIE V1 & Gen2 is PCIEv2

The only way around is to flash a PCIEv2 card on a mobo that is PCIEv2 to PCIEV1 Gen1, then the card will work on via boards.

[djgandy]

So how do I have a GEN2 card in a PCI-E 1.1 motherboard?

[Jonny2Bad]

Didnt you have 2 change your board because of that same problem dj?

[djgandy]

Yeah but my new one is PCI-E 1.1 too. It's a via chipset probem not a PCI-E problem.

[Jonny2Bad]

Ah yeah i remember the thread now!!

[bodgeup]

Its just VIA wont release a bios patch for pcie2.

Just informing people that wanted to know.

Check the GRPHX card before buying to check its either PCIE 1 or 2 but backwards compatible.

Its not all via boards, A few have bios updates to fix it. But asrock isnt any help.

bodgeup

Sorry if you missunderstood me. I didnt mean to affend

[Jonny2Bad]

Like most things it can be fixed with a bios update but whether its marketing or just laziness they just dont bother.

[dilly dally]

im getting a new motherboard anyway. Id say its going to be the Asus M2N-E SLI Motherboard so i hope that will support the HD 3870

[bodgeup]

baz says:

i looked at that mobo
It does say PCIE 2.2 on asus website
but i think ASUS are quite good as they have bios patches anyway
i looked at the card
and its PCIE 2
the HD 3870
So your be fine


Hope this helps its not just via chipsets that are not PCIE2 I think that mobo is PCIE 1

[djgandy]

baz says:

i looked at that mobo
It does say PCI 2.2 on asus website
but i think ASUS are quite good as they have bios patches anyway
i looked at the card
and its PCIE 2
the HD 3870
So your be fine


Hope this helps its not just via chipsets that are not PCIE2 I think that mobo is PCIE 1

PCI-E is backwards compatible. PCI-E 2.0 has different signatures and by the sound of it via chipsets are having problems with the backward compatibility side possible due to a bad implementation of PCI-E. The only PCI-E 2.0 boards on the market are the X38 chipsets. PCI-E 1.0 boards can run PCI-E 2.0 devices, except, in the case of via chipsets there seems to be problems recognising the devices.

[bodgeup]

You sure.

I tried On nforce chipset and same prob. Cards stat if the are backwards capable.

V2 wont work on v1 mobo Unless Bios update

[djgandy]

It must have been an old nforce chipset then, or the chipset is doing the same as via which i assume is looking for a PCI-E 1.0 device finding a PCI-E 2.0 device and rejecting it. There are plenty of PCI-E 1.0 boards that work fine with the 8800GT. From what I've seen its mainly the older boards (socket 939) and VIA boards that are not working.