the best video card for an old board

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lz22

New Member
i think this board will limit what video cards i can buy because it is a slightly older board. does anyone have an idea on how i could find out what's the best card i could get without having the board limit its capabilities? thanks, any guidance would be much appreciated!

will all cards run at full potential as long as the interface match? PCI Express 2.0 x16

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/P6T_Deluxe_V2/#specifications
specifically with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...yMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo
 
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You are actually not limited at all. Even though it is PCI Express 2.0 board you can still put a PCI Express 3.0 card in the 2.0 slot with out seeing any major performance degradation. As long as your PSU can handle the GPU you should be good with anything.

Edit: To answer your second question simply, yes. But here is how it works.

Each new release of a PCI Express generation the bandwidth doubles. So here is the rundown...

1 PCI Ex x16 3.0 slot has double the bandwidth of PCI Ex x16 2.0 and four times the bandwidth of PCI Ex x16 1.0.

But here is the thing, just because the slot has the bandwidth does not mean that the cards need the full bandwidth to be used fully. So even though a PCI Ex x16 2.0 will operate at the same speeds as a PCI Ex x8 3.0 slot you can still use a PCI Ex 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot without seeing performance issues. At least with the cards on the market today. That might change with the release of the 7990 and 690.

hope that helps.
 
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Sorry to hijack but does that mean a PCI Express 2.0 at 4x would run the same as essentially a PCI Express .5 (if that existed?) x16
 
lz22 said:
thank you very much, if i can hug you i'd totally do it. thank you thank you!
Click to expand...

You are very welcome. Happy to help.

Denther said:
Sorry to hijack but does that mean a PCI Express 2.0 at 4x would run the same as essentially a PCI Express .5 (if that existed?) x16
Click to expand...

Not exactly. Take the lanes and multiply it by 2 if you are moving down a generation (ex2.0->1.0) or divide it by 2 if you are moving up a generation (ex2.0->3.0)

For example:

PCI Express x8 2.0

Moving down to Gen 1.0 (multiply by 2) = PCI Express x16 1.0

Moving up to Gen 3.0 (Divide by 2) = PCI Express x4 3.0

I hope the math is right. I am really tired :P I'll check it again in the morning.
 
Looks right. The reason I'm wondering is if it would be worth it in a year or so to snag another 5770/6770 on eBay and Crossfire in my x16/x4 mobo. Both are 2.0 speed.

Probably not but good to know if that is available.

Edit: I'm positive my board doesn't go 8x, 8x when you Crossfire.
 
Denther said:
Looks right. The reason I'm wondering is if it would be worth it in a year or so to snag another 5770/6770 on eBay and Crossfire in my x16/x4 mobo. Both are 2.0 speed.

Probably not but good to know if that is available.

Edit: I'm positive my board doesn't go 8x, 8x when you Crossfire.
Click to expand...

Yeah, your other slot runs at X4. On a AMD chipset the X4 slot runs off the southbridge. Which makes it slightly slower then one run off the northbridge. But with a 5770 or 6770 you would be fine, they dont really pull that much bandwidth.
 
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