July 8th 08, 06:45 PM
posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte
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Video card compatibility
Many thanks for the info.
Raymo...
"Paul" wrote in message ...
Raymo wrote:
Hi,
I am going to build a computer based on a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R mobo.
The video card will be a Nvidia 9800 GTX. The mobo has a PCI-E x16 slot
but the video card needs a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot.
What is the difference and will it work in the mobo?
Thanks.
Raymo...
PCI Express version 2 is compatible with version 1.
http://www.pcisig.com/specifications/pciexpress/base2/
To work properly, it is a matter of the hardware negotiating
the rate they want to work at. For example on SATA drives, the
drive and the controller have to agree on a rate. The same
idea happens with PCI Express.
There was one incident, where a PCI Express version 2 card (8800GT ?),
would not work on some version 1 motherboards. The fix was to flash the
firmware on the video card, so that the GPU would keep the
interface in version 1 mode all the time.
In response to that incident, ATI made the claim, that their
cards "started in version 1 mode", so there was less risk of
a problem. I presume they'd go into version 2 mode, if all
was well. (Sounds a little fishy though... That is how
marketing battles work.)
Nvidia has had time to figure it all out, so I would not expect
a problem now. You can always check around and see if it is
mentioned though.
Paul
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