Quick question:
You guys said that pcie is much faster then PCI, obviously alright. So have any of you had a pci card and then tried the same card but in PCIe , how much performance difference do you see or for those who haven't done so, how much performance increase do you think you would see?
Example: The 8500GT series.
I don't have a direct comparison vs. a 8500GT on PCI-E, but:
My HD4350, sitting in a PCI-E x16 slot results in superior performance over my 8500GT on PCI by more than two-fold in 3DMark06 and Crysis. Hit the link in my sig to check the benchmarks, but the HD4350 reaches similar framerates in Crysis 1680x1050 at low as the PCI8500GT does at 1024x768 and 1680x1050 is 2.25 times the pixels on the screen !
The 9400GT is pretty much a 8500GT and the HD4350 is around 50% more powerful than the 9400GT. Neglecting any difference between the 8500GT and 9400GT and giving the 8500GT the benefit of the doubt means that the PCI bus cripples the 8500GT by almost two-fold.
Even on a PCI-E x1 slot (Gen1, not Gen2) the HD4350 absolutely annihilates the PCI8500GT.
PCI is a severe bottleneck even to weak cards, and that's why things like the PCI9500GT/PCI8600GT make even less sense.