Curious about Ivy vs Sandy, and PCI-e 3.0 compatibiliy with Pci-e 3.0 graphics cards

[vawrvawerawe]

Reading around, someone said that with a sandy-bridge chipset, you cannot utilize the pci-e 3.0. Is this true?

Suppose one person had:
z77 motherboard with pci-e 3.0 graphics cards and a sandy bridge processor.

and suppose another had:
z77 motherboard with pci-e 3.0 graphics cards and an ivy bridge processor.

In this case, would the person with a sandy bridge processor not be able to utilize the full potential of their pci-e 3.0 graphics cards?

[dark2099]

You are correct, the Sandy Bridge processors only shipped with PCI-E 2.0 Spec support. Similarly P67/Z68 chipsets/boards are only capable of PCI-E 2.0.

[Dent1]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

would the person with a sandy bridge processor not be able to utilize the full potential of their pci-e 3.0 graphics cards?

The maximum bandwidth of PCI-E 3.0 is unattainable by today's video cards, so your gaming experience will virtually be the same whether 2.0 or 3.0.

[vawrvawerawe]

So the graphics card performance is dependent on the processor? I thought that graphics cards' performance was entirely independent of the processor?

[digibucc]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

So the graphics card performance is dependent on the processor? I thought that graphics cards' performance was entirely independent of the processor?

not entirely - yes for the most part they are independent, with their own ram, etc. - but they are talking about a specific instruction set in the processor allowing for pci-3 video to work with the applicable motherboard. technically it's the processor affecting the motherboard which in turn affects how the gpu can work.

it's not anything new, but it's not often a problem because it's not often a new generation of cpu/mobo/gpu are released at the same time. this happens to be one of those times and so there is a gap in compatibility.

[XL-R8R]

Nice link: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/I...press_Scaling/


Pretty much clears up what to expect from different PCI-E standards on two of the top single GPU cards of today.


So... to summarize....PCI-E 2 vs PCI-E .....you cant utilize PCI-E 3 on non-IB CPUs or anything less than Z77 chipset... it doesn't much matter though as the performance loss is minimal.

[Dent1]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

So the graphics card performance is dependent on the processor? I thought that graphics cards' performance was entirely independent of the processor?

PCI bus lane is on the motherboard. Traditionally it would be the motherboard's responsibility to support the 3.0 specification, some processors like Ivy Bridge do have PCI-E controllers to correspond to the board's specification. For the most part 3.0 is a marketing gimmick as it's wasted bandwidth for 9/10 users. But buzz words sell products and marketing is Intel's strong point.

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

I thought that graphics cards' performance was entirely independent of the processor?

Yes the faster a processor the faster your GPU will perform in games, but with diminishing returns. You might see this happen when comparing gaming benchmarks between a Phenom II and i7. This is because the latter processor is calculating faster.

A faster PCI-E specification will only allow for faster bandwidth between the components not faster CPU calculations, so the effect on the video card's performance virtually isn't affected, unless there is a significant bandwidth shortfall which there is always a copious abundance of.

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by Dent1

PCI bus lane is on the motherboard. Traditionally it would be the motherboard's responsibility to support the 3.0 specification, some processors like Ivy Bridge do have PCI-E controllers to correspond to the board's specification. For the most part 3.0 is a marketing gimmick as it's wasted bandwidth for 9/10 users. But buzz words sell products and marketing is Intel's strong point.

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_i...ained/pcie.jpg



Yes the faster a processor the faster your GPU perform in games, but with diminishing returns. You might see this happen when comparing gaming benchmarks between a Phenom II and i7. This is because the latter processor is calculating faster.

A faster PCI-E specification will only allow for faster bandwidth between the components not faster CPU calculations, so the effect on the video card's performance isn't affected, unless there is a significant bandwidth shortfall which there is always a copious abundance of.

I would clikc the THANKS button but I've used up all my available thanks for today (I get 30 per day). So Thanks!