• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

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

Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Messages
619 (0.15/day)
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?
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Messages
4,628 (0.79/day)
Location
where everyone wants to be
System Name Everchanging
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Motherboard ASUS ROG Crosshair Dark Hero
Cooling Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer 2 420mm
Memory 2x16GB Corsair DDR4 3600 CL16
Video Card(s) eVGA RTX 3090 Ti FTW3
Storage Samsung 980 Pro 256GB, Samsung 980 Pro 2TB
Display(s) 2xSamsung 28" 4k HDR 144Hz
Case Fractal Meshify 2 XL
Audio Device(s) fiio K9 to Hifiman Sundara's via 4.4mm balanced cable
Power Supply Seasonic Prime TX 850w
Mouse Corsair Harpoon Wireless RGB
Keyboard Corsair K70 RGB PRO
Software Windows 11 x64
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.
 
Joined
May 18, 2010
Messages
3,427 (0.68/day)
System Name My baby
Processor Athlon II X4 620 @ 3.5GHz, 1.45v, NB @ 2700Mhz, HT @ 2700Mhz - 24hr prime95 stable
Motherboard Asus M4A785TD-V EVO
Cooling Sonic Tower Rev 2 with 120mm Akasa attached, Akasa @ Front, Xilence Red Wing 120mm @ Rear
Memory 8 GB G.Skills 1600Mhz
Video Card(s) ATI ASUS Crossfire 5850
Storage Crucial MX100 SATA 2.5 SSD
Display(s) Lenovo ThinkVision 27" (LEN P27h-10)
Case Antec VSK 2000 Black Tower Case
Audio Device(s) Onkyo TX-SR309 Receiver, 2x Kef Cresta 1, 1x Kef Center 20c
Power Supply OCZ StealthXstream II 600w, 4x12v/18A, 80% efficiency.
Software Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
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.
 
Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Messages
619 (0.15/day)
So the graphics card performance is dependent on the processor? I thought that graphics cards' performance was entirely independent of the processor?
 
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
4,966 (0.92/day)
System Name i7-PC / HTPC / iMac
Processor i7 3820 / Phenom II 940
Motherboard GIGABYTE G1.ASSASSIN2 / M3A79-T Deluxe
Cooling Corsair Hydro H100i / Scythe II (HS only)
Memory G.SKILL Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600mhz / 4GB DDR2 1066 (@800) Corsair Dominator
Video Card(s) GB Radeon HD 7950s 3GB / GB Radeon HD 7950s 3GB
Storage 2x 80GB Intel X-25, 2x600gb SATA, 1x1tb 5400RPM storage /1x600GB, 3x500GB,1x160,1x120 SATA
Display(s) 1x 27" Yamakasi / Vizio 42" HDTV
Case Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 / Antec 900
Audio Device(s) HT Omega Striker 7.1 / Onboard and HDMI from ATi Card
Power Supply PC Power & Cooling 750W / 610W
Software Ubuntu / Windows 8.1 Pro / OS X / PHPStorm / Gaming
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.
 
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
Messages
635 (0.15/day)
Location
Technical Tittery....
System Name "IBT 10x Maximum Stable"
Processor Intel i5 4690K @ 4.6GHz -> 100xx46 - 1.296v
Motherboard MSI MPower Z97
Cooling Corsair H100i + 2x Corsair "HP Edition" SP120's
Memory 4x4GB Corsair Vengence Pro 2400mhz @ 2400MHz 10-11-12-31-1T - 1.66v
Video Card(s) MSI Gaming GTX970 4GB @ 1314 Core/1973 Mem/1515 Boost
Storage Kingston 3K 120GB SSD + Western Digital 'Green' 2TB + Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Display(s) Iiyama Prolite X2377HDS 23" IPS
Case Corsair Carbide 300R
Audio Device(s) Rotel RA-04/Cambridge Audio Azur 540R + B&W DM302/Cerwin Vega AT12 / Sony MDR-XB700 & FiiO E5
Power Supply EVGA NEX650G + Silverstone Extensions
Mouse Always failing me....
Keyboard Endlessly broken.....
Software Windoze 7 Pro 64-bit/Windoze 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores I had some of these once upon a time? Old age has seen me misplace them....
Nice link: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Ivy_Bridge_PCI-Express_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.
 
Joined
May 18, 2010
Messages
3,427 (0.68/day)
System Name My baby
Processor Athlon II X4 620 @ 3.5GHz, 1.45v, NB @ 2700Mhz, HT @ 2700Mhz - 24hr prime95 stable
Motherboard Asus M4A785TD-V EVO
Cooling Sonic Tower Rev 2 with 120mm Akasa attached, Akasa @ Front, Xilence Red Wing 120mm @ Rear
Memory 8 GB G.Skills 1600Mhz
Video Card(s) ATI ASUS Crossfire 5850
Storage Crucial MX100 SATA 2.5 SSD
Display(s) Lenovo ThinkVision 27" (LEN P27h-10)
Case Antec VSK 2000 Black Tower Case
Audio Device(s) Onkyo TX-SR309 Receiver, 2x Kef Cresta 1, 1x Kef Center 20c
Power Supply OCZ StealthXstream II 600w, 4x12v/18A, 80% efficiency.
Software Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
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.



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.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Messages
619 (0.15/day)
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_images/2010/11/pci-express-3-0-explained/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! :) :rockout: ;)
 
Top