What games use PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth>

[BloodTotal]

I know that Flight Simulator X uses that bandwidth, but what other games use it

one in particular I would like to know if GTA 4 uses pci 2.0 bandwidth

 

[dark2099]

I don't believe software (beyond drivers, GPU-Z, everest, and windows maybe) that really know if a PCI-E lane is 1.x or 2.0. Has to do mainly with the GFX card and slot.

 

[JC316]

I honestly doubt that games are even using the bandwidth of AGP 8X. Mostly the PCI-E 1.0 and 2.0 was a marketing tactic.

 

[BloodTotal]

flight simulator uses it by a lot, so people with p45 chipsets outrun people with p35 chipsets by a long shot, so im wondering what other games use the available bandwidth. I have tried searching if gta 4 uses that bandwidth, but I can't seem to find anything yet.

 

[Widjaja]

I honestly doubt that games are even using the bandwidth of AGP 8X. Mostly the PCI-E 1.0 and 2.0 was a marketing tactic.

I believe this is true for now.
Just like SATA II.
No hardware even came near to the usage of the band width.
I don't even think there is any harddrives with reach the fullspeed of SATA I except for maybe SSD.

 

[CDdude55]

Not many, if any at all. and I doubt at there will be any out for a long long time.

 

[BloodTotal]

is there a site that tells you what games use pcie 2.0 and how much use it?

 

[timta2]

is there a site that tells you what games use pcie 2.0 and how much use it?

I bet you would have found it if there was one. I think this is the first time I have read discussion about this. I agree that video cards today can't saturate a 16 lane PCI-E 1.0 connection. If you have proof to the contrary please post it. Your video card would have to move more than 4GB/sec over the PCI-E connection to gain an advantage from 2.0. Does it?

 

[Lillebror]

As soon as a game uses all the bandwidth pcie2.0 uses, theres gonna be pcie4.0! Cause when there are products that reached half the bandwidth of current techs, your making new techs. You always have to have a loft, no matter what! So no, there are no games out there, that actualy uses the bandwidth of pcie 2.0. Only reason why stuff like flight simulator, get increased performance, is cause most of the overhead in pcie 1.1 is removed in 2.0.

 

[Deleted member 3]

I honestly doubt that games are even using the bandwidth of AGP 8X. Mostly the PCI-E 1.0 and 2.0 was a marketing tactic.

You couldn't be more wrong. When the 8800's came out Toms hardware tested it by taping off lanes and benchmarking. PCIe x4 was a serious bottleneck, x8 was noticeable but acceptable. So when using a 280 or even a dual GPU card it can make quite a difference.

Games themselves aren't aware of the bandwidth though. It's basically the performance of the videocard that makes a difference, the faster it is the faster data needs to be send to it.

 

[Flyordie]

PCIe 1.0= 100%
PCIe 2.0= 180%
PCIe 3.0= 300%
Those are the percentages of bandwidth amounts with PCIe 1.0 being the base. PCIe 2.0 isn't double because it uses a form of ECC which gives it some overhead.
PCIe 3.0 removes that ECC so it gets its full bandwidth for data.

 

[newtekie1]

I honestly doubt that games are even using the bandwidth of AGP 8X. Mostly the PCI-E 1.0 and 2.0 was a marketing tactic.

I believe this is true for now.
Just like SATA II.
No hardware even came near to the usage of the band width.
I don't even think there is any harddrives with reach the fullspeed of SATA I except for maybe SSD.

Not many, if any at all. and I doubt at there will be any out for a long long time.

I bet you would have found it if there was one. I think this is the first time I have read discussion about this. I agree that video cards today can't saturate a 16 lane PCI-E 1.0 connection. If you have proof to the contrary please post it. Your video card would have to move more than 4GB/sec over the PCI-E connection to gain an advantage from 2.0. Does it?

As soon as a game uses all the bandwidth pcie2.0 uses, theres gonna be pcie4.0! Cause when there are products that reached half the bandwidth of current techs, your making new techs. You always have to have a loft, no matter what! So no, there are no games out there, that actualy uses the bandwidth of pcie 2.0. Only reason why stuff like flight simulator, get increased performance, is cause most of the overhead in pcie 1.1 is removed in 2.0.

Realize that the x8 test, would be equivalent to a PCI-E 1.1 x16 slot. And that was using just an HD3850. There are definitely games and cards that benefit from PCI-E 2.0's bandwidth. So going from PCI-E x16 to PCI-E 2.0 x16 can give a 20% performance boost in this situation with an HD3850.

 

[oli_ramsay]

Realize that the x8 test, would be equivalent to a PCI-E 1.1 x16 slot. And that was using just an HD3850. There are definitely games and cards that benefit from PCI-E 2.0's bandwidth. So going from PCI-E x16 to PCI-E 2.0 x16 can give a 20% performance boost in this situation with an HD3850.

That's pretty interesting, I was under the impression that it only gave a 1-2% boost max in games. Have you got the link for that tom's article?

 

[CDdude55]

Realize that the x8 test, would be equivalent to a PCI-E 1.1 x16 slot. And that was using just an HD3850. There are definitely games and cards that benefit from PCI-E 2.0's bandwidth. So going from PCI-E x16 to PCI-E 2.0 x16 can give a 20% performance boost in this situation with an HD3850.

As i stated, there many be a few games that do use it but not much. Plus there no 2.0 there, of course if the slot is running at half its speed you arent going to get the most out of the card. 2.0 just adds alot of unneeded bandwidth(at least for now a days games anyways)

 

[CDdude55]

Going from x16 to x16 2.0 is like going from x8 to x16, you wont see much if any of a difference beside 1 or 2 frames in most games, cards today dont really use all the bandwidth(they probably can but the apps aren't up there yet). Motherboards that are being release are having 2.0 as the standard, so this really isn't even a big debate considering if you are ever going to upgrade to a newer board, its more likely going to have a 2.0 slot on it

 

[dark2099]

In single card setups the speed isn't as important as though, but once running multiple card setups, that's where things come into play. And with the capabilities of today's cards (ATI's 4k series and NVidia's GTX series) the increase to PCI-E 2.0 is starting to play a roll.

 

[newtekie1]

As i stated, there many be a few games that do use it but not much. Plus there no 2.0 there, of course if the slot is running at half its speed you arent going to get the most out of the card. 2.0 just adds alot of unneeded bandwidth(at least for now a days games anyways)

Those are PCI-E 2.0 tests. I agree that more games will not show a difference, especially FPS games. However, games where lots of textures are streamed at high speeds to the display definitely benefit from the higher bandwidth. Racing game, flying games, and games like GTA:IV will benefit from the higher bandwidth. Though high end games like these will be few and far between.

Going from x16 to x16 2.0 is like going from x8 to x16, you wont see much if any of a difference beside 1 or 2 frames in most games, cards today dont really use all the bandwidth(they probably can but the apps aren't up there yet). Motherboards that are being release are having 2.0 as the standard, so this really isn't even a big debate considering if you are ever going to upgrade to a newer board, its more likely going to have a 2.0 slot on it

Yep, FPS games don't benefit from it. But obviously, some other games do. And while buying a new board won't bring up this issue, the issue might be if you need to buy a new motherboard. Do people with PCI-E 1.1 boards need to upgrade, will the benefit from an upgrade? Some will, most won't.