Will an ATI PCI Express 2.1 graphics card work in a...

[RadCazz]

... 2.0 slot? I was at my local Best Buy and I was looking at the latest ATI graphics cards and they all said PCI Express 2.1 on their packaging. I have an available 2.0 slot. Would these cards work? I had the sales/computer associate stumped, lol.

Also, I don't think my case/motherboard has the room for these 'wide' cards. Can you recommend a premium (near top-of-line) graphics card that has a lower profile? My psu is 500W. I want to really be able to crunch projects and play the latest games.

[rgathright]

Please let us know what the motherboard model is.

[Slicker]

... 2.0 slot? I was at my local Best Buy and I was looking at the latest ATI graphics cards and they all said PCI Express 2.1 on their packaging. I have an available 2.0 slot. Would these cards work? I had the sales/computer associate stumped, lol.

Also, I don't think my case/motherboard has the room for these 'wide' cards. Can you recommend a premium (near top-of-line) graphics card that has a lower profile? My psu is 500W. I want to really be able to crunch projects and play the latest games.

I'm pretty sure the version has very little to do with anything other than the theorhetical max data that can be sent/received and no GPU comes even close to approaching the limit of any of the standards. In fact, a person (OK, a brave person) can take a PCIe x16 card and cut it down to where it fits into a PCIx x1 slot and it will still work.

You mention 'wide' and then 'low profie' which are two completely different things. Length, width, and height. Low profile = height and often needed in rack mount servers or thin desktops. Most mini-towers can use normal height cards. The drive cage sometimes gets in the way of long cards. The position of the PCIx slot and the other components near it often determine whether a double width card (most high end GPUs take up two slots). Maybe the easiest thing would be to pop the cover and measure the space you have to work with. Hopefully you don't need low profile since there aren't a lot of options for low profile GPUs that are high end.

[Fire$torm]

The 2.1 in PCI Express refers to the PCI-SIG consortium revision of the PCI Express Specification Standards. As part of that, all PCIe 2.1 devices are backwards compatible, which means 2.1 works in 2.0 which works in 1.0. BTW, PCI Express 3.0 has been finalized and PCI Express 4.0 is now in development.

Wikipedia: PCI Express

[RadCazz]

rgathright, the Motherboard is an Intel G41, Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q8200 2.33GHz 1333MHz 4MB LGA775, in a medium tower. Hope that helps.

Thanks Slicker and Fire$torm for clearing things up for me! I was also worried the double-width cards wouldn't fit. Like you said Slicker, I'm going to have to measure the space I have to work with. It does look pretty cramped in there. I think the double-width card is going to cover/obscure/block my other available slot. Time to say, "No duh," lol.

I apologize for my ignorance. These highfalutin graphic cards are new to me.

BTW - I was looking at the SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCIE Graphics Card (http://www.amazon.com/SAPPHIRE-Radeo...9246214&sr=1-3) It's double-width.

Would this card be an excellent choice for crunching projects?

[Fire$torm]

One project the HD 6870 cannot run is WilkyWay#Home. This is because MW@H requires a GPU with Double Precision (DP) capability. AMD only included that in the 69xx series cards. I cannot remember if there are any other projects that need DP.

[Bryan]

The 6870 will get you about 415k/day on Donate ... I'm running one on a PCIe 1.0 machine. As F$ stated it won't run on MW but it will handle anything else.

[rgathright]

rgathright, the Motherboard is an Intel G41, Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q8200 2.33GHz 1333MHz 4MB LGA775, in a medium tower. Hope that helps.

Sorry, no easy answer from me!

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...s-chipset.html

According the Intel website, the Intel G41 chipset only officially supports PCI Express 1.1.

At your own risk, you could buy a PCI Express 2.1 card and plug it in, but I don't think anyone here would tell you it will work with 100% certainty.

[Fire$torm]

At your own risk, you could buy a PCI Express 2.1 card and plug it in, but I don't think anyone here would tell you it will work with 100% certainty.

Actually i would because I'm going it myself. The system is a Dell GX280 (aka Drone) with a single x16 PCI Express 1.0a slot that currently has a Nvidia 8800GT installed. I've also had 2 different ATI Radeon 4850s and a 4870. I've not had any problems with any of those cards.

Drone ---> http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2400421

GX280 specs (Here) Seventh table down titled Expansion Bus

[Bryan]

In my 2 PCIe 1.0 machines I've run 48xx, 5870, and 5970. Currently running a 6870 in one machine and a GTX 570 in the other. They work fine ... all PCIe versions are backwards compatible.