Q: ok, before i start here are my specs Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 iP35 mobo Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) 4GB OCZ DDR2 800MHz Zotac 8800GT 512MB DDR3 500GB Hard Drive Hp dvd-rw drive 620W coolermaster modular PSU Vista Home Premium 64 bit HP vs17e 17"monitor now, i have a PCI-E X16 (1.1) slot on my mobo. I already have the 8800gt which runs great. But im wondering. What is the BEST card available on the market today for the 1.1 slot, that will not bottleneck the computer. also is the the PCI-E 2.0 X8 the same as PCI-E X16 1.1??? thanks TYPO: WHATS!!!! what about the ati 4870???
A: hi kamran well its a tie between the nvidia gtx280 and the radeon HD4870,however both have their specific strengths and any of the two would turn any pc into a amazing gaming rig the difference with the newer pci-express 2.0 standard is the bandwidth,pci-express 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 0.25 GByte/s to 0.5 GByte/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GByte/s in each direction. PCIe 2.0 is backward compatible with PCIe v1.x. Graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.1 and v1.0. In some cases it is possible that a PCI-E 2.0 card will not work correctly on a PCI-E 1.0a slot. This is only limited to certain video cards. so working on the above information a pci-express version 2.0 card running at x8 would equate to round about the same as the version 1.1 card running at the full x16 speed most of the pci-express 1.1 cards released over the last 18 months should run great on a standard pci-express 1.1 slot,as will most version 2.0 cards since they are reliably backwards compatible one tip though kamran,dont look too deep into graphic card specs,they can become extremely confusing and by the time you have sussed them out the technology has changed anyway a crackin website for all things "graphic cards" is gpu review at http://www.gpureview.com/,it lists every card(agp and pci-express 1.1/2.0) since the days of the old 3dfx voodoo cards and also the ati rage pro any problems let me know good luck kamran !