PCIe 3.0.. worth it?

[SC92]

Hi all.

 

Basically looking at upgrading my pc to something that's looking to play the newest games at high detail for the next few years or so. I've been looking at these so far;

 

Graphics - XFX 7870 Core Edition DD AMD/ATI Graphics Card - 2GB - FX-787A-CDFC - Scan.co.uk

 

MB - Asus M5A97 Evo R2.0 AMD 970 AM3+ Motherboard - Scan.co.uk

 

CPU - AMD FX 8350 Black Edition 8 Core Processor 4.00GHz Piledriver Socket AM3+ - FD8350FRHKBOX - Scan.co.uk

 

Now from what I've read, those should all play along very nicely together and will have a fairly decent performance too, correct me if I am wrong, it's possible My question is.. the MB i've picked at the mo only supports PCIe 2.0. Again from what i've read, there isn't that much of a difference performance-wise between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0, but we all know what information on the internet can be like. Is what i've read correct about PCIe 2.0/PCIe3.0, or complete rubbish meaning i'll have to re-think and probably go intel?!

 

Cheers!

[Michael]

Each revision of PCIe basically offers more bandwidth. I suspect over time (as with PCIe 2.x) that some of the latest cards can push the standard to the limit. I suppose it really depends if you're playing at a very high resolution (HD or above). As to whether you'll notice any difference in practice... it's hard to say.

[sonofsanta]

It makes naff all difference at the moment apart from on the incredibly high end cards - and even then it's a percent point or two. You'll be plenty fine now.

 

The only issue is if this will be the basis of upgrades for many years, in which case it may start to limit you... but you can run PCI-E 2.0 cards on an x4 bus and lose very little performance, no more than 5% from the figures I saw (albeit a couple of years ago). As such, I wouldn't expect PCI-E 3.0 cards to have significant problems on PCI-E 2.0 mobos for a long while.

 

Basically, by the time it's a big issue, you'll likely be upgrading your mobo & CPU anyway, I reckon.

[SC92]

Each revision of PCIe basically offers more bandwidth. I suspect over time (as with PCIe 2.x) that some of the latest cards can push the standard to the limit. I suppose it really depends if you're playing at a very high resolution (HD or above). As to whether you'll notice any difference in practice... it's hard to say.

 

Hoping to play highest, if not, high end of the latest games coming out now/next few months. Going to buy an SSD and maybe even a HD monitor, hopefully it will be a big performance increase from what i'm using now!

[SC92]

It makes naff all difference at the moment apart from on the incredibly high end cards - and even then it's a percent point or two. You'll be plenty fine now.

 

The only issue is if this will be the basis of upgrades for many years, in which case it may start to limit you... but you can run PCI-E 2.0 cards on an x4 bus and lose very little performance, no more than 5% from the figures I saw (albeit a couple of years ago). As such, I wouldn't expect PCI-E 3.0 cards to have significant problems on PCI-E 2.0 mobos for a long while.

 

Basically, by the time it's a big issue, you'll likely be upgrading your mobo & CPU anyway, I reckon.

 

Thanks for that - pretty much my thoughts, but it never hurts to seek a few more opinions Plus the price of intel stuff is very offputting..

[Arthur]

PCIe 2.0 will be fine.

 

GeForce GTX Titan Two-Way SLI Scaling: PCIe 2 vs PCIe 3 « AnandTech

 

http://i.imgur.com/9mDSx5b.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/34Vf9Wy.png

Edited July 4, 2013 by Arthur