Different bandwidth PCI-Express?

[manoz]

So I was looking at some mobos and seen one that has 2 x16 PCI-E slots but one is x8 electrical the other being the full x16. Just wondering how this will effect games running with SLI. I am intending to buy a 24" Monitor but tbh I'm not that much of a gamer and the only ones I play are HL2 and Unreal Tournament series. Do you think I can still run games at full res if I use SLI? (might not go SLI route till Crysis comes out anyways) How will it affect that as games are getting faster? Hope you understand......

Cheers

 

[sunlitsix]

when you use SLI both PCI-E slots run at 8x

and you will be able to run games at full res with SLI

 

[squiffy]

Couple of Asus boards have 16x SLI/Crossfire lanes.

Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe (Nvidia Nforce 4 SLI )
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe (ATI 3200/580 Crossfire)

From benchie's I haven't seen any speed differences on Nforce 4 8x versus 16x however Crossfire might be different..

 

[manoz]

when you use SLI both PCI-E slots run at 8x

and you will be able to run games at full res with SLI

Oh cool.Cheers. Do do you think that will change when DX10 cards come out or in a few years?. Is the 8x to do with the SLi Bridge?

 

[ViRuS2k]

Oh cool.Cheers. Do do you think that will change when DX10 cards come out or in a few years?. Is the 8x to do with the SLi Bridge?

Few years ???? what pipes have you been smokeing.

 

[Darkwave]

As said, many motherboards run both cards at 8x in SLI anyway. It's nothing to worry about as we've not even saturated the bandwidth of AGP 8x yet, never mind PCI-E 8x/16x.

 

[sunlitsix]

Few years ???? what pipes have you been smokeing.

i think manoz ment will the PCI-E speeds change with the release of DX10 cards.

i dont know but most likely it will, just not in the near future
although some motherboards are available with two dedicated PCI-E 16x lanes.
normally SLI splits a single 16x lane into 2 8X lanes

 

[Darkwave]

Intel are already trying to push DDR3 system memory and PCI-E 2.0 for launch by 2008, or so I read on Dailytech some weeks ago. When will the madness stop?

 

[manoz]

i think manoz ment will the PCI-E speeds change with the release of DX10 cards.

i dont know but most likely it will, just not in the near future
although some motherboards are available with two dedicated PCI-E 16x lanes.
normally SLI splits a single 16x lane into 2 8X lanes

LoL, I haven't been smoking any pipes lately ViRuS2k but yeah this is what I meant sunlitsix. Thanks

Edit: Damn it techs moving too fast Ulfhedjinn! Look what wijipedia says regarding PCI-E 2.0

PCI Express is nearing completion of version 2.0, and should be available in version 2.0 by early 2007.

Yes wiki can't be trusted but still if is 2007, I'll go on a rampage!!

 

[sunlitsix]

Intel are already trying to push DDR3 system memory and PCI-E 2.0 for launch by 2008, or so I read on Dailytech some weeks ago. When will the madness stop?

yeah i read that too, something like 3x more bandwidth than PCI-E
the madness will never stop lol

 

[Darkwave]

yeah i read that too, something like 3x more bandwidth than PCI-E
the madness will never stop lol

Well it just makes me laugh, I mean... I only went from AGP to PCI-E because a.) PCI-E is generally a lot cheaper and b.) PCI-E has a much better range to look at because the high-end isn't done much on AGP.

By all rights AGP should still be thriving, the above problems are down to the companies and not the tech, and we haven't saturated the bandwidth of 8x AGP by a long-shot so why on earth do we suddenly need PCI-E 2.0?

It's all a big con IMO to force people into buying motherboards, since coinsidentally Intel, Nvidia, and ATI all make hugely popular motherboard chipsets and it's hardly a losing situation for companies like VIA who make chipsets and not graphics.