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GTX 660 with a Sandybridge CPU

ShakeNBake

ShakeNBake

ShakeNBake

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Joined
26 Feb 2010
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Surrey, UK
I believe that a Sandybridge CPU is unable to run at PCI-E 3.0..?

So if I was to pair up an i5 2500k with a GTX 660, on a PCI-E 3.0 motherboard, would the GTX 660 only be able to run at PCI-E 2.0 speeds..?

How much would that limit the performance of the card by?

I am currently running a GTX 460 which has been such a bargain.
Bought it for around £150 in Oct 2010 and it has been running everything fine on a 1080p monitor since then.

There hasn't really been such a good performing price : performance card since then to match the 460. The 460 overclocks quite nicely too, and the 560 prices have stayed relatively high for such a low performance increase. However, my card seems to struggle with AA and espeically Ambient Occlusion with newer games.


So, for gaming on a single monitor at 1920x1080, what would be the best price : performance option to go with an i5 2500k..?

A brand spanking new GTX 660 Ti for £250ish, or maybe something like a GTX 570/580..? or a 670 for £300?

tbh, I don't need a new card right now urgently, quite happy with my GTX 460, but it chugs a little bit on SC2 / D3 with certain options enabled in nvidia control panel. LoL is my other primary game, but u can run that on a potato ;D

can't decide which card to go for when I do upgrade though..!
 
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If you ran a PCI-E 3.0 graphics card in a motherboard that only has PCI-E 2.0 then it will only run at the speed of PCI-E 2.0.

This is not a problem however because it will be fully compatible and the performance difference will be negligible (some more informed people may be able to provide a figure but it cant be more than 1%).
 
nice, thanks guys, 600 series it is then.
just gotta wait for a) some crazy new game with sick graphics that I wanna play maxed out or b) a eye-wateringly good price drop on any of the 600 series cards that is too good to miss ;)
 
Only way it's going to make a noticeable difference is in 3 GPU set-up's. I got a boost with 2 GPU's but nothing to write home about.
 
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