PCI 3.0 question

[Pale Shaza]

So, I'm not very experienced with this whole PCI stuff.

My motherboard says it supports pci-e 2.0, my graphics card is pci-2.1 (which I understand is more or less 2.0 but with some improvements)

The new radeon hd 7000 are pci-e 3.0, will my motherboard still support them? or would I have to buy a new pci-e 3.0 motherboard to use these new cards?

thanks

 

[wazza300]

they should be backward compatible,as in you will only get pcie 2 speeds with that mb and 7k series cards,not that there would be any difference atm from pcie2 to pcie3

 

[lomez]

all pci-e is backward compatible meaning it will run a 7970 so no you wouldnt need a pci-e 3 mobo to run one.

 

[Razargh]

the 7970 wont bottleneck pci-e 2.1. I think pci-e 3 is backward compatible.