Performance differences between PCIe 2.0 and 3.0

[Huegpaynis]

Got a question for the hardware nerds here. I've been limping along with my old intel P67 board for a while now, which is PCIe 2.0. My current GPU and my future GPU are both PCIe 3.0, and while they will downgrade to a 2.0 slot just fine, I'm curious how much of a bottleneck I'm putting on my card with the older slot. Is there a compelling reason to upgrade to a new mobo in my case? Standard usage for my rig is primarily medium-to-high settings gaming and office work. I run folding@home when my machine idles while I'm at work, but not in any serious capacity, so that's not really a concern.

 

[o-BHG-o]

Without doing much research, it was my understanding a few years ago that there weren't any pcie3.0 cards that would max out bandwidth on a pcie2.0 mobo. That may have changed more recently. This article explains a little regarding performance differences. I guess it depends on your card.


Edit: after some speed reading it looks like we still haven't capped out the pcie2.0 with modern gfx cards. In my humble opinion you'll get no noticeable performance boost from pcie3.0.

 

[Huegpaynis]

Woot.

 

[Annitias]

From my benching runs, it will be fine for everything under a 290/x or 970/980. Those are the only cards that really start pulling ahead on 3.0. Also crossfire over pcie basically requires 3.0 or a bottleneck will occure.

 

[Huegpaynis]

Not crossfiring, at least not yet. And if I were, I'd get a new board anyway; my current one doesn't have the room I'd want for 2 GPUs and my other crap. I'm running a GTX 760 currently and upgrading to a 970 or similar in probably january, so I'm thinking i should be good with my current mobo, which frankly I prefer because I hate re-doing a whole board setup once I get everything wired in.

 

[Annitias]

January/febuary will have much action in the GPU market. I can't say much due to NDA but you will be impressed, and lower prices too.

I love the old 965s but you will want to upgrade soon. That is a pretty outdated setup now. Even if you go i5 , it would be a decent junp.

 

[Huegpaynis]

Do what? I have an i7.

here's the spec sheet:
i7-2600k @ 4.0 GHz
8 Gb GSkill ram @ 1600
SSD system drive
GTX 760
ASUS p8p67 mobo

 

[CrashMan054]

Is there a big difference between devil's canyon and ivy bridge?

 

[Huegpaynis]

I have no idea? My chip runs stock at 3.4, I'm overclocked to 4.

 

[CrashMan054]

I have no idea? My chip runs stock at 3.4, I'm overclocked to 4.

I've got an i3 3220, I'm just wondering if I should get a new mobo or just keep the one I have.

 

[Huegpaynis]

If you can snag a new cpu that uses the same socket, I'd say go for it and keep your mobo. I'm OC'd, but even when I don't, I haven't run into anything that can truly tax my CPU.

 

[Flashwit]

Yeah, honestly for the most part the CPU does not matter. I've been using an i5 overclocked to 4 ghz since 2010. No performance problems so far that have been CPU related.

 

[Annitias]

I've got an i3 3220, I'm just wondering if I should get a new mobo or just keep the one I have.

Ivy to DC is about a 18% change. Honestly, I would say not worth the platform change. A 3770k at 4.4 or so is more than enough for quite some time.

Ultra,
I got confused after reading another post right before. With that setup I would say grab a 970/980, 290X or wait for what just might (hint) be around the corner. A single high end GPU is more than enough unless you want to run 4k

 

[CrashMan054]

Ivy to DC is about a 18% change. Honestly, I would say not worth the platform change. A 3770k at 4.4 or so is more than enough for quite some time.

Ultra,
I got confused after reading another post right before. With that setup I would say grab a 970/980, 290X or wait for what just might (hint) be around the corner. A single high end GPU is more than enough unless you want to run 4k

Not much supports 4K ATM, I wouldn't get too worked up about it.

 

[Huegpaynis]

I figured that was the case; my plan was to snag a 970 or something similar so that I'd have more oomph for the upcoming modules. I'm also looking at snagging a rift once the consumer model comes out (and they add support for it to SC) and the 970 should hopefully be enough to get that running.

 

[Annitias]

970 is a pretty solid little card. I would expect you to be ok there.

 

[rogesh]

well i can max my i5 2500 (it runs on stock settings=> 2.8ghz with 3.0ghz boost) while playing SC and having a feeled gazillion tabs open in chrome XD
chrome takes so much ram space though O.O

 

[Huegpaynis]

The i7 line really is pretty much unstoppable for most "non-hardcore" applications; I've never really gone over about 80%, even when running folding@home. Star Citizen puts me at about 40% utilization.

 

[Shar Treuse]

Are there any motherboards that support PCIe 3.0 properly yet? I haven't kept my thumb on the pulse for a year or so as I'm not likely to replace mine, ever.

I did luck out on a GTX 970 though, there was a sale on amazon and I saved a good chunk of green. Well, the person paying for it as my X-mas present did, at least. I didn't really need it, but a single 970 beats two 670s when half the games don't SLI well anyway.

 

[o-BHG-o]

This is my board. It has 3 x pcie3.0 (2 can run at full x16 speed) and it's not the newest around. Afaik it's pcie3.0 proper.


update: This is kind of an old article but explain it better than I can.

TL/DR: SandyBridge-E + Intel X79 chipset + AMD HD7000 Series = PCIE3.0 (full speed x16, 8GT/s)