PCI 3.0 compatibility

[Falstaff]

Are PCI Express 3.0 cards backwards compatible with PCI 2.0 motherboards? I read a few reviews that say they are but some say they have trouble.

[unusedusername]

A quality card "should" be because the spec says they should.

However, for this to work, both the board and the card need to be in-spec.

There is more out-of-spec hardware then in-spec hardware.

Make of this what you will.

[stilly]

A quality card "should" be because the spec says they should.

However, for this to work, both the board and the card need to be in-spec.

There is more out-of-spec hardware then in-spec hardware.

Make of this what you will.

+1

Yeah, have you seen the SPEEDS of oh damn. We aint talking about usb 3.0, we are talking about PCI... LMAO!

Still true! best for BOTH to be the same.

[deebix]

I have a PCI-E 3.0 GTX 660 card in a 2.0 motherboard if that means anything. The data bandwidth is practically the same, even under heavy loads of gaming. You will not see a difference.

[bigbearbear]

It'll work. I have a PCI express 3.0 GTX670 graphics card and my motherboard is only PCI express 2.0. No issues.

[Darryl Licht]

New standards are "almost" always backwards compatible with their older ones. USB 3.0 will work with USB 2.0 and so will PCI-e 3.0 with 2.0!