# PCI 3.0 vs PCI 2.1



## sidrenwada

Looking into the HD7970 and i see it has PCI 3.0 just wondering what the benefits are and how much they are?

Thanks


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## TekMaster

PCIe 2.x x16 - 8 GB/s (80 GT/s)
PCIe 3.x x16 - 16 GB/s (128 GT/s)
(per direction)

(of course if your expansion bus on your mobo is PCIe 3.0)

Reading this now :
http://news.softpedia.com/news/PCI-...intless-Even-with-Radeon-HD-7970-242421.shtml

this is actually all new to me as well, wasn't covered on the exams I took. I'm learning about this now, still have more places to look for information though


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## iEvo

sidrenwada said:


> Looking into the HD7970 and i see it has PCI 3.0 just wondering what the benefits are and how much they are?
> 
> Thanks


The 7970 doesn't have a PCIe 3.0, your motherboard does.

About the PCIe 2.1 vs 3.0. I think the 3.0 has a higher bandwidth than the 2.1 slot. The higher end GPU's require a 3.0 PCIe slot, but the lower-mid end GPU's require a 2.1 or 2.0.

Also, what do you mean? How much is the GPU or a motherboard with a 3.0 PCIe slot?


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## sidrenwada

hmmm interesting good to know so no point to get to PCI 3.0 yet?


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## TekMaster

> About the PCIe 2.1 vs 3.0. I think the 3.0 has a higher bandwidth than the 2.1 slot


Look at my above post.



> The higher end GPU's require a 3.0 PCIe slot


I'm pretty sure PCIe 3.0 is not required, but optimizes performance

@sidrenwada - not quite sure about that just yet, sorry I couldn't be of more help. I was just going by what that one article said and I know I should never do that.


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## sidrenwada

its ok i was just curious  thanks


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## claptonman

It wouldn't be a bad idea to get it for future proofing. And graphics cards today don't utilize the full bandwidth of x16 so you can still use it for the newer graphics cards until they get fast, which won't be for a while.


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## sidrenwada

great thanks


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