Graphic Card Question Buy or Wait?

[vegettoxp]

Hey Guys, I was just getting read to to buy the Nvidia G-Force 8800GTS 640MB EVGA Graphic Card, but I ran into an interesting article online. It was saying that in Q4 Nvidia plans to release the GeForce 8 Series in PCI-E 2.0 Version. And of course GeForce 9 Series will be PCI-E 2.0 Ready For Sure.

I was just wondering should I get the Graphic Card now or should I wait for the GeForce 8 Series to be PCI-E 2.0. If I have to wait I can wait, but I just wanted to get your guys opinion on this. I just bought me the Samsung 226CW last me and that LCD is off the Hook. I am really having alot of fun with the LCD.

So if you guys can share your opinion on this, it would really help me out. Thank you for all your help.

P.S. Fusion

[jcarle]

Don't forget your motherboard must be PCI-Express 2.0 as well

[Zxian]

What I'm wondering is what devices we have today that actually need PCI-E 2.0. Most graphics cards today don't even make use of the 16 lanes that they're given, so why should we need more. From what I understand, PCI-E 2.0 ports will be backwards compatible with current PCI-E, so your graphics card today will work in X38 based motherboards (speculatively speaking).

[puntoMX]

Plans are that nVidia will release there PCI-E 2.0 cards and chipsets in November.

I don’t think it will make much difference with the first PCI-E 2.0 and the PCI-E cards; you will pay more and get almost no performance gains out of it. Wait some 9 months I would say if you want to go with PCI-E 2.0, but I’m sure you want to use it when the latest games come out in November so I would buy that card when you want it (the no PCI-E 2.0 version), if not now.

[weEvil]

you will pay more and get almost no performance gains out of it.

That's what they said about AGP.

[puntoMX]

you will pay more and get almost no performance gains out of it.

That's what they said about AGP.

In general all new stuff isn’t interesting when you look at the price performance ratio. I could be wrong but let´s see in November .

[ripken204]

just get the 8800GTS 640mb. waiting always sucks. i didnt feel like waiting 4-5 more months for the 9800 so i just decided to pick up an 8800GTS 320mb, it was well worth it.

[nmX.Memnoch]

What I'm wondering is what devices we have today that actually need PCI-E 2.0. Most graphics cards today don't even make use of the 16 lanes that they're given, so why should we need more. From what I understand, PCI-E 2.0 ports will be backwards compatible with current PCI-E, so your graphics card today will work in X38 based motherboards (speculatively speaking).

There's other enhancements and fixes in PCIe 2.0 then just the bandwidth increases. Notice that we haven't seen any PCIe sound cards yet? There's supposedly a timing/packet overhead issue that PCIe 2.0 corrects and will allow for sound cards to work properly on PCIe.

Now I know you're probably saying "but it's just a sound card!". And while you're right...I'd love to have a system with no PCI cards in it. Think of PCI as the old ISA bus (for those of you old enough to remember that). Right now my system only has one PCI card...and that's my Audigy 2 ZS.

- BFG GeForce 7900GT 512MB PCIe X16

- Intel PRO/1000 PT PCIe X1 NIC

- Belkin FireWire 800/USB PCIe X1 Controller

- Integrated JMicron SATA/PATA PCIe X1 Controller

- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZX PCI Sound Card

I kinda lucked out when I ordered my stuff because the Intel PCIe NIC had just hit the market. Everything has it's own dedicated bandwidth thanks the PCIe and only having the one device on the PCI bus.

[jcarle]

...the old ISA bus (for those of you old enough to remember that)...

I remember IBM's attempt at PCI with MicroChannel Architecture (MCA). Now THAT was something special and rare!

[Zxian]

@Memnoch - Fair enough. It is a nice thing not to share bandwidth, but I think what most people will emphasise about PCIe 2.0 is the increased speed. It's like everything in this world... FASTER IS BETTER!!! (even when it isn't)

My workstation still has an ISA slot. B)

[nmX.Memnoch]

To be fair though...the industry was blamed for the PCI bus becoming the choke point when devices started to use more bandwidth. And now that they're trying to stay ahead of the curve they're being blamed for devices not using all of the available bandwidth. So they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Just because we aren't using the extra bandwidth doesn't mean it's better. Would you rather have more than enough or not enough? Personally, I opt for more than I need in regards to device bandwidth.

I do agree with you though...it'll be heavily marketed just because it's faster, which isn't necessarily the entire reason for the spec change. I view the additional bandwidth as an added bonus. Hopefully this will be what's needed to reverse the current "4xPCI and 2xPCIe X1" slot configuration to something like "4xPCIe X1 and 2xPCI" slot configurations. Maybe we can even start seeing some X4 slots on enthusiast boards. That would be nice for running both SLI/Xfire and a nice true hardware SATA RAID controller.

[Zxian]

Or... we can all get boards like the Wall Street Quartet...

I actually considered that for my file server setup....

[nmX.Memnoch]

Not bad but that brings me to another point. Why can't they just add enough lanes so that all the slots are electrically X16 instead of splitting it up? You have two options for that board...x8/x8/x4/x8 or x16/x0/x4/x0. Still, it would provide more than adequate performance for current PCIe cards.

[Zxian]

Haha - 64 lanes would be sick...

/me wants.

[Polarman]

I'd wait at least a full year. Leave them time to fix and tune it. All new stuff come with new bugs.