After mixing the appropriate amount of knowledge and peer pressure during the LAN, I have ordered this card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150455
I seem to have forgotten if PCI express 2.0 means anything new? Was there a 1.0?
Will my mobo that currently holds an 8800 GTS be able to accept this card? Of course I don't remember what mobo I have. I'll look in the forums.

Found the system specs.


I found a mobo spec page.
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherbo ... YPE=LGA775
This could be in Klingon and I would not know. Can anyone translate?

Since your MB doesn't post a version it most likely is 1.0. However, from wikipedia:

"PCIe 2.0 cards are also generally backward compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards, using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1. Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v 2.0 will be able to work with the other being v 1.1 or v 1.0."

So it should work.

This was from your page. If I saw this at 1st glance, I would say your board isnt 2.0. They are saying PCI Express, but notice they didnt say, PCI-E 2.0

I am betting that it may fit in the slot, but the card would be down clocked to run at lower speeds, thus defeating some of the benifits. To clarify, I would google the mobo name and the word "compatible radeon 5850"... Ill see what it turns up...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

I need to blame someone for my lack of research and today it's Med!

I really wouldn't worry, it might be theoretically be slightly slower then it would be with a PCI-E 2.0 MB but it will still be significantly faster then the card you have now. Most video cards don't come close to saturating the bandwidth, I doubt real world testing would show much of a difference.

And next year if you feel like upgrading again you can throw a new MB + Proc + Ram in and use your same video card.

Sorry to call you out here but your explanation is wrong. The card will NOT be down clocked or underclocked as said. The card will operate at normal speed and function on the card level, the only slow down or downclock MIGHT come if the card processes more data than the PCIe 1.X slot can process on a clock cycle however the 5850 included, no current video cards get close to capping out the PCIE 1.x bandwidth.

http://www.10stripe.com/featured/quick/ ... ss-2-0.php

Should clear it up for you, however a couple of nuggets of information...

PCIe 2.0 is intended to be 100% forward compatible. Any PCIe 2.0 card should work in any PCIe 1.x motherboard. Again the link speed will be limited by the slower part, and will have to clock down to the slower PCIe 1.x speed. Because the card expects to have more bandwidth available, this could cause a loss of performance (as of this writing that loss is purely theoretical, as no commercial cards can saturate a x16 PCIe 1.x link). (the 5850 can barely saturate a 8x PCIE 1.x slot and by barely I mean less than a 5% performance loss)

Another more recent explaination:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/27118 ... ed-express

The 5850 is a screaming card and you will notice a huge performance increase from it. Nothing will be down clocked with this card.


I still love ya TKC, but had to call you out here for misinformation.

To borrow my new favorite phrase.... Negative Nellie!

Razz beat me to it.

No card comes even close to PCIx 1.0 bandwidth.

Just like no HD comes close to SATA 150 spec... but we are forging on past the SATA300 spec..

I fired up BFBC2, and it does run decent on my 8800 gt.... i am waffling on buying an 5850....the prices seem to be going up on them. They debuted in Oct at around the $270 price point. Now they are averaging $309

Dude you TOTALLY missed my point! I was being a POSITIVE PETE for you buying a new rocking card! Can I help it if TKC was being a Deceptive Donny offering you false information?

-Razzious the Positive Poop

So.. instead of the verbage "betting" that the "card" being clocked down.. you updated to say the "link" on the card will be clocked down. I am so pwnd. Nevus.. you catch the difference?

I will let you absolutely and completely PWN me verbally again, but it will cost you anther Ribeye at the next lan!!! (thunder and lightning)

Prices remain high b/c of supply and demand. TSMC hasn't perfected the 40nm fab process to make these GPUs. Demand is also high and Nvidia doesn't have a competing part.

Anyway it is a good choice and excellent upgrade from what you have Nevus.

Make sure you power supply has the juice to power it.

-Razzious the Positive Poop

So.. instead of the verbage "betting" that the "card" being clocked down.. you updated to say the "link" on the card will be clocked down. I am so pwnd. Nevus.. you catch the difference?

I will let you absolutely and completely PWN me verbally again, but it will cost you anther Ribeye at the next lan!!! (thunder and lightning)[/quote

My response was a little heavy so I am gonna back off. I will however pay for that Ribeye with the Money you "bet" at the Poker table, because that bet went about as well as the one here about video cards...

BOOM BACK ATCHA!

I begrudgingly accept your spending of the money I parted with. Dang... I'm starting to like this pwnage. WOOT!