IP35 Pro + PCi-EX 2

[Hazardz]

Now i have been looking to buy this mobo and i am wondering if the main 16x pci-ex channel is compatable with pci-ex 2 gfx in the future.


This question has appeared on the Asus support site which says pci-ex2 cards need a pci-ex 1.1 slot for the card to be recongnized. Now i looked on the Abit site and it says the X16 channel for the x16 slot is a n RX850 chipset .

Now when i looked here that chipset comes up as being a pci-ex 1.0a version which would make the mobo incompatable with a pci-ex2 card?

I know i am out of my depth in this field and pretty confused so i asked a friend who has this mobo to look in the bios where he found a choice for switching the pci-ex bus from 1.0 > 1.0a but no 1.1.

All i am really after is a definitive answer as to whether the primary pci-ex slot in this mobo will be compatable with pci-ex 2 cards in the future like i believed all P35 mobos would be.

P.s. I did originally post links to where i had found the information but this being my first post i am not allowed them, trying to stop viagra salesman i suppose

[Tetras]

Are you sure you are not getting confused between PCI-Express X2 and PCI-Express 2.0?

The next generation of high end graphics cards may be PCI-Express 2.0 as well as future motherboards (Intel X38 chipset?) and old graphics cards should be compatible with future motherboards.

The other way around (PCI-Express 2.0 graphics with PCI-Express 1.x motherboards) I'm not 100% sure but I would have thought they will be, two articles of interest:

Q5: Then PCIe 2.0 must be backward compatible with PCIe 1.1 and 1.0?
A5: Yes. The PCIe Base 2.0 specification supports both the 2.5GT/s and 5GT/s signaling technologies. A device designed to the PCIe Base 2.0 specification may support 2.5GT/s, 5GT/s or both. However, a device designed to operate specifically at 5GT/s must also support 2.5GT/s signaling.

http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs/pcie2.0_faq/

It is quite evident that PCI Express 2.0 interface is backward compatible with the previous version. However, will the owners of older mainboards be able to use PCI Express 2.0 graphics cards? Luckily, PCI-SIG gave a positive answer to this question: "new PCIe 2.0 adapters running at 5.0 GT/S can plug into existing PCIe slots and run at the slower rate of 2.5 GT/S".

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainboa...817093804.html

Though Xbit do also go on to say:

Nevertheless, there may still exist some compatibility issues between the contemporary mainboards and upcoming graphics solutions.

The concerns of which are centered on custom technology that Asus implemented on a P35 "Blitz" board to allow 8X/8X operation (instead of 16X/4X Crossfire).

[Hazardz]

Thank you. Looks like i was getting mixed up with the 1.1 channel that the crosslinx chip creates.