Looking for an upgrade card but a bit confused about the generation/pcie version.

some cards have 2.1, some have 3.0.  my computer specifications just lists a PCI Express x16 slot without a generation number.  does the PCIE hardware have to match the card's generation number?  if not, how bad is the performance loss?

i currently have an HD6450 which is listed as generation 2.1

a bit dated after a year of use and now i'm considering upgrading my power supply to buy a generation 3.0 card.  should i stay with a generatoin 2.1 card?

 

What is your motherboard chipset, that'll tell you the PCIe version. 3.0 is backwards compatible all the way down, and when used in an 2.0 x16 slot, should have no speed detriment.

-------------------------
Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64

Thanks.  Checked the mainboard and it looks like I have a PCIE 2.0 slot.  There are several very good Radeon cards in this range that I can get.

Give us your system specs and we can give you some recommendations

-------------------------
Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64

dell inspiron 560

400 watt power supply (i'm willing to upgrade this to whatever necessary, so power is not an issue).

pentium dual core e6700 @3.2ghz

64 bit Win 7 home premium

8gb DRAM @532mhz

p45/p43/g45/g43 chipset supports PCIE-2.0

available slot PCI Express 2.0 x 16 (occupied by current card)

current gfx card AMD Radeon HD 6450 w/1gb memory

I have made no personal upgrades to this computer yet.  It's now a year and change old.

===============================

Trying to keep the overall cost of graphics card upgrade under $250 (not including the power supply).

Currently I'm considering the 6870 w/4gb memory and a 500-650 watt power supply.  That (according to Hardware Compare website) is theoretically ~7-8x better than what I currently have.

 

I don't see a problem with a 6870 if you get a Corsair 650w power supply.

-------------------------
Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64

Thanks.

It looks like with a little shopping around, I can fit a 2gb 6950 in my budget.

But I wonder if a 4gb 6870 would be better than a 2gb 6950 for a gaming setup?

 

Not unless you have 3 2560x1600 monitors. You might want to wait until the HD 8000 series is released, if nothing else they will depress prices on the 2 year old HD 6000 series even more.

-------------------------
Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64