PCI Express 1.0, 2 or 3?

I believe the 256 Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT video card in my HP Slimline s3300T has died. I would like to replace it, but most graphics cards these days specify they are PCI Express 2.0, 2.1 or 3.0 etc. How can I verify if my motherboard will support that card? The specs from the HP site is not clear, and I wouldn't want to buy a 2.0 card if the board can only support 1.0

HP Slimline s3300T: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docnam...

Motherboard Specs: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docnam...

This is a Media PC and the sole purpose is to supply Blu-Ray and streaming video to a TV. The new graphics card just has to have HDMI, doesn't need anything fancy. Just want to make sure it'll work before I buy.

I purchased the machine in Feb 2008, perhaps that will help determine what PCI may be available?

Comments

  • PCI-E are backward compatible as far as i know. they will only run at the PCI-E version of your board.

  • It is a pci-e 2.0 slot.

    Pci-e 3.0 didnt come about until 2010.

    As far as graphics cards are concerned as long as your card is also 2.0 you shouldnt have any issues at all. The only difference betweent the 3 types are that the data aggregation and transfer is faster. 2.0 is almost industry standard now and 3.0 is still new and unused by many graphics cards.

    Good thing for us gamers majority of all of the pci-e graphics cards are backwards compatible. So even if you got a card that said it was 3.0 it would still work in a 2.0 slot (pci-e x16) it just would only run at the 2.0 speed instead of the 3.0 speed (pci-e x32) of the card.

  • Your problem isn't the PCI-Express slot. Those are physically identical. It's the size of the card, given that you have a slim case, look for a low-profile card.

    There are some of those made for 6670s, but you might be able to manage a 7750 as well.

Sign In or Register to comment.