Hey folks! I'm in the process of upgrading my graphics card because my old 1660 8GB is failing, and it's struggling to run Le Mans Ultimate, which is quite demanding. I'm looking at two options for new GPUs: the RX 7600 XT 16GB and the RX 9060 XT 16GB. My motherboard is an Asus TUF Gaming B450 Plus II, so I know it's a bit outdated. My main concern is compatibility since my motherboard uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while these graphic cards are PCIe 4.0 and 5.0. Will they work together? I also have a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, but I'm planning to upgrade to a series 7 soon, so that part isn't a big deal for me.
2 Answers
Yes, PCIe is backwards compatible! So even if you install a Gen 5 GPU onto a Gen 3 motherboard, it will work, but just at the slower bus speed. A card designed to run at x16 speeds will still perform better even on an older PCIe bus.
As everyone has mentioned, PCIe is indeed backwards compatible. If you plug a Gen 5 card into a Gen 3 slot, it may be a bit slower, but you likely won't notice a significant difference in performance for gaming.
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