PCIe 4.0 and 3.0
PCIe 4.0 and 3.0
Hi, asking a colleague. Would a PCIe 3.0 GPU fit on a motherboard supporting PCIe 4.0? I understand that a PCIe 4.0 GPU can run on a board with PCIe 3.0, which caps performance at the PCIe 3.0 capabilities. Looking forward to your reply. Best regards, Martin
PCI Express 4.0 supports both forward and backward compatibility.
PCIe supports backward compatibility from its earliest days. I'm able to use a recent Radeon VII in PCIe 3.0 slots, PCIe 2.0 slots, and with a PCIe or PCIe 4.0 board it would work too. The main variation is performance. A PCIe 2.0 x16 might limit my card, PCIe 3.0 x16 won't restrict any GPU available today (even the 2080 Ti or Titan RTX), and PCIe 4.0 x16 is probably unnecessary for current hardware.