Pcie 3.0 video card in a pcie motherboard slot showing up as pcie 2.0 :(

[Tonyctattoo]

Ok so I built my new computer today and I put my new 7870 in my pcie 3.0 slot and in catalyst driver software it's showing up as pcie 2.0 which isn't a big deal as long as the cards still fast but I was wondering why this might be happening?

[jmacphee9]

what processor do you have? i dont believe sandy bridge processors support pci 3

[glo]

More than likely power saving on the motherboard's part. 7870 doesn't come anywhere close to PCIe 2 speeds anyway, so it isn't like you would see an increase or decrease.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

If you do not have an Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge Extreme (some motherboards) processor, your graphics card will run in PCI-E 2.0 instead of 3.0

You wouldn't notice the difference while gaming either way, only a very select few configurations can actually cap out PCI-E 2.0 16x (and a single 7870 isn't one of them).

Graphics cards also temporarily downscale to lower PCI-E specifications while not under any load to save power and reduce heat generation.

[Tonyctattoo]

Ivy bridge i5 3550

---------- Post added 2012-09-28 at 03:12 PM ----------

If you do not have an Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge Extreme (some motherboards) processor, your graphics card will run in PCI-E 2.0 instead of 3.0

You wouldn't notice the difference while gaming either way, only a very select few configurations can actually cap out PCI-E 2.0 16x (and a single 7870 isn't one of them).

Graphics cards also temporarily downscale to lower PCI-E specifications while not under any load to save power and reduce heat generation.

That makes sense, yeah it's not a performance issue I was just very curious about it..