I read that article you have sent me Phill and I actually found some conflicting information on it. The author states : "While it is true that PCI SIG while developing PCI express slots made sure that they remain compatible with each other, it is the GRAPHIC CARD manufactures (i.e Nvidia & AMD) and the sub vendors (Saffire, Zotac, EVGA etc) that really make the difference!
We all know that the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series is extremely power efficient. Having said that it comes at a cost. This power efficiency comes due to the new electrical interface featured in PCIe v3.0 and 2.0 slots and is ABSENT in PCIe v1.1 slots. Hence they are NOT COMPATIBLE.
Sources of proof: Online interaction with Sapphire technical staff
Online interaction with AMD technical staff
Personal interaction with technical staff from MSI
They all clearly stated that that PCIe v3.0 cards are not compatible with v1.1
Further to prove their point MSI was even kind enough to provide a reference card they had with them, i.e the HD 7850 and it did not work on my computer's motherboard featuring PCIe x16 v1.1 slot. Just to make sure I installed the card correctly I placed another card from Nvidia i.e GTX 560 onto the board that I got from a friend and everything worked flawlessly." He goes on to state later on "So to most of the people who own the motherboards having chipset X38 and latter you have both AMD and Nvidia choices open to you.
But to the few people like myself owning a motherboards with G41 and previous chipsets the only solution seems to be Nvidia."
This motherboard I have actually has a chipset of
Chipset Northbridge – Intel G41 Southbridge – Intel ICH7R
When I go to
http://en.wikipedia...._Intel_chipsets and press CTRL+F on my keyboard to search the page I type in G41 to get this:
Chipset G41.
Code Name EagleLake(G)
Part numbers 82g41(GMCH
South Bridge ICH7
Release Date 2008.9
Processors Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Duo
Process support Support for 45nm
Hardware Virtualization No
FSB 800/1066/1333 MHz Memory types DDR3 800/1066
DDR2 667/800 Max. memory 4 GB
8 GB Parity/ECC No/No
Graphics
- 1 PCI Express 16× 1.1
- Integrated GMA X4500 graphics
He goes on to state "remember the PCIe 2.1 is exactly similar to PCIe 3.0 and the only difference is the 'Bandwidth'"
Kind of conflicting even though the MSI Hawk 5770 is a 2.1 and the motherboard slot is 1.1 and still worked when it states the 2.1 is exactly similar as the 3.0. But hey, since my MSI Hawk 5770 2.1 worked in the 1.1, I am going to be safe to say the 2.0 will work in the 1.1 since the 3450 was a 2.0 and it came with the PC when I bought it.
Edited by heartgrave, 06 August 2013 - 12:52 PM.