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Is there a noticeable difference between pci-e 1.0 and pci-e 2.0? Or is it just hype from the manufacturers. Also, can i put a 1.0 card in a 2.0 slot, and vice versa? Thanks for your help.

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Short answer: PCI‑Express 2.0 is a real, measurable step up from 1.0 — it doubles the raw per‑lane transfer rate — and yes, a 1.0 card will generally work in a 2.0 slot (and vice‑versa); the link simply negotiates to the lower generation. ’s short recommendation to “go 2.0” is sensible if you want a bit of future proofing.
PCI Express — Wikipedia. (en.wikipedia.org)

Concrete numbers: PCIe 1.x runs at 2.5 GT/s (about 250 MB/s usable per lane after 8b/10b encoding), so an x16 link gives ~4 GB/s each direction (≈8 GB/s aggregate). PCIe 2.0 runs at 5 GT/s (≈500 MB/s per lane), so x16 ≈ 8 GB/s each direction (≈16 GB/s aggregate). That doubling is the main technical difference.
PCIe technology overview — Microchip. (microchip.com)

Practical impact: for most single‑GPU gaming and desktop use in the 2007–2009 era there was little real‑world difference — many reviews and benches found no meaningful frame‑rate gains from Gen2 on single cards. PCIe 2.0 becomes useful for multi‑GPU setups, very high‑bandwidth RAID/NICs or GPU compute workloads where link bandwidth matters. If you’re buying new hardware and prices are similar, pick 2.0. (anandtech.com)

Practical tips if mixing generations: update the motherboard BIOS, check the manual for slot lane counts and any slot power notes, confirm external power connectors on cards, and test the card in another slot/system if it isn’t detected. Note that later revisions (PCIe 2.1 and beyond) introduced some power/management changes that caused occasional compatibility headaches on very old motherboards, so verify vendor docs for edge cases. (en.wikipedia.org)

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oops, i posted it in the wrong forum by mistake (thought it was the add in card forum) would a moderator move it to the right place please?

Member Avatar for Member #409883

Did you ever get an answer to your query?

In short, it's worth going with 2.0.

Small issues fixed, and improved, but at the end of the day PCI-E is going to be around for a while, if you can make sure it's future proof as possible, might aswell.

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