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I am building another machine and want to swap video cards. The newer machine is just for certain things and I want to take the video card I have from my other machine I built in Dec. and put it in my newer machine because my older machine is for more heavy duty things. It is a 7900 GS PCIe and the new board will have PCIe 2.0. Will that work in this board? If so, what would be a good card to use for my board now that is the old standard PCIe under $125? Will the new 2.0 standard work in my board or is it best to look for a card that is of the old standard 1.1? The new card will be running a 24" 1900x1200 monitor.

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Dani AI

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Short answer: a PCI Express 2.0 motherboard will accept an older PCIe card and vice‑versa — the link negotiates to the slower side so the card runs, though the connection will operate at the lower generation’s speed. (pcisig.com)

For a 24" widescreen display, confirm the card can drive the panel at native resolution using a dual‑link DVI or DisplayPort output; single‑link DVI is limited in bandwidth and may not guarantee full native resolution/refresh on all monitors. Check the video connector type stamped on the card and the monitor’s spec. (en.wikipedia.org)

Regarding stream/ shader counts: raw counts alone aren’t a cross‑vendor performance metric. Architecture, shader clock, memory bus width and bandwidth, ROP/TMU counts, driver maturity and real‑world benchmarks normally matter more than a simple SP/CUDA‑core number. Use comparative benchmarks for the target workloads (games or apps) rather than only looking at the shader tally. (newegg.com)

Quick checklist and practical steps before swapping the card (addresses the points raised by ):

  • Verify power: confirm the PSU has the right PCIe power plug(s) and sufficient wattage (6‑pin vs 8‑pin differences). (corsair.com)
  • Driver cleanup: remove existing GPU drivers (best done before power‑off and card swap; tools like DDU are commonly used for a clean uninstall). (wagnardsoft.com)
  • Physical fit: measure case clearance and check slot/IO bracket alignment.
  • Post‑install: install the correct vendor driver and, if needed, update the motherboard BIOS/options that affect integrated graphics or PCIe settings.

These checks prevent the usual swap pitfalls (missing power connector, driver conflicts, connector bandwidth limits).

Member Avatar for Member #23858

How important are the stream processors?
The visiontek 4850 has 800 where many of the GTX and + have only 112.

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