For example, installing a PCIe 3.0 x16 graphics card into a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot on your motherboard would be ideal. To reach the most optimal performance, both the PCIe slot and expansion card have to be the same generation. More specifically, PCIe 3.0 offers 0.985 GB/s per PCIe lane, and PCIe 2.0 provides a bandwidth of 0.50 GB/s per PCIe lane. The main difference between PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 is that the newer 3.0 version has doubled the available bandwidth of the predecessor. If you want to know what can be plugged into PCIe Slots, read here. Beginner PC builders can have trouble making sense of all the confusing annotations and numbers.įor this reason, I’ll explain precisely what PCIe slots are and help you make the most out of your computer in this in-depth guide. As you’re looking to upgrade your PC, you may have been confused about PCIe and all the different versions.
