Start a Conversation

Unsolved

This post is more than 5 years old

8872

March 2nd, 2005 16:00

Is "64-bit PCI" the same as "PCIe / PCI Express?"

I need to add a 2nd video card, and all my regular PCI slots are used up.  The User Guide for the Precision 530 says I have two "64-bit PCI" slots.  However, I can't find any boards called "64-bit PCI" at the stores.  I do see a bunch of "PCI Express" or "PCIe" cards...will those work in these slots?

525 Posts

March 2nd, 2005 23:00

The 530 workstation motherboard only contains one Graphics Slot:AGP 4X.

The other PCI & PCI64 slots are designed for other cards: Sound Card, SCSI Controller and so forth. You cannot add another graphics card; you can purchase a graphics card that will allow you to install two monitors to one card (Dual DVI/VGA, you can even purchase AGP 8x & AGP 50 cards and they will work with the 530 WS; but that’s it.

The PCI Express card is for new motherboards that support PCI Express; the AGP/PCI-E technologies are not reciprocal:

Even with the new Workstation 670 you have the option to use the PCI Express slot or a re-wired version of the AGP 4x, but not both at the same time.

To my knowledge only motherboards embedded with the NVIDIA SLI chipset, the board contains two PCI Express slots, can have two graphics card installed and work simultaneously as one graphics card; but the technology only works with cards manufactured with the NVIDIA SLI Multi-GPU designation.

April 6th, 2005 16:00

Whoa there horsey! There's no mention of SLi in the question.
 
Tyler,
 
64 Bit PCI-x Slots CAN take normal 32 Bit 33Mhz PCI cards.
 
Nvidia make a GEForce 5200 PCI card, these cards are very cheap right now, and providing you have an nvidia AGP card you should be okay. I'll dig out my old PCI MX440 and try it in my Precision 650 to make sure it works ok.
 
PCI Express (PCI-e) cards will NOT work in these slots, they are a completely different technology.
 
SLi only allows you to have the GFX processing split across 2 Graphics cards, this is NOT needed for desktop use. Some Xeon motherboards such as supermicro DO allow the use of two PCI-e cards to be run without the nvidia SLi technology.
 
Khaos

Message Edited by MajorKhaos on 04-06-2005 12:42 PM

No Events found!

Top