PCI Express

[Barrabas]

I'm planning to build a system sometime at the end of February - early March. I'm wondering what we know about PCI Express at the moment. I've read the tech articles on it, but I'm wondering if we have any idea when it will be released en masse and how quickly the video card distributors will release products for it. I'm thinking that if I can expect a big performance increase I might wait to build my system. But if it isn't worth it that I'd rather do it sooner than later.

Anybody have ideas about timing, performance, or price?

Thanks

 

[us3rnotfound]

I'm thinking Q4 of this year.

 

[Slogun]

In-Stat/MDR market research reports that PCI express technology should be hitting the market by the 2nd quarter of 2004.

 

[ViRGE]

Slogun is correct; it'll go mainstream with Intel's new chipsets in April, and be availible slightly before that when VIA introduces a new P4 chipset to beat Intel to the punch.

 

[Sureshot324]

agp 8x already provides much more bandwidth than todays graphics cards need, so I doubt pci express will be any faster initially, unless you have other pci cards that need a lot of bandwidth.

 

[NyQuilDriver]

Sorry for the newbish question, but is PCI Express the same thing as PCI-X? I read the article on anandtech and they make it sound like they're different, but I had originally thought they were the same. Could someone fill me in?

 

[CJP]

Originally posted by: NyQuilDriver
Sorry for the newbish question, but is PCI Express the same thing as PCI-X? I read the article on anandtech and they make it sound like they're different, but I had originally thought they were the same. Could someone fill me in?

No, PCI-Express is different from PCI-X. I think PCI-X is already being used in servers. The shortform for PCI-Express that I've seen used in forums is PCI-E but I don't know if that's the official shortform.

 

[NyQuilDriver]

So if somebody's mentioning a new PCI standard that will be in desktops are we talking PCI-X or PCI-Express? Or could either possibly be used in regular ole desktops?

Thanks in advance

 

[Pariah]

There are multiple variations of PCI-X that have been around for a few years in servers and workstations. PCI-Express is the new standard that will likely migrate into all fields eventually, though the desktop appears to be the intial proving grounds.

 

[Matthias99]

PCI-X (the naming of which was INCREDIBLY DUMB) is a 64-bit PCI standard. It's fairly widely used in servers, and you can even find the slots in some desktop motherboards.

PCI Express (ie, PCI-E) is an entirely new, much faster, totally unrelated standard which will be replacing PCI, PCI-X, and AGP in both desktop and server systems over the next few years.

 

[BoomAM]

FYI.
VIAs next gen chipsets, for both AMD & Intel, support AGP, PCI, PCI-E, PCI-E16 all on the same chipset. So we could be seeing manufacturers making mobos with all types of slot on, to help people ease into the transistion.

 

[Matthias99]

Right; PCI-E is designed specifically to make it easy to bridge regular PCI devices onto it, and it's not too tough to stick an AGP device on there either (much like AMD does now bridging AGP over HyperTransport). You'll likely see motherboards for several years that support some combination of both the newer and older cards at the same time.

And the next person who calls PCI Express "PCI-X" is getting bitch-slapped. I'm getting sick of it.

 

[MangoTBG]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Right; PCI-E is designed specifically to make it easy to bridge regular PCI devices onto it, and it's not too tough to stick an AGP device on there either (much like AMD does now bridging AGP over HyperTransport). You'll likely see motherboards for several years that support some combination of both the newer and older cards at the same time.

And the next person who calls PCI Express "PCI-X" is getting bitch-slapped. I'm getting sick of it.

Don't believe anyone called PCI Express, PCI-X. He simply asked for the two to be clarified. Thank you, have a nice day.

 

[Matthias99]

Sorry, thought someone had in this thread. He *was* just asking for clarification (although he initially thought they were the same!)

I've noticed it consistently on *several* forums over the last 6 months, and it's very annoying.

 

[WackyDan]

MAY... Least with the Tier 1 manufacturers and with the 915 chipset.

 

[Zinn2b]

SIS also has pci express that well be released soon. Man I was really excited about this at first and read everthing I could on it. But as I gained more understanding of it . I came to understand this is really not such a big deal the ideal behind it was to releave the bottle neck of the pci bus but the M/B manufactors have already done this to a degree . AS to ans your Ques. know I would not wait it well be at least 2 years befor GPU can take full advantage of the AGP 8x. Its the same as.The sata deal its not that big a deal because the harddrives that exist can't run at those speeds yet and it well be some time before they can.NOW if you are looking for something that everybody well be raving about in 2months it well not be PCI express. This is it and it well be really cool and the very best for all of this year and into next.Thats this SIS has released the 659 chipset that well use Rdram1200.1200MGz of pure speed.Asus well release the
P4S13G M/B soon this setup with the Prescott CPU is going to be the talk of the industry and it may also come with PCI express thats really know big deal as I already explained. But this set up as I stated Well be the big dog for the rest of this year into next.........................