What exactly is PCI Express?

  Im kind of tech savvy, but havent heard of PCI express until someone mentioned it on a thread. Do i need a new motherboard when it comes, is it faster than normal PCI, i also heard it replaces AGP cards(that true?). Any info would be great.

Most of the PCI ports are actually running at 33MHz.
They are 32bits bus at 33MHz, so they have 133MBytes/s bandwidth.
You then have 64 bits PCI, that doubles the BW. (usually found only on server boards)
You have PCI-X, that can run up to 133MHz (32 or 64 bits), but it is usually reserved for server also.
AGP is a special purpose bus that runs at 66MHz, with several transactions per clock (hence the x2, x4, x8).
PCI Express, formerly known as 3GIO (3rd generation Input/Output), is the next step. It is a serial interface (like SATA, USB, Firewire, hypertransport...) that runs at very high frequency.
PCI-Express will slowly replace the other interface (it is designed to be backward compatible with PCI, adding a smal supplementary connector), starting probably around Fall this year. However, very few peripherals require this kind of bandwidth (graphic card, Gb Ethernet...), so PCI will be around for quite some time. If history is proof, you can STILL find PCI graphic cards and ISA took YEARS to be taken off the motherboards... So, yes, the future graphic cards will probably be released for PCI-Express, but an AGP version will most probably be there too for some time (until it does not make sense anymore for economic and/or performance reasons).
Oh, and a last point to relativise those GHz talk for PCI-Express speed. SATA, at 150MBytes/s uses a 1.2GHz+ transfer speed. Designers are slowly shifting all the // buses to high speed serial.

Similar Messages

  • What exactly is Airport Express and AirTunes?

    Sounds like a system to send music wirelessly to any HiFi... Is that right and how does it work/what do I need? Would an audiophile be satisfied with the quality of sound? i.e. is this something that would be out of place on a high end audio system or more suited to the more usual integrated stereo systems?.
    I am using an Apple TV as a music source and just wondering whether the Airport is a possible alternative.
    Does the airport also transmit video?
    Thanks!

    Sounds like a system to send music wirelessly to any HiFi... Is that right and how does it work/what do I need?
    The AirPort Express Base Station (AX) is a combination NAT router, wireless access point, print server, and a target device to receive AirTunes audio streams.
    AirTunes uses the Remote Audio Access Protocol (RAOP) to stream music to the AX. RAOP is based on the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) but with an extra challenge-response based authentication step.
    For audio playback, you would need the following as a minimum:
    o An iTunes host with with either wired Ethernet or wirelessly capability.
    o Powered-speakers or an audio receiver with either analog RCA or digital/optical inputs.
    o Either a 3.5 mm minijack-to-dual RCA or a 3.5 mm TOSLINK cable.
    Would an audiophile be satisfied with the quality of sound? i.e. is this something that would be out of place on a high end audio system or more suited to the more usual integrated stereo systems?
    For the AX, the audio is handled by a Texas Instruments PCM2705 digital-to-analog converter which it outputs on a 3.5mm stereo minijack. However, the innermost end of the 3.5mm jack is an optical S/PDIF transmitter.
    The AX works only with iTunes v4.6+ and is limited to music files that iTunes can read; ie, 16-bit data only. (An exception is you can use a third-party product like Rogue Amoeba's AirFoil to stream other non-iTunes sources.) These data, though, can be in any file format that iTunes recognizes, from lossy MP3s at the low-quality end of the spectrum to Apple Lossless and lossless AIF or WAV files at the high end. It is also important to note that the AX functions only at a 44.1kHz sample rate. When you play 32kHz or 48kHz data, iTunes sample-rate-converts the data in real time before sending it to the AX.
    iTunes uses a QuickTime CODEC to convert audio files to Apple Lossless, and then, uses AirTunes to send them to the AX. In turn, the AX uses built-in software that converts the Apple Lossless to an Encoded Digital Audio format. From there, digital audio is sent to a optical transceiver to convert the electrical signal to an optical one before sending it to the innermost part of the audio port. For analog, the AX has a built-in DAC to convert the Encoded Digital Audio to Analog which is sent to the same audio port.
    I am using an Apple TV as a music source and just wondering whether the Airport is a possible alternative.
    Unlike the Apple TV, the AX has no means of storing audio content. It is only a "relay" between the iTunes host and the sound playback device. Note: With the latest firmware update, the Apple TV can now use AirTunes to stream to an AX.
    Does the airport also transmit video?
    No. There are no video CODECs built-in the AX.

  • What exactly is AirPort Express

    Ok this may sound silly but I've read the apple stores description of AirPort Express and am a bit confused, basically I have a windows desktop at home and also an iBook, my desktop is connected to BTYahoo Broadband via a USB modem my iBook has AirPort built in I believe as it picks up a wireless connection when I'm at work. What I want to know is would an AirPort Express allow me to plug my USB modem into my windows desktop and give me wireless access in my iBook at the same time? Does what I'm asking make sense?

    What you are asking does make sense - but things don't work quite as you described.
    What you need to do is replace your USB interface DSL modem with a "DSL gateway" that provides the ethernet interface required for connection to an Airport Express.
    I suggest you read these discussions:
    Ian Harris2, "Recommended UK adsl supplier?", 10:58am Jul 2, 2005 CDT
    J-Ro, "Recommendations - UK ADSL router for AirPort", 06:47am Sep 23, 2005 CDT

  • What exactly is airport express? does it replace having to have att or verizon internet?

    just curious how this gadget works and why or if i should get it? does it replace existing internet services?

    It is mainly a wireless router or can be used to extend an existing network from an Airport Extreme Base Station of Time Capsule. It does not replace services from your cable modem.

  • MSI G41TM-P31 PCI-EXPRESS X16

    Hello everyone,
    I am new here
    i wonder what version of pci express x16 my motherboard have> ( G41TM-P31 )
    I run on it an ati hd 4850 1gb
    and gpu-z tells me it runs at (pci ex16 1.1 @ 1.1 x16 )
    while other programs like AIDA 64 and hwinfo told me it runs at ( pci ex16 2.0 @1.1 x16)
    MY PROBLEM NOW ..
    i will upgrade my vga to  hd 7750 which support pci ex version 3.0
    i am afraid it will not run at my current mobo.
    i read that if my mobo support pci-ex 2.0 it will work ..
    and if it supports version 1.X , it will not work.
    SO I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE REAL VERSION OF PCI-EXPRESS X16 MY MOTHERBOARD SUPPORTS ?
    and if it supports version 2.0 why my 4850 run at 1.1 in power saving and high performance modes ??
    thanks in advance.

    Quote from: zizomania on 27-November-12, 04:43:00
    seems it is 1.1 :(
     > so how HWINFO & AIDA 64 says my motherboard support v 2.0
    and how i know that i have this model of g41 chipset (82G41) ?
    so ... 7750 will not boot with this motherboard ?
    It's v1.1 for sure.
    Now talking about your HD 7750 ...
    Nvidia GTX 560 is more powerful and it runs without any bottleneck on PCI Express 1.1
    The main problem with many AMD (PCI-E 3.0) graphics cards is that they are NOT backwards compatible.
    You need to test it and to see how it goes.

  • What is the BEST cable connection from Canopus ADVC 300 to Black Magic Intensity Pro HDMI PCI Express Capture Card?

    I must connect an ADVC 300 to a Black Magic Intensity Pro HDMI PCI Express Capture Card.   For best quality, which cable should I use?
    On the ADVC 300 there are outputs of firewire, S-VHS and RCA.
    On BMPro it's a little confusing. On the breakout cable there are connectors that say:
    -5 B-Y OUT
    -4 Y OUT
    -3-R-Y OUT
    -7-R-Y IN
    -8-Y IN
    -9 B-Y IN
    -15 AUDIO IN RIGHT
    -10 AES/EBU OUT
    -12 AUDIO LEFT OUT
    -14 AUDIO LEFT OUT
    -13 AUDIO RIGHT OUT
    With the BMPro, there is also a separate, shorter cable.  On one end it looks like S-VHS and on the other there are two connectors, one black and one blue.
    On the actual BMPro Express card strip instead of using the breakout cable, there is HDMI IN (and HDMI OUT). 
    How should I connect this?  Is there an adapter cable of FIREWIRE TO HDMI? 
    Any help is much appreciated. 

    Well, when I researched how best to digitize VHS (into Final Cut Pro 7), I learned two of the best devices to use are BMPro and Canopus ADVC 300.  I’m using the ADVC 300 for the built-in time base corrector.  I definitely want to use that to stabilize the video.  I also read how well BMPro improves image quality.  So, I thought to use the two together must produce outstanding quality (well, as good as VHS can be). 
    Perhaps I got confused into thinking I can use both.  But the BMPro appears to have an S-VHS adapter. 
    I guess I’m wondering what is better quality: 
    Run the firewire from the Canopus ADVC 300 converter directly into the firewire port on the Mac Pro
    Or, run an S-VHS cable from the Canopus ADVC 300 into the BMPro Capture card
    (I should mention that I have purchased all these items and already have the BMPro Card installed so at this point it’s not a cost issue, but rather an issue of simply which works best?)

  • What version is my PCI Express x1 slot?

    I have an HP Pavillion m9500t.  What PCI Express x1 version does this PC have?

    Hi:
    According to the chipset specs from Intel, it has a PCI express revision of 1.1.
    http://ark.intel.com/products/31914/Intel-82G33-Graphics-and-Memory-Controller

  • Ideacentre k330B Motherboard, CIH61M v1.0, what PCIe-express slot is it? 1,2 or 3?

    I have an Ideacentre K330B and the MoBo is CIH61M v1.0, I want my video card and i'm curioius as to what PCIe-Express slot it is. Is it PCIe-Express 1,2 or 3?

    There is no BIOS in OS X. There is only the EFI stored in ROM that is not user modifiable. OS X is probably checking Bay 0 for the boot drive since that is where it should be. It won't check the Tempo drive since it is treated like an external drive. I suggest you open Startup Disk preferences to see if the Tempo device is selected as the boot device. If it isn't, then select it. That will probably shave off a few seconds in the startup time.

  • How to get WHAT U HEAR option for PCI Express X-Fi Titanium sound card and Windows 7

    how to get WHAT U HEAR option for PCI Express X-Fi Titanium sound card and Windows 7 ? Is it on the basic driver? or do you have to install some other software?
    jane

    You have to install the rest of the software(s) for the sound card. The software is (if it is with the installation CD, though) called "Creative Smart Recorder" or something like that.

  • How do I get the "What u Hear" back in the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Aud

    When I right click on the recording the "what u hear" is no-where to be found, and is not present, is this fuction no-longer? available in the lastest PCI Express X-FI Xtreme Audio card in Vista? I can't seem to find it anywhere, it's not disabled or hidden it's just gone
    any help would be nice?

    I just found out that the "what u hear" function is not supported in the Creavti've Sound Blaster PCI Express X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card
    however, I, was able to get this to work (here's what I did) for a work-around
    . I used a /8 stereo y-adapter and connected it to the speaker output, on the X-fi card,
    2. then used the on-board REALTEK sound cards imput jack,
    3. by doing this I now have the REALTEK Stereo Mix and the REALTEK line-in as the "what u hear" option, this will only work if you
    have an on-board sound card
    so now I can record everything I hear on my PC, streaming audio, ect. I hope this helps anyone who's bought this card and doesn't have the "what u hear" recording option as this function is NO LONGER supported by Creative...................here's what I got in my email form the Creative support team about this issue:
    <pre>Thank you for contacting Creative Technical Support Services; we
    appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
    >From your descriptions, you are having issue with getting the "What U
    Hear" option to show up on Vista System. I apologize for any
    inconveniences this issue is causing you. Let me see what I can do to
    assist you.
    For your information, The What U Hear recording option is not supported
    for Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Series in Vista.
    If you still require assistance, please reply to this email with any
    previous correspondence to ensure the quickest and most accurate
    service.
    Again, I apologize for the issue you are facing. Thank you again for
    contacting us at Creative Technical Support.
    Best Regards,
    **advisor**
    Technical Support
    Creative Labs Americas</pre>Message Edited by denb45 on 09-26-2008 08:05 AM
    Message Edited by denb45 on 09-26-2008 08:09 AM[color="#999999"> [color="#000000"]**Admin notes: Pls removed the name of advisor/s when posting such msg - Richard-CLMessage Edited by Richard-CL on <span class='local-date'> 09-26-2008<span class='local-time'> :33 PM

  • New PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio (non Fatal1ty), what's the differen

    Here is the link for this apparently new PCIe sound card
    http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=&CatName=Sound+Blaster&s ubCatID=208&subCatName=X-Fi&prodID=7926&prodName=PCI+Express+Sound+Blaster+ X-Fi+Titanium+Professional+Audio
    I would like to know what's the difference between this one and the <span class="mainlink">Fatalty.
    Message Edited by enb4 on 07-24-2008 09:06 PM

    Thanks for the update although this I had personally worked this out myself. Surely this card is to be released globally soon as it has started to pop up in stores available for pre-order. Any ideas on the release date and what will be the differences?
    I have tried to compare it to the <span class="text">Fatalty version to find no difference other than cosmetic. I even went into the FAQ page only to get this:
    [url="http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=54538">X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio vs. X-Fi Titanium Fataty series[/url]X-Fi Titanium Professional series is targeted for audiophiles while X-Fi Titanium Fatalty series are targeted for gamers.
    I am sorry but I seriously do not find that helpful in the least bit.
    ?Message Edited by Zail on 08-02-2008 04:05 PM

  • What is the difference between PCI-x and PCI Express?

    I hear the new dual core Power Macs have PCI Express slots. How are these different than the PCI-X slots in my old Power Mac?
    jmf

    PCI Express is faster than PCI-X and not a bus architecture. Each slot has its own dedicated bandwidth to and from the system controller.
    PCI-X has a maximum clock speed of 133 MHz and a maximum throughput of just over 1 GBps.
    PCI Express cards and slots are defined by their bandwidth, or number of data lanes — typically one lane, four lanes, eight lanes, or 16 lanes. At 250 MBps per lane, a four-lane slot can transfer data at up to 1 GBps and an eight-lane slot, up to 2 GBps. The new PowerMac G5s have one 16 lane slot, two four-lane slots, and one eight-lane slot.

  • X-Fi Fatal1ty PCI/-Express - All Hardware Acceleration Crashing, Significant R

    Hello,
    I've made a few posts on the forums recently about various topics to help me isolate the issue I am having. At this point, using the latest stable drivers for either a PCI or PCI-E X-Fi Fatalty, any hardware acceleration of sounds is causing my system to bluescreen, freeze or crash the application. Some games give me no option of not using hardware acceleration (ie. Rainbow6 Vegas 2), resorting in my having to change my Sound Acceleration down to Emulation Only. This setting greatly eases off on the sound latency buffers, resulting in sounds that are delayed an entire second. The good news is no crashes and sounds actually sound correct.
    A few things to note about my setup,
    ) I am an extreme computer professional, programmer and developer. My Windows XP SP2 installation is incredibly streamlined; I only have 6 services running and all non-essential drivers removed, resulting in only 69MiB commit charge at startup across processes and ~950 threads. Suffice to say, my system is baby-cheek clean, and I aim to keep it that way.
    2) I have been using this setup for many years now. I have been using NVIDIA video cards for the past 5+ years, currently I have a GTX280, and all of them have behaved perfectly with my streamlined setup. I even unregister every single one of NVIDIA's DLLs and stop all of their services, and the 3D Settings Per Application and Color Control Features still all work. Suffice to say, NVIDIA's drivers, although a trite on the large side, are written well enough to keep drivers away from OS services (as it should be).
    3) My other hardware is not at fault. I have tested the X-Fis against multiple PSUs, different video cards, multiple fresh installations of Windows and more. I don't use utilities to clean my drivers; I do it by hand. I know exactly what's on my system and what I want removed. Though it may be egotistical to state, I'm pretty much knowledgable of every component my system has running.
    4) As a result of this knowledge and my desire to keep my system clean, I ONLY HAVE INSTALLED the drivers necessary for my X-Fis to work. I DID install Creative Audio Console, but the application seems to have too many dependencies on OS Services, since it never runs, either reporting that my audio device cannot be found, or the application simply does nothing and a bogus error is written to the event log. I have enabled DCOM to make sure it wasn't dependent on that, and it still does not work. To summarize, yes, I have tried enabling every service I could find that it might depend on, and none worked. Creative Audio Console is, to me, a piece of ill-written software. In comparison to NVIDIA's excellent control panel which works no matter how much stuff I remove, Creative's Audio Console fails.
    I do not have the Creative Audio Licensing Engine, I do not have the Creative Audio Control Panel, I do not have the Creative Labs Audio Engine Service, I do not have CMSS or any other OS-level services that normally get installed. Remember people, drivers are NOT TO BE DEPENDENT on OS services; they are protocols defining to the OS how to communicate with the hardware. Any necessity of additional "service" software is way past the acceptable standards of drivers.
    5) That being said, I had no issues with stability using older drivers on my PCI X-Fi Fatalty cards. These drivers were dated early 2007, and did not install all of the X-Fi Effects, Utility Effects, 20x Effects, etc. drivers. Mind you I preferred these drivers since they were much simpler to track, as they only had a few .sys files.
    As it stands, I want to use my PCI-Express X-Fi Fatalty, but I want to use it without all of Creative's bloat. I want streamlined, driver-only installation that does not NEED external applications to reinforce its stability. Creative, IS THAT POSSIBLE? Can someone, by definition of the Windows Driver Management signature system, just use your drivers alone for stable gaming? If not, you're violating standards and should never have received WDM cert. on any drivers. I highly recommend you do NOT spit back, saying that for proper functionality, performance, stability, etc. you must install all of Creative's supplemental software. These requires are in violation of the ethics behind software drivers and receiving Digital Signature Certification from Microsoft on your drivers.

    Infinity7,
    I do not want to sound arrogant, but the list of options you provided me with is the stereotypical laundry list of system configuration information for any piece of hardware. I'll address everything though.
    ) No, I'm not using an NVIDIA chipset. I'm using an ASuS Maximus Extreme, just like you said, which uses the X38 chipset.
    2) I'm using Windows XP 32-bit, SP2. I have 2 GiB of memory and do NOT have PAE enabled.
    2) I don't have onboard sound; our motherboard has a PCI-E sound card which I do not have installed.
    3) I don't have any spyware. I don't browse the web on my system. I know every program running and have no rootkits. Nothing is hiding from me.
    4) I don't use antivirus programs. I've been on the internet for 5+ years now and have never needed an antivirus program, since I know when I have a virus and I remove it manually.
    5) I have the latest version of DirectX, June 2008 Redistritutable. Note that most of the post DX 9.0c revisions are meant for D3D, and have nothing to do with DSound.
    6) I've tried every PCI-E slot I have, including both PCI-E x slots and both PCI-E x6 slots. The card is currently in one of my x6 slots.
    7) Any 998+ system is going to have IRQ sharing. Between ACPI BIOSes (more IRQs), Windows XP and drivers, IRQs are rarely in conflict, aside from occasional USB device IRQ sharing. To answer your question, yes, currently both my video card and sound card are sharing IRQ 6. I have done enough work to isolate that IRQ sharing is NOT the issue, though, especially through my testing of the PCI card and the PCI-E card experiencing the same issue.
    8) The output sampling rate of games is not always configurable, and never makes a difference. The X-Fi always upsamples everything it gets as it is, though I guess there is some validity to the sampling rates that are streamed into the buffers.
    Now, to address the rest of your suggestions I say read my post. I specify that changing acceleration to emulation results in perfect stability and sounds that sound correct, however the relaxed latency results in sounds? that are easily delayed by second. This is unacceptable for gaming, obviously.
    As for your ordering of driver installation, it really is through lack of knowledge that people state what order drivers must be installed in. Even NVIDIA's drivers probe for any change through the interfaces they use when the system starts, so any chipset drivers that drastically change the devices in Windows will be detected as changed by other drivers. Be that as it may, I didn't even have the X-Fi in my computer when I installed this latest version of Windows. Only after I had installed everything did I begin to install the Creative Drivers (whilst avoiding all bloatware).
    Most importantly, note that I determined when the crashing started occuring with my original PCI version of the card. After I installed the drivers that started including the additional .sys files (X-Fi Effects, 20X effects, etc.) the crashing occured. As far as I know I cannot use older drivers with the PCI-E model, so rolling back to those previous drivers is out of the question.
    Lastly, for my system specs,
    Motherboard : ASuS Maximus Extreme X38 Chipset, BIOS 0907
    CPU : Intel QX9650 (OCed from 3.0GHZ to 3.6GHZ, stable through Orthos testing)
    Memory : (2) GiB Corsair Dominator Sticks, 4-4-4-2
    Video : eVGA GeForce GTX280 FTW Edition (PCI-Express)
    PSU : Thermaltake Toughpower 200W (backed by UPS)
    Sound : Creative X-Fi Fatalty PCI / PCI-Express (tried both independently)

  • Employee at the Genuis Bar told me to get pci-express firewire 800 card

    told me any card would work in my new.......well it WAS new till they announced upgrade, 2x3ghz quadcore xeon.
    I want to add another firewire 800 bus since I have the AJAHD hooked to the existing bus.
    So I went to Fry's and got the "PCI-express firewire 800/1394b controller card 3 ports".
    put it into one of the empty slots, rebooted, and got nothing, just some dull chimes, that don't stop.
    it fit within my macpro, but it was a lot shorter than the SATA card, that had no problems.
    So I guess I need to know exactly what type of firewire 800 card to I have to get.

    I installed 1 of these in an 8 core OS 10.4.11 FCp 6.0.2 QT 7.3.1 dedicated to io HD
    don't recall a driver disk for mac, however I rarely if ever use the supplied driver disk for anything anymore 'cause it's almost always out of date. go to mfg site and get drivers etc.
    this is the first link I saw googling siig
    http://www.smalldog.com/product/42566/atfgc
    by the way it worked great. needs a 1 lane slot. you'll need to check expansion slot utility. typically goes in slot above gfx card or slot4 (top) slot

  • PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio

    The a.m. product - PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio - is offered in the Internet under support.creative.com - even a manual (in German) can be downloaded. But I cannot find a link in the Internet to buy the product. Do you know a way to order? do you know the price? The exact name of the product is important.Snaporaz in Munich

    Thanks for the update although this I had personally worked this out myself. Surely this card is to be released globally soon as it has started to pop up in stores available for pre-order. Any ideas on the release date and what will be the differences?
    I have tried to compare it to the <span class="text">Fatalty version to find no difference other than cosmetic. I even went into the FAQ page only to get this:
    [url="http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=54538">X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio vs. X-Fi Titanium Fataty series[/url]X-Fi Titanium Professional series is targeted for audiophiles while X-Fi Titanium Fatalty series are targeted for gamers.
    I am sorry but I seriously do not find that helpful in the least bit.
    ?Message Edited by Zail on 08-02-2008 04:05 PM

Maybe you are looking for