PCI Express goes 2.0, transfer rate doubles

Folks sure busted out the champagne when PCI Express took the wand from AGP, and while this announcement isn't quite as monumental, doubling transfer speeds ain't nothing to balk at. PCI-SIG, the higher-ups involved in rolling out new PCI Express protocols, unveiled today the PCIe Base 2.0 specifications, which noted that the "interconnect bit rate" would be heading from 2.5GT/s to 5GT/s to better "support high-bandwidth applications." The primary benefits extending from the revamped standard include "faster signaling, increasing the aggregate bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 Gbps," and of course, the backwards compatibility with current PCIe 1.1 products. Notably, Intel's "Bearlake" family of chipsets will purportedly support PCI Express 2.0, and if all goes as planned, should start shipping "next quarter."

[Via RegHardware]

[Sinbios @ Jan 17th 2007 5:07AM]

"PCIe Base 2.0 specifications, which noted that the "interconnect bit rate" would be heading from 2.5GT/s to 5GT/s"

What the hell is a GT/s?

[Nicknin10do @ Jan 17th 2007 5:41AM]

GT/s is what they use to measure the max Fillrate

[LiNK @ Jan 17th 2007 5:57AM]

GT/s is the abbreviation for GigaTransactions per second, referring to 1 billion Transactions per second. Hope this explains it 8)

[huntr2 @ Jan 17th 2007 6:01AM]

GT/s = Giga Transfer per Second. They were talking about the future of the PCI-Express specification back in 2002. They even said that the next revision will probably be 10GT/s.

[Robert Wicks @ Jan 17th 2007 6:57AM]

I was listening to Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson's Security Now! podcast episodes 73 & 74, and they were mentioning that Vista is mandating encryption over the high speed bus to output HD (which is difficult). I wonder what sorts of motherboard and video card modifications will be required to allow even more bandwidth over that bus (assuming that is necessary at all)?

[Intrepid @ Jan 17th 2007 6:57AM]

Now I have to wait before I upgrade... DAMN!

[icepop4who @ Jan 17th 2007 10:56AM]

aww. the rookie 8800 GTX needs an upgrade.

bandwidth is seriously becoming a bottleneck for performance in today's market (or possibly tomorrow). doubling the transfer rate is very much welcomed.

i wonder when intel is going to support DDR3 ram, and when is ddr3 ram gonna be available. paired up with a 64-bit cpu and it's like getting an 8-lane highway in new york.

[Bizzle @ Jan 17th 2007 11:15AM]

Because PCIE 16x wasn't overkill enough

[Jamus @ Jan 17th 2007 11:20AM]

I wonder if this is what was holding up a "Mac Pro" announcement at the recent Macworld? The current models are getting a bit long in the tooth...

[Brennan @ Jan 17th 2007 12:40PM]

wow, now i cant wait to get a new motherboard to support AMD's quad-core along with 2 PCI-E 2.0 slots Crossfire.

ATI R600 is going to smoke Nvidia when PCI-E 2.0 comes out.

[CM @ Jan 17th 2007 2:40PM]

Note that the new maximum bandwidth for 16 lane PCIe is approximately 16 GB/s, not Gbps. That's a difference of 8x (B=Byte, b=bit).

[Alex @ Jan 17th 2007 4:02PM]

NOOO!!!

This means my computer's pci-express slot is out of date! And I won't be able to upgrade to the best Graphics Card next Christmas. Well this sucks. Now I have to get a new mobo to support it. (only if socket T supports it)

[Lonnie McClure @ Jan 18th 2007 2:51AM]

You can expect PCI Express 2.0 peripherals to still work in PCIe 1.0 slots; they will just downclock to 1.0 speeds, the same way that SATA/300 drives work just fine on SATA/150 interfaces.

[JD @ Jan 17th 2007 4:13PM]

I thought PCIe 2.0 was also supposed to define an external interface -- allowing the ability for plug-in external video cards.

[Murc @ Jan 17th 2007 10:17PM]

dang.... just this last monday I pony'd up 100 big ones for a mew 8X AGP...are you saying I'm behind the times...?

(yeah, I know I am, but I just dont have the money to throw at constantly having the latest and greatest...nor the need for it...I got a 360 for games...so I have no need for this...I'm running a 3ghz Pent 4 with a gig of ram.....I dont plan on doing anything else major (since I just got my new vid card), for like 2 years...By which times I'll do a good upgrade...by then I'll probably go from a single core...to dual Quad core. :p