I was planning to buy a GTX 280 or 9800x2 graphics card but then i saw at the spects page that it required pci express 2.0... I have a DFI infinity 975x motherboard that is pciexpres 1.0 and at the shop they werent sure if it would work ...does someone know if the pci express is backward compatible in this way?

Additionally which is better in performance, and in performance\cash relation?

thanks for the possible help

For the 1,489,487,198,751,837th time, yes, its backwards compatible.

When looking at these cards, I'd go with the GX2. Cheaper then the 280, and provides very nice scores. You do have the issue of the "tiny" 512MB frame buffer, so if you play at high resolutions, don't expect to use a lot of AA.

Thanks for the info, before posting I searched in the forum about the pciexpress but I only finded its expects and power supply problems

About the pciexpress, if the card uses 2.0 (double bandwidth compared wtih 1.0) and the motherboard has 1.0 then the graphics card will be limited or it doesnt really use more than the 1.0 bandwidth?

Well, not 100%, as I recall there is PCI-E 1.0 and 1.1 1.1 is defiantly compatible and 1.0 is kinda hit or miss. Ive slept since then tho so this post could be pure FUD

Actually neither is better. The HD 4870 from what we've seen is better than the GTX 260 and matches/surpasses the GTX 280 on more than one occasion, to top it off it also has a price tag of only $300, versus the $400 on the GTX 260, $430-550 on the GX2, and $650 on the GTX 280.

And on top of everything your motherboard supports crossfire, so if you're going with a dual card configuration, it should be an absolute no-brainer to skip any nvidia cards and go for the Ati selection.

I think my motherboard is PCI-E 1.0 (i didnt found it in the manual but in the bios instead) the problem is that at the shop they told me that before they make the order i must be sure if it will be compatible because after that i cannot return it ...and its a lot of money :S

The HD4870 isnt available right now and I have always preferred nvidia (their logo 'designed for nvidia' appears in a lot of games for a reason...) and crossfire being like sli in a lot of games doesnt work well and is power hungry isnt it?

Hey, if you want to not buy the better card because of the other companies logo, go for it.

I hope you realize how incredibly stupid that is however...

More than the logo is the experience of friends that had an ati and in some games had glitches and so...honestly i dont know how it performs actually...

About the pci express thing then there is any way of know for sure if the dfi infinity 975 x/g (pci express 1.0) will be compatible with any pci express 2.0 graphics card (expecifically the gtx280) before ordering it?
any help would be appreciated

Confirmed, the gtx280 and below (any card with pciexpress 2.0) runs with a pci express 1.0 motherboard....it needed a new 700W power s...but well running a game at 1920x1080 with everything at maximum doesnt have price
thanks for the tips people....