PCI Express x16 and PCI Express x1

What is the difference/ use? Is the Express x16 just for video cards? I have been doing some reading but maybe I just missed that part? Also...I was going to buy the Asus GeForce 6200 TC with 64MB onboard and "effective memory size 256MB"...but when I read the specs closely I discovered that the card is actually only a 64MB and that it "shares", or uses up to 256MB of system memory. What, if any, is the advantage of this way versus a card that has the whole 256MB onboard? Is it just cheaper? I noticed that the next card in line ( at Newegg) had a full 256MB on board and was about $20.00 more. I am now thinking that I ought to get the card with 256MB onboard.?? I am not a gamer so I think that a 256MB card will be plenty for my needs.

IMO, any card using system ram blows. Won't matter if you run Win95 &/or very old games, but for older games like Starcraft 32mb is fine. Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition (not a recent game) showed QUITE an improvement when I upped from a 32mb GF2 GTS to a GF4 Ti4200 with 128mb.
64 would be fine for those 2, but again I wouldn't want any card "sharing" memory from the mobo system ram.
Cheaper it is to do it that way - you're correct.

Think possible future games you might try. Go 128 or 256 on card memory.
If your mobo has the pci-e slots, there are more deals right now than for AGP models butt more AGP models will get cleared out in the near future.

The link below explains pci-e.........

http://www.gen-x-pc.com/pci_basic.htm

Well, I think that I have answered some of my own question. the anandtech site had an article about PCI Express...described the detailed architecture, etc...but it basically said that the Express x16 is twice as fast as AGP 8x...so I'm assuming that the Express x16 slot is for the video card ?? But I still don't know what the x1 slots are for. I also read on Webopedia that the onboard memory of a card is specifically geared or structured for the card's needs ( paraphrasing here...), and is much better than the general memory of the system. So...I assume that this means that onboard memory is better for the card than any "shared" memory...thought I'd pass this along...gotta go...2:30 A.M comes quickly !!!

so I'm assuming that the Express x16 slot is for the video card ?? YUP

I haven't really followed the pci-e stuff too much, since I don't have any mobo's that are real recent, but I would guess that will be for the cards of the future that we now use on PCI slots, like audio, tuner, expansion, etc.

I am sure googling would get you more info if some members with recent high end mobos don't chime in.

Train should know better details.

I've got a PCI-E mobo... again,... i still have no idea what the x1 slots are for

lol, I’ll join the club. i have 2x PCI-E x16 and 1xPCI-E x1, and i have no idea what the express x1 is for. also i don't really know what the second PCI-Ex16 is for as my board doesn’t support SLI.

thats odd...how pointless :P

They are going to be used for new controller cards, for SATA II, and RAID etc, as they can provide more power to run multiple drives from, if you run out of space on the onboard controller(s).
As well as Firewire, and USB 2.0 expansion cards, like this: http://www.everythingusb.com/aaxeon_...ress_card.html

Liam

PCI Express slots can be used for any purpose. So even if you have 2 x16 slots in a board that isn't SLI enabled, you can still plug a second graphics card in (for a multimonitor setup), or you could plug any other PCI-e card in, whether it's 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, or 16x.

1x PCI-e cards will slowly replace PCI cards (I'm surprised that it's taken so long for them to be introduced though). PCI will slowly be relegated to legacy status, as happened with ISA slots a few years back.

Wow i wonder what sort of audio we're gonna be getting on PCI-E stuff in the future..

I am definitely gonna get a 256MB PCI Express x16 card since the new m/b I'm getting has that available...( and because the m/b doesn't have AGP.) The article at Anandtech was written in 2003 and seems to be a very thorough and detailed explanation...along with some good graphics...about how exactly the PCI-E stuff works. Those of you who are trained/self-taught in computer architecture stuff will understand it mucho better than me and it may explain the intended uses of the "1x"slots. Who knows...with my new system I just might have to try a few games...I might like it!!

If your going for games i cant reccomend battlefield 2 enough :D

Battlefield 2...I'll check it out...thanks...When I first got a computer back in 1998 (?), my son had a war game that he played where he had to dig, load the ore & get it to the refinery in order to make the money to buy weapons to deploy...probably very dinosaur today but I kinda enjoyed watching him. The 'puter had integrated video with only ...Drum rolllllll....8 Mb.!!! but the game was still neat to watch...so with today's games & good cards & fast systems...

To play BF2 you'll want high end bits across the whole system, it is recommended to have at least 1gb of DDR2, or 2gb of DDR RAM to run (At high res) as you may get a bottleneck from one or two components if they aren't upto par with the 7800....


Liam

Holy bit-rate Batman!!! I had read that some of the games wouldn't even work without very high end cards ...is this one of them? How about a second choice...something a little less demanding?? As a first foray into gaming I doubt if I will need much to impress me !! I will be getting a 1GB stick of DDR 400 (pc3200) ...will add another 1GB later...coupled with an AMD Sempron 3400+. I know..I know...the 939's are "better", but it's called a "budget". BTW...what does a decent game cost?