PCI-SIG Finalizes PCI-Express 3.0 Specifications

btarunr · Nov 18, 2010

The PCI-SIG finalized the specifications of PCI-Express 3.0 bus, the latest version of PCI. Like PCI-Express 1.x and PCI-Express 2.x, PCI-E 3.0 is designed to be backwards-compatible with devices that use older versions of the bus. Keeping up with the major version trend, PCI-E 3.0 doubles the theoretical bandwidth. PCI-Express 3.0 can push 1 GB/s per lane, per direction, double that of PCI-E 2.0. A PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot would hence have its cumulative bandwidth at 32 GB/s.

Apart from pure bandwidth increases, PCI-Express also uses the new 128b/130b data encoding scheme, which reduces protocol overhead significantly, allowing near-100% utilization of available bandwidth. To put this into perspective, PCI-Express 2.0 had a data-rate of 5 GT/s, but with its overhead, could only effectively transfer 4 GT/s. The new scheme allows utilization of all 8 GT/s of the bandwidth PCI-Express 3.0 has, resulting in a data-rate of 1 GB/s per lane, per direction. The PCI-E specification document is available to PCI-SIG members. It is expected that the first PCI-Express 3.0 compliant devices will come to be in 2011.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

dir_d · Nov 18, 2010

Did they increase the power of the PCI-E slot? I also wonder if that 300 watt rule will go away once 3.0 comes to motherboards. It would be time to get rid of the retro limitations.

WhiteLotus · Nov 18, 2010

Be pretty sweet if we could do some real benches with this. Same card at same clocks, just all at different bandwidths.

W1zzard · Nov 18, 2010

Q15: Does PCIe 3.0 enable greater power delivery to cards?
A15: The PCIe Card Electromechanical (CEM) 3.0 specification consolidates all previous form factor power delivery specifications, including the 150W and the 300W specifications.

whatever that means

dlpatague · Nov 18, 2010

I don't think this will do anything for video cards in terms of greater performance in the immediate future. Video cards don't saturate the x16 PCI-E 2.x slots right now. Right now you can get the same performance out of an x8 PCI-E 2.x slot as you can from the x16 slot. I think the PCI-E 3.0 spec will more benefit PCI-E SSDs, SATA addin cards like RAID cards, or USB 3.0 addin cards, for now. It will be a while before a video card will be able to take advantage of the PCI-E 3.0 spec because they just don't move enough data yet. Of course this is all just my opinion and I may be wrong. Non the less it is always good to see technology advance and performance improved.

Batou1986 · Nov 18, 2010

W1zzard said:
whatever that means

Looks to me like they are saying it will follow the previous standards without any new improvements :ohwell:

Bo$$ · Nov 18, 2010

Batou1986 said:
Looks to me like they are saying it will follow the previous standards without any new improvements

300W from a PCI-e slot?? it is 75W max now....

inferKNOX · Nov 18, 2010

FINALLY.
I look forward to buying an AM3+ mobo with PCI3.0, then Bulldozer and top it with a HD7000 cherry... *sigh*

EarthDog · Nov 18, 2010

WhiteLotus said:
Be pretty sweet if we could do some real benches with this. Same card at same clocks, just all at different bandwidths.

The current bandwidth isnt even choking out dual GPU cards, so this isnt going to help a bit.

W1zzard said:
whatever that means

Exactly. I had some trouble figuring out the power at the slot. MANY websites reported 150W but that appears to be wrong? Im still not sure. :slap:

dlpatague said:
Right now you can get the same performance out of an x8 PCI-E 2.x slot as you can from the x16 slot.

1-2% according to this sites review on a 5870.

It would be nice to see that same article but with a 5970, or a 580 to see if performance drops more.

Mussels · Nov 19, 2010

Bo$$ said:
300W from a PCI-e slot?? it is 75W max now....

the PCI-E specs include the power connectors, of course.

300W would be from slot and two 8 pin connectors.

bear jesus · Nov 19, 2010

dlpatague said:
I don't think this will do anything for video cards in terms of greater performance in the immediate future. Video cards don't saturate the x16 PCI-E 2.x slots right now. Right now you can get the same performance out of an x8 PCI-E 2.x slot as you can from the x16 slot. I think the PCI-E 3.0 spec will more benefit PCI-E SSDs, SATA addin cards like RAID cards, or USB 3.0 addin cards, for now. It will be a while before a video card will be able to take advantage of the PCI-E 3.0 spec because they just don't move enough data yet. Of course this is all just my opinion and I may be wrong. Non the less it is always good to see technology advance and performance improved.

I have to agree on the graphics card part, but i would love to see what kind of insane speed would be possible with a pci-e 3 x16 ssd card.

TAViX · Nov 19, 2010

Yep, PCI-EX 3.0 would be ideal for SSDs drives. 32GB/s ? I wish they could make optical network adapters that fast

Drone · Nov 19, 2010

2011 seems to be a good year. now I only wait for ddr4

mlee49 · Nov 19, 2010

Yeah! I'm stoked about this! Glad to see it being finalized and improved.

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PCI-SIG Finalizes PCI-Express 3.0 Specifications

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