Can I Use an Old PCIe Card on a PCIe 3.0 Slot?

Updated Nov 21, 2019

Reported In

Hardware

  • PCIe-6320

Issue Details

I recently purchased a new computer or motherboard and it only has PCIe 3.0 slots and I have some old NI PCIe cards that were working on older (PCIe 2.0) slots.

I want to know if I can use my old NI PCIe cards on the new computer because I'm not sure if there are any hardware changes for these interfaces.

Solution

You can use any PCI device on newer PCIe 3.0 slots. 

PCIe 3.0 slots are compatible with previous generation cards.

Additional Information

While PCIe 3.0 is compatible with older generation cards, the older cards will not be able to access the full bandwidth of PCIe 3.0.

As an example, a PCIe 2.0 x16 will be equivalent to a PCIe 3.0 x8. This should not impact the card's performance since they still would be limited to their own hardware generation. 

Related Links

External Link: Is PCIe 3.0 backwards compatible with PCIe 2.0?

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