🤑 What Is PCI Express? (Definition of PCIe/PCI-E)

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Hard drive controller cards may be the most to benefit from PCIe after video cards. In general, a larger PCI Express card or slot supports greater performance, assuming the two cards or slots you're comparing support the same PCIe version. More from Lifewire.{/INSERTKEYS}{/PARAGRAPH} It's often not at all clear when you're shopping for an expansion card for your computer, like a new video card, which of the various PCIe technologies work with your computer or which is better than the other. There are a number of other non-PCIe interface standards being looked at by the technology industry but since they would require major hardware changes, PCIe looks to remain the leader for some time to come. Check your motherboard or computer manual if you're not sure. As you can see, the major updates to the PCIe standard drastically increased the bandwidth available each time, greatly increasing the potential of what the connected hardware can do. How do you tell if your computer supports which? However, as complex as it all looks, it's actually pretty simple once you understand the two important pieces of information about PCIe: the part that describes the physical size and the part that describes the technology version, both explained below. PCI Express, as you read in the sizes and versions sections above, supports pretty much any configuration you can imagine. If your motherboard only supports PCIe 2. Here's how the various versions of PCI Express compare:. Version improvements also fixed bugs, added features, and improved power management, but the increase in bandwidth is the most important change to note from version to version. If you can't find any definitive information on the PCI version that your motherboard supports, we recommend buying the largest and latest version PCIe card, so long as it'll fit, of course. Tweet Share Email. Many computer motherboards today are manufactured only with PCIe slots. While computers may contain a mix of various types of expansion slots, PCI Express is considered the standard internal interface. If it physically fits, it probably works One important thing to know, however, is that to get the increased bandwidth which usually equates to the greatest performance , you'll want to choose the highest PCIe version that your motherboard supports and choose the largest PCIe size that will fit. You can see a full pinout diagram at the pinouts. Don't worry, you're not alone! If not, what are your options? The PCI Express interface allows high bandwidth communication between the device and the motherboard, as well as other hardware. What does the 'x' mean? PCI Express 5. Some PCIe hard drive controllers even include the SSD built-in, drastically altering how storage devices have traditionally been connected inside a computer. For example, many high-end sound cards now use PCI Express, as do an increasing number of both wired and wireless network interface cards. This includes things like USB expansion cards, Bluetooth cards, etc. For example, a PCIe 3. Because of this, PCI Express won't continue to reign supreme resting on its laurels. Here's how the various sizes shape up:. No matter what size the PCIe slot or card is, the key notch , that little space in the card or slot, is always at Pin This allows some flexibility to use cards of one size with slots of another. Connecting a high-speed PCIe storage device, like an SSD , to this high bandwidth interface allows for much faster reading from, and writing to, the drive. Thanks to the demand for faster and more realistic video games and video editing tools , video cards were the first types of computer peripherals to take advantage of the improvements offered by PCIe. PCI Express x PCI Express 3. As the heading suggests, the number after the x indicates the physical size of the PCIe card or slot, with x16 being the largest and x1 being the smallest. Most motherboards and computers manufactured in or later probably support PCI Express v3. Video game developers are always looking to design games that are ever more realistic, but can only do that if they can pass more data from their game programs into your VR headset or computer screen; faster interfaces are required for that to happen. All PCI Express versions are backward and forward compatible, meaning no matter what version the PCIe card or your motherboard supports, they should work together, at least at a minimum level. Any number after PCIe that you find on a product or motherboard is indicating the latest version number of the PCI Express specification that's supported. {PARAGRAPH}{INSERTKEYS}Generally, PCI Express refers to the actual expansion slots on the motherboard that accept PCIe-based expansion cards and to the types of expansion cards themselves.