The current PCIe spec is more than adequate for pretty much every use I have heard of to date.

So why the change?

yet another announcement...
bring out some real stuff instead of announcing 1000 things!!!

really is this all they can copy over, it sounds like someone was lazy and just said... yah here *plop* there is some info for ya...

Will PCIe 2.0 be backward compatible with todays PCIe graphic cards?

PCIe 2.0 will be compatible with 1.0 graphics cards. Don't see much point in this now but maybe we will see even greater advancements in GPU power more frequently.

Yes, you can use PCIe 1.1 card in the new PCIe 2.0 slot. The slots are the same. The only difference in a protocol/speed enhancements that double the bandwidth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...xpress_2.0

Most people probably won't see the point to this upgrade in hardware. But every computer enthusiast should know manufacturers can't create bigger and better things until new technologies are put on the market. So many people won't see a point to PCIe 2.0 right now but give it a year or so and then manufacturers will start making Sound Cards, Video Cards and others cards that will actually take advantage of the increased bandwidth.

I'm just amazed at how many new hardware technologies are coming out this year.

I won't go into great detail here, but set aside the external 10GbE interfaced ram and hardrive storage array products already on the market, and picture a PCIe "memory expansion card" with say 10 slots for PC2-5400 DDR2-SDRAM modules. You load this card up with 10 2GB modules and let's say it can transfer at 10GB/s. PCIe 1.1 maximum transfer rate of 8 GB/s in each direction might fall short. PCIe 2.0 can do 16GB/s in each direction.

You might not realize it now, but soon we'll be caching half our hardrives and rendering huge 3d worlds in ram.. At least IMHO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bandwidths

They will. Seriously. Let's build an "Alien Restaurant" where we serve up photons and manatee fat and I guarantee you that we'll be hanging out with extraterrestrials before you know it. O.k., fine. Let's just build PCI-E 2.0 slots into our motherboards and see what becomes available.