[est1895]

What is the difference between PCI 3.0 and PCI 3.0x16 when it comes to video cards?  EVGA cards.

[Fury]

Even though bandwidth differs depending on PCIE version, physical dimensions have stayed the same. Meaning if a PCIE card uses x16 lane, you'll want to make sure your motherboard has one. Most motherboards have one, some have two or three. You can't plug a card that uses x16 lane into x8 slot, they're physically incompatible. Well okay, you can but that is a different story.

[Nuke]

you can think of pcie as an array of serial interfaces rather than a single parallel interface. ive seen cases where you can hackishly stick a 1x card into a 16x slot, or even run a 16x video card on a single lane (this is a hackish way to get more video power out of your laptop). the protocols are smart enough to close off lanes that nothing is connected to, but the bandwidth is limited to that of the interface with the least lanes. cool stuff.

i think pcie is both forward and reverse compatible. ive never encountered a situation where a video card didnt work, though version miss matches probibly cost you some performance.

[est1895]

Here are the motherboard's specs:  http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M3NHDHDMI/#specifications

I'm looking for a Nvidia video card form either EVGA or ASUS PCI 3.0x16

Then when my motherboard goes out, I'll get one that has PCI 3.0x16 on it and won't have to buy a new video card.

Another problem I have, is the length of the video card.

[Nuke]

i once used a hacksaw on my case to get a video card to fit. just dont get any filings into the hardware.

[SpardaSon21]

Nuke is a special, brilliant case who somehow always manages to get his jury-rigs to work.  Don't repeat what he does expecting success.

[Klaustrophobia]

2.0, 3.0, etc is the "generation" of PCIe, like USB 2.0, 3.0, etc.  16x, 8x, etc, is the number of "lanes" of bandwidth the slot can use.  16 is the full amount and what all video cards use (except maybe some really special cases of 4x ones intended for laptops or thin clients or something).  it should only change when you use SLI or Crossfire.  theoretically, 3.0 x16 is faster than 2.0 x16, but i remember reading an article back when 2.0 was new written by a guy who restricted the lanes available to the highest end vid card there was at the time (by physically taping over the contacts to get it to 8x, 4x, etc) and there wasn't any difference in performance until he hit 4x.  back then 2.0 was supposed to be double the bandwidth of 1.1.  i'm not sure if 3.0 supposedly doubled again.

[Nuke]

Nuke is a special, brilliant case who somehow always manages to get his jury-rigs to work.  Don't repeat what he does expecting success.

my skill set is tuned to be most useful in a post nuclear apocalypse wasteland. the reasoning for my burn the earth policy is so that i have a chance at success, with a shotgun in one hand and a geiger counter in the other.

[Dragon]

You live in Alaska. It's already either an apocalyptic or a post-apocalyptic wasteland (the former in winter, the latter after it ). It's just not nuclear, so you can't really have fun with a Geiger counter.