Is a PCIE 4 Video card - OK on a PCIE 3 Motherboard ?

[CliveM]

I am getting into an area where my lack of gaming experience is a definite handicap and I would appreciate some advice.
My current PC has a Gigabyte Z87 - HD3 motherboard. The Video Card is a GTX 1060 and the frps I am getting in MS Flight Sim 2020 is unacceptably low.
I have a choice of maybe installing a far more capable Video card but my problem is that the cards I am considering are all PCIE 4, the current one is a PCIE 3 card. I believe a PCIE 4 card will be backward compatible however I could be wrong and if so would prefer to cut my losses and go for a new PC rather than waste a $K or so on a card that would not give me any advantage. I know some of you are or have been into gaming and I would value any opinions you care to provide.

[piroska]

Yes you can, it's backwards compatible.
If the card is high spec enough it would be fine.

But MSFS has always been a high end CPU game too.

recommended:
Radeon RX 570
Nvidia GTX 700

Ideal:
Radeon VII
Nvidia RTX 2080

[CliveM]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts piroska. It'll help me to make up my mind. Incidentaly my current card is a GTX 1060 and Flight Sim does not get above 15 fps with the GPU at 90 - 98%. The rest of my PC is still quite happy though.

[dugimodo]

Even the fastest current graphics cards barely get any advantage from PCIE 4 over PCIE 3, so little it's not worth worrying about so that isn't an issue.

However it's quite possible your CPU or RAM is holding you back, you are above the recommended GPU already but not the CPU. What are the rest of your specs? what CPU, what RAM ?
The risk is buying a new graphics card won't help you at all.

https://www.republicworld.com/techno...uirements.html

[CliveM]

Even the fastest current graphics cards barely get any advantage from PCIE 4 over PCIE 3, so little it's not worth worrying about so that isn't an issue.

However it's quite possible your CPU or RAM is holding you back, you are above the recommended GPU already but not the CPU. What are the rest of your specs? what CPU, what RAM ?
The risk is buying a new graphics card won't help you at all.

https://www.republicworld.com/techno...uirements.html

Processor is an Intel i7 - 4770CPU @ 3.40GHz and I have 16.0 GB of installed Ram
While running the game the Performance widget shows the CPU at around 25% and the RAM at around 35%. The GPU however is maxed right out.
Thanks for your comments Dugi.

[piroska]

Buy this:

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
or

AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

[CliveM]

Buy this:

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
or

AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

The RTX 3090 is the one I have on my short list at the moment. Thanks again for the advice.

[CliveM]

FWIW I have ended up installing a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 card its size suits my case and the price suited my wallet. It appears to be a good choice and is significantly better running MS Flight Sim 2020 than the 1060 card it replaced giving a fps count up to 95fps.

[Agent_24]

Some older PCIE 1 motherboards had problems with PCIE 2 cards. I'm not aware of any major issues beyond that.