Is the 460m PCIe 3.0?

Last video card I owned was AGP, and that was right when PCIe came out, or a little after, so I'm new to this PCIe stuff, but I read on Wikipedia they're on 3.0 now. However, I also remember (possibly) reading somewhere that they're past PCIe now. Just wondering what interface standard they're using now, like what's common in medium to high end computers.

 

No it's not. The 460M is the same with EVERY mobile GPU. There isn't a single mobile GPU that can even exceed the bandwidth of mobile PCIe 2.0... Not even for CF or SLI.

Mobile GPUs are limited to the intel chipset. Nvidia is not allowed by law to make chipsets. So they have to use Intel just as AMD does. AMD does have their own chipset since they are allowed to but notebook manufacturers use Intel with Intel CPU. AMD chipset only used with AMD processor.

All intel chipsets for mobile are limited to PCIE 2.0 @ 2.5gt/s bandwidth. Which is about the same speed as PCIE 1.0 for desktop.

PCIe is not over, there isn't any dedicated GPU that doesn't use PCIe... so I'm not sure where you heard that. Even the AMD HD6990 which is a beast that can consume up to 450 watts with over 3 teraflops of power (INSANE), is still just a PCIe 2.0 x16 @ 5.0 gt/s.

GTX 580 is also PCIe 2.0 @ x16 5.0 gt/s

 

So then are the limitations of mobile GPUs due to not being able to use PCIe 3.0? If not, then what's the advantage of 3.0? Obviously the easiest way to describe the limitation of mobile GPUs would be "size", but just curious if maybe it's 2.0 vs 3.0 too.

 

What? None of the GPUs are 3.0. 3.0 was released I think November of December of 2010. Not even the GTX 580 is 3.0, they are 2.1 @ x16.

What is your issue anyways? I already said NONE of the mobile GPU can even fill the bandwidth of 2.0. So what's your issue?

 

AFAIK, there is no difference between desktop and mobile PCIe. Though you're right, it doesn't matter yet, as no current GPU can saturate the available bandwidth anyway.

 

Theoretically maybe. Reality yes there is a massive difference. PCIe 2.0 on mobile is half that of the desktop, this is because intel limited it to 2.5 gt/s through the chipset on previous HM55/PM55 and earlier. But it seems on the newer HM67, intel finally increased it to 5 gt/s. Doesn't really matter since even the GTX 485M can't fill 2.5 gt/s.

 

yeah, Intel had full PCIe 2.0 support on their mobile CPU (the HM55 and PM55 PCIe lanes are almost never connected to the GPU - the on package/die controller of the CPU is the main start of the show), but did only have them internally run at 1.0 speeds to save on power.

 

No. The limitation of mobile GPU is size, power draw, and heat.

You can put a powerful desktop GPU/videocard like an nVidia GeForce GTX 460 in just about any desktop computer. But you will only find the nVidia GeForce GTX 460M mobile GPU in relatively large and powerful gaming laptops, because of the size, power draw, and heat that the GPU generates. It has nothing to do with PCIE 2.0 vs. PCIE 3.0

 

My issue, is what the hell is PCIe 3.0 for if no GPUs have exceeded the limitations of 2.0? I guess one technology has to come out before others, but it sounds like we're nowhere near needing 3.0. I just figured these versions of PCIe were as important as new speeds/versions of RAM.

 

PCIE 3.0 isn't just about bandwidth.

"New features for the PCIe 3.0 specification include a number of optimizations for enhanced signaling and data integrity, including transmitter and receiver equalization, PLL improvements, clock data recovery, and channel enhancements for currently supported topologies."​

PCI Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't know all that much about the minutiae of a PCIE 2.0 / 3.0 interface. But I'd imagine that the reason they created PCIE 3.0 was to give desktop GPUs more breathing room when it comes to bandwidth. A desktop GPU is going to be a lot more demanding than an equivalent-model-number mobile GPU.