On PCIe 1.0, does a 64 bits graphic card could be compatible with 32 bits OS (Windows 7 32bits)

07
2014-07
  • Eric Ouellet

    On PCIe 1.0, does 64 bits graphic card could be compatible with 32 bits OS (Windows 7 32 bits) ?

    Is there any restriction?

    Edit:

    Few peoples told in comments that bitness should not be an issue. If I understand well, it is only a question of is there any supported drivers for the specific OS (here Win 7 32 bits) ???

    Edit2: I finally bought a 64bits graphic card with PCIe 1.0 interface and it work nicely on my Windows 7 32 bits... Thanks to all !!!

    • Answers
  • Hennes

    There are three options here:

    1. The card only has 64 bit drivers (unlikely, though 32bit systems are finally dying and eventually no new software will be written for them. This might take a few more years though).

    2. It is not PCI-e. Joeqwerty's comment about PCI or PCI-X might be on target. PCI comes in 32 bit and in 64 bit flavours. PCI-e comes in lanes.

    3. The most likely situation: The speed of a graphics card depends mainly on two factors:

      • The Graphics chip (the GPU)
      • The speed in which the GPU communicates with the on-board memory.

      The latter is influenced by the memory speed and by the width of the path to the memory. This width is often 64, 128, 192, 256, 384 or 512 bit.
      All of which is unimportant to the OS. The OS just needs the right (32 or 64 bit) driver to match its own setup.

  • DragonLord

    The bit width of the bus (PCI, PCI-X, AGP, PCIe, etc) has nothing to do with the processor word size. It is simply the number of bits the communication channel can carry at a time.

    The southbridge (now part of the Intel PCH or AMD chipset) handles the communication between the CPU and expansion cards (including video cards), so the bit width of the bus does not create any restrictions on the processor architecture.

    Ultimately, whether your system can use the cards attached to your computer's expansion slots comes down to whether appropriate drivers are available.


    • Related Question

    windows 7 - Which graphics cards can I use on a 64-bit system?
  • Questioner

    I'm about to build a new little machine and have decided to go for a 64-bit Windows 7 set up. I have selected the box, and an Intel core i7 processor, 3x2GB DDR3 RAM.

    Do I need a specific 64-bit graphics card for it, or can I pretty much get any graphics card? I don't play games on computers so I don't need any fanciness.

    What about hard drives - would any drive work?


    • Related Answers
  • William Hilsum

    Any graphics card will work, just make sure you have the correct drivers. All the latest generation Nvidia and ATI cards have both x86\32-bit and x64\64-bit drivers.

    With hard drives, any standard IDE or SATA* hard drive should work fine as long as you have a spare socket.

    * If you have a new SATA drive and your motherboard is old, you may have to set a jumper on your hard drive to make it work.

  • Bobby

    You need to make sure that there is a 64 bit driver available - but that's pretty much the case for all current cards. You don't need a 64 bit specific card.

  • Joe Taylor

    Yes any HDD will work, as long as you have the right connectors.

  • David Spillett

    Graphics: Any recent ATI or nVidia card will have 64-bit drivers.

    As you are not gaming you might be better buying one of the many motherboards that come with built-in graphics. The board I put in my home server last year has on-board graphics (an nVidia chipset IIRC, though there are similar motherboards with ATI graphics chips in case you have a preference) with both VGA and DVI outputs and could happily drive two monitors at 1920x1080 for non-gaming work (including HD video) if I wanted it to. You'll be able to upgrade the graphics later if you start to want better 3D performance (boards like that still generally have a 16x PCI-E slot that you can put a fancy card in, and the new card will take over from the on-board one).

    Hard drives: any drive 3.5" SATA HDD should work. 3.5" PATA too assuming the motherboard has a PATA port, but there is little point considering that. 2.5" SATA (i.e. some SSDs) would be fine too but you will probably need an adaptor to mount it in a 3.5" bay.

  • NoCarrier

    even if you don't play games, you're going to want enough 3D rendering power to drive Windows 7 aero. I would recommend the cheapest ATI card you can find that supports eyefinity. While you're not going to be gaming on it, it does have the added benefit of being able to drive 3 monitors should you ever want to.