PCIe Question

[firecat318]

So I'm interested in purchasing an HD 6950 graphics card. I currently have an older HD 4870 card that is running just fine in my computer. The HD 4870 uses PCIe 2.0x16 to connect, while the 6950 uses 2.1x16 to connect. I was looking all over various websites and could not find a motherboard that had 2.1x16 PCIe connectors... even this expensive one here:

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

That example board has just 2.0x16. My question is.... would a 6950 card run if I plugged it into a 2.0x16 PCIe slot?

 

[detox1]

The 2.0/2.1 are software versions, but I'm not completely sure.
But I'm pretty sure the card will work all the same.

 

[Aastii]

2.0 and 2.1 are backwards compatible, the only difference is the power delivered in 2.1 and certain protocols used. Think of 2.1 as the AM2+ of the expansion port world, it is just the middle man between the major changes of 2.0 and 3.0