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| Thread ID: 85740 | 2007-12-20 07:49:00 | PCI-E x16...or not. | CaptainVincent (76) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 623091 | 2007-12-20 07:49:00 | Hi everyone just a bit confused about some of these cheap PCI-E motherboards. Some PCI-E motherboards (cheap ones) have obviously PCI-E x16 slots but they run at PCI-E x8. Is there a big difference between the two? I know the difference between AGP 4x and 8x was less than a frame but is PCI-E x16 and x8 a big difference? If I were to buy a 8800Ultra would x8 slow it down? Same with AM2 and AM2+ system bus speed HT3.0(5200MHz) .vs. HT1.0(2000 MT/s) are these differences major???? |
CaptainVincent (76) | ||
| 623092 | 2007-12-20 08:50:00 | Yes, it will slow it down IF YOU COULD FIT IT IN. PCI-e slots get longer as their "x" number increases, they are "upwards" compatible, but not "downwards". There are seven different speed levels for PCIe, and they are designated 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X, 12X, 16X, and 32X. These designations roughly correspond to similarly designated AGP speeds. The slots for PCIe are a bit harder to identify than other expansion slot types because the slot size corresponds to its speed. For example, the 1X slot is extremely short (less than an inch). The slots get longer in proportion to the speed; the longer the slot, the higher the speed. The reason for this stems from the PCIe concept of lanes, which are the multiplied units of communication between any two PCIe components and are directly related to physical wiring on the bus. Because all PCIe communications are made up of unidirectional coupling between devices, each PCIe card negotiates for the best mutually supported number of lanes with each communications partner. You can, however, use a shorter (lower-speed) card in a longer higher-speed) slot. For example, you can put an 8X card in a 16X slot. The 8X card won’t completely fill the slot, but it will work. The converse, however, is not true. |
georgeks (9122) | ||
| 623093 | 2007-12-20 10:08:00 | That is true, but there are some 16x length slots that only run at 8x speed. Exactly the same idea as AGP 8x vs AGP 4x, same slot, different speed. I have a SLI-16x mobo, for single card it will run 16x and in SLI both slots will run at 8x As for answering your question, sorry, I don't know. I always read everywhere that "nothing makes use of the full bandwidth available as it is" so I would guess that it wouldn't make much of a difference. then again they may all be wrong. I did however see a review comparing a 16x Radeon X300 to a 1x Radeon X300, and the 1x was completely horrible |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 623094 | 2007-12-20 18:29:00 | If you're talking about the Asus P5N-E - I looked it up when I was considering purchasing one. Here's a review (www.techspot.com) on Techspot. "In such case the question becomes if PCI Express 8x can offer enough bandwidth for PCIe 16x graphics cards perform at their peak? The short answer is simply, yes it does! Having full 16x SLI support has no real performance benefits over an 8x SLI setup, so again this is something gamers are surely not going to miss." |
Deane F (8204) | ||
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