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PCI-E 8x Slot only, My graphic card options?

ThomP

ThomP

ThomP

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Joined
27 Aug 2003
Posts
307
Location
North West, England
Hi,

My motherboard only has a Physical PCI-Express 8x slot only, what are my graphic card options?

I've seen you can get AGP <-> PCI-e converters & PCI-e 8x to 16x converters for around £50.

I would like a graphic card that ideally can support shader model 3,0. Please tell me your thoughts.
 
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x8 physical or electrical?

I can't recall ever seeing a x8 physical slot PCI-e GPU - if its x8 electrical but x16 physical then x8 doesn't really hold you back with current generation GPUs - you need to be running 2x 8800Ultra at 2560x res to see any real performance loss at all... if then.
 
Ran my 8800GTS 512MB at x8 for a few days but just didnt run right even though got decents fps. Moved it to the x16 lane and ran a lot better.

7 series cards are fine at x8 but not the 8 series. Ati fare better from what i have read.
 
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I can get a 1x to 16x riser card for £8, but i've checked reviews and 1x really cripples the graphics card. I think 1x PCI-e is, AGP 2x.
 
postmanfw said:
Ran my 8800GTS 512MB at x8 for a few days but just didnt run right even though got decents fps. Moved it to the x16 lane and ran a lot better.

7 series cards are fine at x8 but not the 8 series. Ati fare better from what i have read.
Click to expand...

Not sure about yours but my 8800GTX ran at x8 scored 3DM 06 12300 and 13100at x16, so the difference is just minimal.
To the OP there's no need to use a converter or anything as you won't lose any performance.
 
ThomP
You say your slot is physically 8x.
If this is the case you are a bit screwed, also i am surprised that you have one.
What MB do you have ?

It is not unusual for PCIe slots to be electrically 8x, but they are 16x physical.
All the graphics cards are 16x physical.
Well except some very rubbish 1x ones.
 
toucam said:
Not sure about yours but my 8800GTX ran at x8 scored 3DM 06 12300 and 13100at x16, so the difference is just minimal.
To the OP there's no need to use a converter or anything as you won't lose any performance.
Click to expand...

I read reviews too saying the same thing but it just didnt run right. Plus you need to remember that 3d mark isn't a game ;)
 
I won't mention the competitors name just incase it isn't allowed but its a workstation motherboard with 2x quad 5410 2.33Ghz Xeons & 4GBs of ram.

I've managed to find a 8x <-> 16x converter now for £10. Bandwidth difference appears tobe 4,000Mbit/s(8x) vs 8,000Mbit/s (x16). I think i'm going to purchase the converter and borrow my brothers 8800GTS. And see how performance is. Will update on completion.
 
Secret_Window said:
hmm interesting, so going crossfire might not be a bad thing at all for my x4 slot.
Click to expand...

Don't. Not with the current gen. If you are going to crossfire two older cards using 16x/4x fine, but even 3850's runs very poorly on a 16x/4x setup.

I know because I tried. Surprisingly, the worst game was cod4...
 
The Ati cards are from the previous generation, would be interesting to see a R600/R670 in there. Appears the G80 is bandwidth limited on x8 and below, its sitting waiting for the cpu. Possibly a function of the unified architecture?
 
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