2 PCI-E x16 slots (x16 x4) ?

[Ice Tea]

The 2nd PCIEX16 slot operates at up to x4 mode when ATI CrossFireX™ is enabled.

If you run a single card in the second slot is it running at x16 or is it hard wired to x4 regardless of CrossFire?

Thanks

 

[bremen1874]

What motherboard?

 

[LuckyBenski]

If the spec isn't clear enough, try looking into the slot. If there are only conductors a little way down it, it's x4 or x8

 

[Ice Tea]

It's an old Gigabyte 1156 board that my friend says has a dodgy 1st slot , I didn't realise it varied between boards so i'll pass on the info that he can look at the slot.

Thanks both.

 

[LeMson]

What gfx card too?

 

[Panos]

It's an old Gigabyte 1156 board that my friend says has a dodgy 1st slot , I didn't realise it varied between boards so i'll pass on the info that he can look at the slot.

Thanks both.

We need the board name unfortunately
It could be anything P55A, H55M. Different specs different connectors. But usually that period 8 channels was the norm without PLX chip some boards used.

 

[LuckyBenski]

It's an old Gigabyte 1156 board that my friend says has a dodgy 1st slot , I didn't realise it varied between boards so i'll pass on the info that he can look at the slot.

Thanks both.

Bear in mind that there's not much performance loss for 8x lanes. Not sure how much there would be for going down to 4x lanes, probably only a few %. Depends on the card and resolution too.

 

[Ice Tea]

GA-H55M-UD2H

Apparently it only has about a 1/4 to 1/3rd of the pins soldered to the board so i'm guessing it's 4x , He's only using it as general linux box for web browsing and watching media so i'm guessing 4x would be fast enough for that?

A 10 year old board is never going to be a gaming monster even with a 16x slot.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Spot on. He should be fine. If the card works it works! Remember that crypto mining rigs hook up multiple graphics cards via PCIe x1 slots and have enough bandwidth to function.