Asus Rog Strix X570-F - Can the 2nd PCIe spot be used for singel card?

Zeilon · 26 Oct 2019 at 22:19

Hello, I have a X570-F motherboard with a be quiet dark rock 4 pro cooler which leaves little room between the cooler and the graphics card if it's placed in the first slot.

According to the manual it sounds like only the first slot works of it's a single card, but with most motherboards you can use either. Sure usually only the first slot is PCIe-x16 and the second is PCIe-x8, but wouldn't PCIe 4.0 x8 be enough for a 5700 xt?

So will the second slot work with a single card?

lee32uk · 27 Oct 2019 at 17:00

Hi

Is the cooler actually making contact with the back of the gpu ? Does the gpu have a backplate ?

As for your question you can use the 2nd full length pcie slot if need be.

Zeilon · 27 Oct 2019 at 21:16

There is room, but not enough to to push the pcie bracket with my fingers. Only room to squeeze some thin tool through to access the bracket and I'd prefer not to do that

Zeilon · 28 Oct 2019 at 13:30

lee32uk said:
As for your question you can use the 2nd full length pcie slot if need be.

But you are certain about this?

The manual says this:

So it sounded as if a single card MUST be in slot one. I know it sounds stupid because if the first slot would stop working then the whole motherboard would be useless for gaming.

lee32uk · 28 Oct 2019 at 15:14

Zeilon said:
But you are certain about this?

The manual says this:

So it sounded as if a single card MUST be in slot one. I know it sounds stupid because if the first slot would stop working then the whole motherboard would be useless for gaming.

That board supports 3 way Crossfire and SLI so the 2nd slot must be able to run a gpu. I think that table is a bit confusing, and they are just assuming that you will use the top slot (Which you would do under normal circumstances) hence it saying N/A for the other two.

Zeilon · 28 Oct 2019 at 15:24

lee32uk said:
That board supports 3 way Crossfire and SLI so the 2nd slot must be able to run a gpu. I think that table is a bit confusing, and they are just assuming that you will use the top slot (Which you would do under normal circumstances) hence it saying N/A for the other two.

Yup, except slot one only leaves enough room for a screwdriver to push the pcie bracket and I want room to push it manually with my finger.

Pcie 4.0 x8 is more than enough for my 5700 XT and most likely a couple later generations

EsaT · 2 Nov 2019 at 16:47

With mostly badly positioned chipset HSFs of X570 boards sucking in heat from main slot positioned graphics card some people have tested with card in lower x16 slots.

Zeilon · 2 Nov 2019 at 20:20

EsaT said:
With mostly badly positioned chipset HSFs of X570 boards sucking in heat from main slot positioned graphics card some people have tested with card in lower x16 slots.

With x570 you have pcie 4.0 so the second slot has same bandwith as pcie 3.0 x16. As far as I know it's 3-4 times more than today's guys require

pastymuncher · 3 Nov 2019 at 13:40

You have the board and the card so try it. You won't know if you don't try it. It's not as if you will lose anything by trying.

oweneades · 3 Nov 2019 at 18:57

Just put it in the first slot and use a ruler or something similar to push down the retention arm as/when required. Unless you are completely ham-fisted there is little to no risk involved.

Its not like the old AGP retention I have on my Asrock board which is UNDER the GPU itself....

ebilcake · 9 Mar 2021 at 09:06

You can use a single card in the second slot, but only at 8x.

It's annoying as the manual clearly refers to it as a 16x slot on multiple occasions, but clearly it's not.

X570-F is one of the worst designed motherboards I've ever used, even the manual doesn't know what it supports and doesn't.