478 mobo with PCI-E

ecclesk · 12 May 2006 at 14:22

I have just ordered an Asus P4V800DV-X but i'm a bit worried after reading somewhere that this mobo only runs PCI-E at a reduced speed (not X16).

I currently have a 3Ghz P4 with a 6600 AGP card, a friend has given me a 6600GT PCI-E card this is why i want to upgrade the mobo but how will the system perform if the PCI-E slot is running at a reduced speed.

Is it even worth doing?

I thought £28 for the mobo was to good to be true.

What are your thoughts on this? Any ideas would be appriciated

Tooks · 12 May 2006 at 15:03

I've got some recent experience of a similar situation with an Asus P5VD1-X motherboard. That's the one with both an AGP 8x and a PCIE 4x slot.

Now, I understand that PCIE 4x has a similar max data width similar to that of AGP 8x, so I don't think the bandwidth should be a problem for the card you're going to be running.

I was running an AGP 6800GS in the AGP slot (obviously!) but then purchased a PCIE 7800GT, which I installed in the PCIE slot (again somewhat obviously!).

The only problem I had was one of graphical glitches in the 3dMark05/06 tests, though it would complete the benchmark ok and post a competitive score.

Running games, COD2 etc, I never had a single graphical issue and the games performed at the speeds you would expect.

I don't think you should worry too much, and it should work ok. The 6600GT certainly shouldn't be bottlenecked by the 4x PCIE slot if my 7800GT worked ok in games in a similar slot.

For the price you've paid for the board, and the free 6600GT pcie, you've got a bit of a bargain really!

altus · 12 May 2006 at 15:58

ASUS SOCKET 478 P4GPL-X SOUND/LAN PCI-Ex16 800FSB

Im using the above , bit late now you have ordered, but if your not happy
it may work for you.

Fulcrum · 12 May 2006 at 16:06

Often the standard limits set for bandwidth transfer are theoretical, you wont ever come close to this. I wouldnt worry too much really, they are just planning ahead in order to learn from the '640k is enough for anyone' lesson

ecclesk · 12 May 2006 at 16:09

Thanks guys,

Digital Punk · 12 May 2006 at 19:17

Like the others have said, you wont really know the difference running a 6600 card.

Future cards may need more bandwidth, but by then your cpu will be a big bottleneck anyway.

Frippy · 14 May 2006 at 17:25

Tooks. I have the same problem with my 6800GS. In PCIE it displays graphical errors but is fine in games, I have the P4V800DV-X. Cracking motherboard, no problems with games, 4x PCIE seems fine.

ecclesk · 15 May 2006 at 09:17

Fitted the new mobo over the weekend reinstalled XP and all the other bits.
i'm more than happy at the moment as it all went together without any problems and the PCI-E 6600GT runs perfectly, my frame rates are up a little on quake 4.

and my 3Dmark05 has increased by over 1300

so it's now 3341.

The next step will be to try and overclock it.

Thanks again for the advice.