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ATI 5850 Maximum Bus Setting only x2, not x16

AntonD

AntonD

AntonD

Associate
Joined
31 Oct 2009
Posts
6
Hello

I hope someone can help me with this issue. I purchased a Sapphire Radeon 5850 and have installed it into the x16 PCIE slot in my motherboard. The card does work, however it only gets a Maximum Bus Setting of x2. If I put the same card in the x8 PCIE slot, it runs at x8. I've tried using a different Sapphire Radeon 5850 and get the same result. I've also reset the CMOS on the motherboard and this has not solved the problem. From what I can see, there are no BIOS settings that directly affect the Maximum Bus Setting for that PCIE slot.

My PC specs are:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. P55-UD6
BIOS Version/Date: Award Software International, Inc. F5d, 18/09/2009
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz
Power Supply: Corsair HX 850W
RAM: 8.00 GB (OCZ DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Platinum)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

The GPU Summary from CCC is:

Primary Adapter
Graphics Card Manufacturer Built by ATI
Graphics Chipset ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
Device ID 6899
Vendor 1002

Subsystem ID 0B00
Subsystem Vendor ID 1002

Graphics Bus Capability PCI Express 2.0
Maximum Bus Setting PCI Express 2.0 x2

BIOS Version 012.011.000.006
BIOS Part Number 113-C00201-100
BIOS Date 2009/09/16

Memory Size 1024 MB
Memory Type GDDR5

Core Clock in MHz 725 MHz
Memory Clock in MHz 1000 MHz
Total Memory Bandwidth in GByte/s 128.0 GByte/s
 
I had a similar issue with my 8800GT shortly ago, it was stuck at either x1, x2 or x8 speed depending on what it felt like. One of the last things I tried was to swap the power connector to the spare one since I don't use SLI, it worked perfectly after that so it seemed to be some sort of power issue, maybe worth a try for you too.
 
As youve tried another 5850 and it also goes to 2x, then it could well be problems with the motherboard 16x slot.

First make sure you havent got a tiny bit of paper or similar wedged in the slot.

There is a power setting in Windows related to PCI Express bus, I dont think it would effect how many channels are being used but you could try disabling that to see if it makes a difference.
Control Panel -> Power Options -> Change Plan Settings -> Change Advanced Power Settings

Otherwise Id try to see if another make/model of gfx card is also reduced to 2x performance - if so its definitely a problem with the mobo and may need RMAing.
 
the CC utility might be reoprting the wrong data as the card is so new, could also be a problem with th card bios

got any other ATI card to try in the motherboard?
 
Right, I've tried disabling the Windows PCIE Power Settings and this did not resolve it. I've taken my older 4850 from another PC where it is running at x16 and put it in the new PC where it also drops to x2. Looks like it might be a motherboard issue. Will see if I can get any response from Gigabyte on this.
 
Interesting. Thank Straxusii. Unfortunately I suspect the x2 is preventing Crossfire from working too so I'm going to have plug on with getting this resolved.
 
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