Graphics card in a 1x slot - how much slower?

[Hades]

If I were to put a graphics card in a 1x slot does anyone know how much it will be slowed down by reduced bandwidth?

The reason for asking is I have found out that it's possible to get a PCIe expansion box which connects to a laptops ExpressPort (which only runs at PCIe 1x speeds).

 

[uv]

It'd be hideous. A PCI-e 4x only just doesn't bottleneck a 9500GT - I'd hate to think what kind of bandwidth 1x is limited to.

 

[jigger]

Not sure about PCIE 1x but I run an old 8800gts in a 4x slot and it performed the same as the reviews using 16x.

 

[uv]

Not sure about PCIE 1x but I run an old 8800gts in a 4x slot and it performed the same as the reviews using 16x.

I guess it depends - if it's PCI-e1, then 4x = 1GB/s. If it's PCI-e2, then 4x = 2GB/s.

Does the OP know what PCI-e spec the laptop is?

*edit*

Either way, the max the OP is going to get is 500 MB/s bandwidth. It's a no go really.

 

[Meaker]

That card will tend to run at 5-20% of its potential.

 

[AndrewN]

It would be slowed a lot. Here is Toms benchmarking in a 4x slot and you can already see a 25%+ drop off in speed.

I'm sure Anand also did a similar review where they actually did benchmark in a 1x slot and the results were terrible. Unfortunately my googlefu is weak and I can't find it.

If it is all you have then it is probably better than nothing, but I suspect it won't be significantly faster than the on board graphics of a laptop

 

[Bradmax57]

Interesting question and i often wondered the same, well not in a 1x slot but an 8x, my new mobo p55m-ud4 supports sli and crossfire but the second slot is only 8x anyway i got my hands on a cheap 285gtx went to install it in my sugo and the hdd leads got in the way, so i put it in the 8x slot and ran 3dmark after a bit of tweaking i flipped the hdd upside down so the leads were clear of the card and ran 3dmark06 again in the 16x slot, the scores albeit a couple of points were identical, same could be said for games, now i know its pci-e 2.0 so it is better but there was no difference between 8x and 16x whatsoever