Issue with z77 extreme4 MB

sunshinewelly · 27 Jun 2016 at 13:28

THis card is meant to have 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x 16 lanes. However the lane closer to the GPU will not fit my GPU as there is a hard drive cage in the way so i have used the second pci express slot.

However with my card in there GPUZ states that its a x8 lane and not x16.

any ideas why

Borealis · 27 Jun 2016 at 13:42

Unfortunately, the second PCI-E slot on that board will only run at x8. It's common on most LGA115x boards to only have the top-most slot running at 16x, unless the board has a PLX chip.

It's a 16x length slot, but the bandwidth available is only 8x. What case is it and what GPU are you trying to fit.

sunshinewelly · 27 Jun 2016 at 13:50

Borealis said:
Unfortunately, the second PCI-E slot on that board will only run at x8. It's common on most LGA115x boards to only have the top-most slot running at 16x, unless the board has a PLX chip.

It's a 16x length slot, but the bandwidth available is only 8x. What case is it and what GPU are you trying to fit.

its a cheap case and am running a gtx1080.

my understanding is that the x8 lane should not throttle the GPU

Borealis · 27 Jun 2016 at 13:59

You probably won't notice too much of a difference, except in benchmarks.

pastymuncher · 27 Jun 2016 at 19:00

Mod the case and take the drive bay out. Most are only fitted by a few rivets which are easily drilled out. One of the first things I do to a case is remove the unneeded drive cages to free up airflow.