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PCI-E Help

footwo

footwo

footwo

Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2005
Posts
84
Hello

I would like to know what all this x4 x8 x16 business is all about when choosing a PCI-E card.

If my motherboard is listed as PCI-e x4 but my card says x16, will the card not work in the motherboard?

Any help would be appreciated.

Ta.
 
Last edited:
An x16 card in an x4 slot will be throttled to run at x4 speeds.

More importantly is that the newer "gen 2" PCI-e cards will not work in an older "gen 1" board regardless of speed unless a video card BIOS flash is available - something you probably do not want to do. I don't know the "gen" versions of the board and card you link to.

You may want to avoid that Asrock board if you can. The VIA chipsets are just plain awful.
 
i'd remove those links sharpish and have a read of the faq re: competitors.... :)

just list the mobo/gfx specs or link to the manufacturer websites.
 
Pci-e slots are defined both physically and electrically

ie you can have a physical 16x slot which will accept a 16x card but is only 4x electrically and hence only has a quarter of the bandwidth.

Also, some mobos have physical 4x and 1x slots for low bandwidth items like modems and soundcards.

So yes, a 16x graphics card (or any other type of card) will work in a 4x electrical slot so long as the slot is physically 16x long.

And yes, your board has a physical 16x pci-e slot so the card would work however is't performance might be slightly limited.

Plus remove the links to competitors site, against forum rules.
 
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