PCI-E 2.0 slot woes

PapaDookie · Aug 24, 2014

G'day folks.
i know a bit about the internals of pc's but i'm been a bit out of touch with all the newer updates it seems. a few years ago i built my current system on an asus m4a87td/usb3 mobo which according to all the info i have on it says it has PCI-E 2.0 slot.
recently i decided to update my gpu in it since it's the only real thing holding me back from playing some of the just released games so i grabbed a asus gt730 slimline silent gpu which on all the websites i looked it up on says it needs a pci-e 2.0 slot.
so far so good to my mind a pci-e slot is a pci-e slot. now that the card has arrived and i went to chuck it into my box i find that the contact strip on the new card is only half the size of the old one .
so am i missing something totally obvious or can it just go in the hole and it adjust how it talks to the mobo or have i screwed the pooch and gotten the wrong type of card or something ?

larkspur · Aug 24, 2014

You're fine - the card should still plug into your full sized (x16) PCIe slot. The card just uses a a shorter connector. x4 sized PCIe cards still fit into x16 sized PCIe slots.

oxiide · Aug 24, 2014

Edit: ^^^ I didn't realize that was doable. If so, go for it.

Don't worry about the PCIe revisions (2.0, 3.0) as they are all backward- and forward-compatible and use the same standard sizes. Though a PCIe 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot will run at 2.0 bandwidth, not that that makes any practical difference.

larkspur · Aug 24, 2014

You want to plug the card into the primary x16 sized PCIe slot (the one closest to the CPU) regardless of whether its x8 size or smaller. x16 sized slots accept smaller sized cards.

InvalidError · Aug 24, 2014

The PCI-E slot is open-ended so the x16 physical slot can accommodate x1, x4, x8 and x16 cards. You have the dozen or so "lead" pins before the key providing power, a few management signals and alignment, then you have the rest of the connector after the key which is almost entirely data and ground pins.

If your GPU's connector is "half the size" then it probably has an x8 connector.

PapaDookie · Aug 24, 2014

oh sweet thank you guys so much. i was thinking i must of missed something in the fine print and was gunna have to do the whole " I R DUM " thing to get em to change the card for me

Search

PCI-E 2.0 slot woes

PapaDookie

Reputable

InvalidError

larkspur

Distinguished

oxiide

Distinguished

larkspur

Distinguished

InvalidError

Titan

PapaDookie

Reputable

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page