Will adding a sound card into PCIE x1 will scale my GPU to x8 instead of x16

Sohaib

Distinguished
Mar 6, 2007
253
1
18,815
I have searched but i have'nt find a straight forward answer so i ask pretty simple question:

I got an Asus Maxiums VI Hero mobo and i7 4770k processor, currently i am running GTX 1080 which is running at x16 speed.
Now i want to upgrade my sound card and i have found a pretty good deal, an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro selling for $50 but its a PCIE x1 card, if i add it will it scale my GPU to x8 as my processor has 16 lanes? Yes i know x8 wouldn't make much difference but i also plan to do SLI in near future and that might mean one of the GPU scaling to x4 which would definitely decrease performance.
 
Solution
You can find the answer here:
"Expansion cards can be installed in six PCI Express slots - two PCI-E 3.0 x16, one PCI-E 2.0 x16 and three PCI-E 2.0 x1.
Both PCI-E 3.0 x16 red slots connected to integrated Haswell PCI Express controller and can be working as 16+0 or 8+8 depents on second slot usage.

The rest four black slots connected to Intel Z87 PCH.
PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot works in x4 mode only if all three PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots is empty.
In case if any of PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots is used - PCI-E 2.0 x16 will work in x1 mode."

www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3190817/adding-sound-card-pcie-scale-gpu-x16.html

LilDog1291

Honorable
Jan 9, 2013
313
0
10,960
No it will not affect your GPU. Most motherboards only scale down PCIE lanes during SLI GPU setups because you are wanting the two PCIE devices to work together as one device. I've done your exact scenario in the real world and have had no issues.
 
You can find the answer here:
"Expansion cards can be installed in six PCI Express slots - two PCI-E 3.0 x16, one PCI-E 2.0 x16 and three PCI-E 2.0 x1.
Both PCI-E 3.0 x16 red slots connected to integrated Haswell PCI Express controller and can be working as 16+0 or 8+8 depents on second slot usage.

The rest four black slots connected to Intel Z87 PCH.
PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot works in x4 mode only if all three PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots is empty.
In case if any of PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots is used - PCI-E 2.0 x16 will work in x1 mode."

www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3190817/adding-sound-card-pcie-scale-gpu-x16.html
 
Solution