I have a e-VGA 7900GS video card installed in a motherboard that only has a PCI-e x4 lane (not x16). How much will this hurt my performance? Like, is it 1/4 as fast or what?
Computer:
e-VGA 7900GS 256MB VC
pentium d805 2.66GHz
ASRock 880 dual pro mobo
corsair tiwn x 2 x 1gb
maxtor pata 60gb hdd
I have a 8600GTS, and I recetly replaced my Asrock 775 Dual-VSTA with a MSI P35 Platinum. I tried a few games and 3dmark05/06. PCI-E x4 was 10-15% slower. Of course, the more powerful your card is, the more it will be likely to be bottlenecked, but a 7900GS should be fine.
I also noticed that a few video issues disappeared since I switched to a x16 PCI-E port : corrupted polygons in some games, and sometimes random crashes during video playback/edition. seems the 8600gts doesn't like to run on PCI-E x4
i wouldn't trust that toms review one bit as it offered no analysis whatsoever nor any reliable data.(extremely limited tests)
however, my knowledge is far too limited to give a correct answer.
However, you do only have a sub 3ghz p4 and so you may be CPu limted(note NOT, I REPEAT NOT BOTTLENECKED) before yiu are GPU limited even with the limited interface.
The fact that there is not a definitive answer by toms or AFAIK any site on this question is shocking, absolutely shocking but there it is.
basically your guess is as good as mine.
------------------------------I'm a git, deal with it.
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