Will a PCIe x16 slot with 4x electric run a 8600gt?

[zeek987]

Will a PCIe x16 slot with 4x electric run a 8600gt?
If I have a mobo with P35 chipset, and it has 2 PCIe x16 slots, one being 16x electric and the other 4x electric... will a gfx card work in either slot?
Example: Put a 8800 series card in the full power slot to game with, then use a 8600 series card in the 4x electric slot to use for everyday stuff on different monitor?

I'm just curious about any limitations with this type of 'crippled' extra PCIe x16 slot
Thanks!

 

[chookman]

I think all this "electric" your on about is your way of saying lanes

a PCIe x16 slot with 4 lanes will run a 8600GT

all devices in PCIe slots are forward and backward compatible. the only thing is you would get slower performance if the GPU could flood the bus with more data than it can handle inwhich case the port would slow you down when its usually the card. As you will be using this card to just use another monitor on you wont have an issue.

 

[zeek987]

hey chookman - thanks for the informative response. Yeah, sorry about the incorrect terminology. I think I must have seen it described that way somewhere, but yeah, lanes is what I meant, thanks for correcting me. And its good to know that what I was hoping to do will work!

 

[chookman]

I assume you already have the 8600GT cause i think it would be a bit pointless buying a decent GPU to run one monitor?