My x16 PCI-e VIdeoCard is shown as x4 !? :(

My x16 PCI-e VIdeoCard is shown as x4!? I bought a new comp. few months ago and now i see that my graphic card which is x16 now is x4 pci-e? how can it be? pci-e x4 and x16 have different input size! i think the error is in the software but how can i fix it?

my comp.
Core 2 Duo 2.66ghz, 4mb cash
Asus P5K motherboard with 2 pci-e x16 for Crossfire mod
GeForce 8600GT Super 512mb 128bit SLI ready pci-e x16
WinXP Pro x64 SP2

if someone know about this problem of mine and how can i fix it, pls help!
thanks!

Have you run GPUz? http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Run that and see what it says about your video card. Like novasoft said though, check to make sure the slot that you have your card in is a true x16 slot.

Hold it before RMA'ing anything my friend -> 2 Words: P35 chipset.

The P35 chipset only supports crossfire Through 16x + 4x slots, it's a physical limitation of the chipset. All P35 are like that, if you wanted (2) 8x PCI-e slot you should have gone with a X38 chipset instead.

Don't worry I did the exact same thing, and by god was I mad when I found out, but you can't blame nobody but yourself. If you look at the manual, or the ASUS website, it's clearly shown that this board only supports 16x + 4x in crossfire.

BTW it's a limiting factor, but not by that much though, if you compare 3Dmarks, you are maybe losing around 20-25% compared to an X38 chipset running @ 2 X 8x in Crossfire.

Hope this solves your problem.

Edit: BTW, looking at the cards you're running I don't even think you can saturate the 4x slot with those, I mean they are low-mid range cards with pretty average bandwidth.

Here's the manufacturer's page for your Motherbaord showing the 16x + 4x PCI-e configuration:http://www.asus.com/products.aspx? [...] odelmenu=2

i down. and run the program that you said and here are the results:

Oh, ok, first off I didn't see that you were running an ->SLI Ready<- card(and not an SLI setup), and also I assumed you were using Crossfire cards (ATI), even though I commented on your cards performance, which BTW is still valid. (Sorry for that had a ruff night and no sleep).

So right now what you're saying is that you basically are running a 16x capable card in a 16x slot, which shows up running @ 4x.

This is more complicated then. Like Sailor said, BIOS update, then if no avail, RMA the sucker back.

It's not very complicated, you should use the "floppy disk method" IMO since I've had serious problems on ASUS boards when using the EZ-Flash utlity. (I had 2 M2R32-MVP boards that corrupted themselves when I used the EZ-flash, only to find out that certain Bios revisions had bad versions of the Utility in them!!!)

I would also stay clear of the Windows based Bios flash utility also that comes woth the installation CD.

There's a guide on the ASUS site with a link for it when you get in the bios section.

I'm back for the moment. Updating the BIOS is usually fairly easy. There should be no need to reinstall the OS afterwards. Since you haven't changed anything since you bought the computer, its unlikely anything has changed on the software side that would cause the problems. But if possible, I would check the card in a different computer to verify whether or not the card is the problem. It would be frustrating to RMA the card only to get it back with a note saying there was nothing wrong with it and then have to start over in figuring out what's happening. Then you would be looking at the motherboard with suspicion if the card tested good.

Not to be counter productive or anything but you're using an 8600GT anyway, it won't be affected by the lower speed bus because it really can't saturate it with I/O

i had a similar problem with an older ASUS P5B motherboard and an 8800gt, it was an intermittent problem though, at any fsb over 400(1600) the motherboard would drop my graphics card interface down to 1x. dropping the fsb down to 333(1333) and a bios update seemed to have fixed the problem.

i agree with what monst0r said though, when my 8800gt was only connecting at 1X i was still able to play unreal tournament 3 at 15-30 fps max quality @ 1680x1050(usualy 60fps+), at 4x with an 8600gt you shouldn't see much of a noticeable difference.

This may be in left field, but I had a problem with my 16x graphics card dropping to 1x when I reached a certain point in my overclock. I fixed the problem by raising the Northbridge voltage one notch (Don't know how it fixed the problem, but it did! Read about it in a post somewhere). I don't know if you're overclocking or not, but it's worth a shot.

+1

Gigabyte program seems to work well. For me, at least.

doing it the dos method or ezflash is preferable over asus update. Asus update through windows = sh!t, almost 100% guarantee to screw up your motherboard.

Even with all of that and running an extremely cut down version of Windows XP using a Windows BIOS flash utility still took out one of my boards. Since then I've only done it "the hard way" but haven't had a problem.