PCIe card on a PCI 4x port, possible? performance?

[danielgr]

I have a question that may seem stupid, but here it goes.

I was considering buying Gigabyte latest G45 main-board, in principle to use it with the on-board Intel GPU. I would like though to keep the possibility of upgrading to a discrete card if needed at some point. Unfortunately, the GB board has only a PCI-e 4x port.
The question is:
- can entry-level (less than 150$) cards be used on such port?
- will their performance be affected by it or do I really need a PCIe 16x port to get decent performance?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[danielgr]

I have a question that may seem stupid, but here it goes.

I was considering buying Gigabyte latest G45 main-board, in principle to use it with the on-board Intel GPU. I would like though to keep the possibility of upgrading to a discrete card if needed at some point. Unfortunately, the GB board has only a PCI-e 4x port.
The question is:
- can entry-level (less than 150$) cards be used on such port?
- will their performance be affected by it or do I really need a PCIe 16x port to get decent performance?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Nobody has an answer to this question?

 

[Dekasav]

At Newegg there are a couple HIS X1550 cards that use a x1 PCI-e slot. they look to be *really* weak though.... 4 pixel pipelines. Won't do anything for gaming, but might be useful for their 2 DVI outputs.

 

[efeat]

It's certainly possible, and generally isn't all *that* bad for gaming.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-2-0,1915-9.html

Performance does taper off a little bit at 4x, but it's usually not a huge drop (certain titles and graphic settings will still clog the bus). Future games will be hit harder, but I get the impression you're either not going to keep the system that long, or not use it for anything really intense.

 

[danielgr]

It's certainly possible, and generally isn't all *that* bad for gaming.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-2-0,1915-9.html

Performance does taper off a little bit at 4x, but it's usually not a huge drop (certain titles and graphic settings will still clog the bus). Future games will be hit harder, but I get the impression you're either not going to keep the system that long, or not use it for anything really intense.

Thanks a lot for your answer, that's exactly what I was looking for.