Does it matter which slot the GPU is in?

My new build includes am XFX 790i ultra which sports three PCIe 2.0 slots. They have numerical designations of "1" "2" and "3" (though not in that order). I'm starting out with just one GPU, so does it matter which slot it's installed in? Thanks!

I don't think it's critical, but I always put it in the top slot.

on some boards it IS critical, consult the manual.

on some motherboards, they'll have 2 slots so you can crossfire or sli, on alot of these boards, one slot will run at x16, and the other at x8. for these boards, putting it in the x8 slot if your only using one graphics card will drop the card's performance down.

oh woops, i didn't see that. so doesn't the fact that one slot is not pci-e 2.0 effect it?

Ummm...I believe that it's usually an electrical issue. There are some sacrifices made when you have to put so much bandwidth to a certain area.

And about the PCIe 2.0 thing - I hear that there is only something like a 1-2% drop on the very highest-end setups, so you ought to be OK.

I wouldn't worry so much about it.

It does double the throughput. However, the graphical performance of current gen cards is not significantly impacted by the lower bandwidth at PCIE 1.1. They simply don't make full use of the extra bandwidth yet. I wouldn't really worry - 2@PCIE 2.0x16 and 1@PCIE1 1.1x16 is quite good, and more than you are likely to ever need, unless you are still using this motherboard in a few years with a new set of graphics cards in tri-sli (when there is likely to be a significant impact of using the lower bandwidth connection).