M4A89GTD PRO/USB3

[Ultimatepc]

Hey Guys,
I bought the ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 motherboard a while back, but I am not understanding this motherboard,.....

It has 2 x PCI-E 2.0 Graphics slots(16X) but I have to plug in my VGA switch Card in the top PCI-E 2.0 slot so that my graphics card(in the bottom slot) will run on PCI-E 2.0 16X. Apparently if I plug something except for the VGA Switch card into the top slot my Graphics Card speed will fall to 8x speed.

My problem is this, I would like to buy the Asus Xonar Xense Soundcard which is PCI-E 1X and will thus fit in the top PCI-E 2.0 slot, but will this pull my Graphics performance down to 8x speed in stead of 16x or not??

I would like to have the sound card but will rather leaf the sound card than to lose graphics performance, am I making an mistake to think that my PCI-E 2.0 slot speed will drop to 8x, is maybe only applicable to SLI and Crosfire?? But then why the VGA switch card??

Someone please HELP before I pop a vain,...
Haha

System Specs:
- ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 motherboard
-AMD X6 1090T 3.2Ghz CPU,
-8GB DDR3-2000 RAM,
-ATI 5 870 1GB Graphics Card etc

 

[r-sky]

You usually have the gfx card in the top slot and the switch card diverts all pci-e lanes to that slot.

when the second slot is in use the pci-e slots go to 8x - 8x... not a big deal.

Plug your sound card into a 1x or 4x slot.

 

[davcon]

^+ correct about the gpu slots and a PCI-E 1X soundcard will function properly in any pci slot that's the best thing about them.