Graphics Card reports its running @ 4x [Crossfire]

[TheSaBiie]

Well I have a crossfire setup. I recently read on GPU-z that my second card is running at 4x, though it should be running at 16x. Now, let me fill you on my situation. I recently looked at my MoBo and it had 3 Pci-Express x16 slots. So I decided to move my cards lower that way, I could put in a capture card.

I have the Asus P6T motherboard.

Any Idea what's going on? Also anything I can do, I really don't want to move them back up as I will have to sacrifice the capture card.

 

[Annisman]

Without looking into the specific setup of your mobo, it is likely that the only way you will get two lanes of X16 is by using the two blue pci express lanes on your motherboard.

With that being said, you are currently probably running at 16x/4x which, in all honesty will only take away a few % of your graphics horsepower. Of course, that depends on what kind of cards you have. If you have dual 5970's then you may lose more than a few% of performance, or if you have 2X 5850's or something lower you may not lose much at all.

Now, looking at the layout of the board, why can't you keep your cards in the two blue slots, and put your capture card in either the bottom pci, or pci-e slot ?

Looks like there should be room, unless your bottom card has a tri-slot cooler.

 

[TheSaBiie]

because I have 5770's and the fans from the GFx cards are blocking their way. I tried putting the capture card at the bottom, but, it won't allow my computer to POST.

I switched it to the old layout and everything works fine, just missing the capture card =[

 

[TheSaBiie]

Best answer selected by TheSaBiie.

 

[Dougx1317]

Just thought you might be interested in these links if you're worried about running one or both cards at 4x. Bottom line: It barely make a difference for 5870's in crossfire or GTX480's in SLI. Your 5770 should be fine.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/1.html
http://hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4/

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey