Which PCI-E slot?

Nakkiel

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This is probably a really stupid question, but does it matter which PCI-E slot you use for your graphics card? I know it does matter which memory slots you use if not using all of them (At least that's what my motherboard's guide tells me) but it doesn't say anything about the PCI-E slots.
 
Solution
You need to re-read those specs. While you have 5 slots with the physical x16 connection, only two have the electrical x16 connection - or normal bandwidth for x16.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130274&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=

Of the other 3, 2 are x8, and one is x4.

An x8 2.0 slot will provide more than enough bandwidth for a 9800 GTX, but I would still use an x16 slot.

UniqueName

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You usually want to use the x16 slot farthest from the edge. Some motherboards have x16 x8 x8 electrical configurations so if you only have one card you want the x16. It doesn't make much of a difference though.
 

Nakkiel

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rockyjohn

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You need to re-read those specs. While you have 5 slots with the physical x16 connection, only two have the electrical x16 connection - or normal bandwidth for x16.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130274&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=

Of the other 3, 2 are x8, and one is x4.

An x8 2.0 slot will provide more than enough bandwidth for a 9800 GTX, but I would still use an x16 slot.
 
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vvhocare5

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So Nakkiel,

Why come here and ask a question if you dont like the answer and ignore what people offer? The answer is it does matter which slot if you care about performance. If you dont care then plug it in where ever you want.

Sheesh
 
The up side of PCI-E is that you dont necessarily have to put a card in the exact same slot type as it, if you put your Tuner card in one of the lower PCI-E 16x slots(one of the ones set to 8x or 4x) it will work just fine and will let you put your graphics card in the top slot which will be PCI-e 16x, the card shouldnt come anywhere near the memory, the slots lowest point is going to be about a half inch above the back side of the card.
 

There are six PCI Express slots on that motherboard:

PCI_E1, PCI_E3 - PCI_E5 and PCI_E6 are PCI Express x16 Slots

PCI_E2 is a PCI Express x1 Slot

Put your graphics card in the PCI_E1 Slot as the MSI 890FXA-GD70 Mainboard Manual states for a single graphics card.

Put your PCI-E x1 TV Tuner card in PCI_E3 or PCI_E4 or PCI_E5 or PCI_E6. Or did you not know that you can do that? Maybe you need to read up on how the PCI Express bus works.
 

Nakkiel

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He said that it would be faster because some motherboards only have 2 x16 slots. Newegg listing is wrong and says all of them are, and then immediately says only 2 are in the unsortable parenthses in the specs. TY rockyjohn for pointing that out.

Going in the second one since the memory blocks the first. Thank you all for the help.
 

Nakkiel

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I read it might not work with motherboards that support SLI/Cross-Fire, guess I'll be trying it though.
 

Nakkiel

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Regardless, I thought they were all x16 functionality and obviously was wrong. I wasn't just ignoring advice.

What exactly is the first one for though, no way a video card could fit there, way too close to the memory.
 

Nakkiel

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Grr, horrible advice, thanks to GPU-Z I found out the third PCI-E (second PCI-E x16) only runs at x8. The 1st and 5th are the only two that run at x16. Really strange setup, but w/e.
 

Nakkiel

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Except the 1st slot is next to the processor and literally right against the RAM. Because of the coolers on them I can't use that slot at all. Also when using 2 GPU it requires you to use an 8x and they both only run at 8x if I'm not mistaken, so they are actually on top of each other anyway. I think the setup is like that so you can use 4 GPU or something crazy like that.
 

Nakkiel

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I have the RAM overclocked. I'm not sure how useful the fan actually is, but it came with, so why not install? My CPU cooler is blocking the slot anyway.