PCI-E speeds on G43-G45 chipsets.

[ShogoXT]

Asus says theirs have PCI-E 16X
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?mo...11&l3=761&l4=0

Giga-Byte says theirs are in PCI-E 4x speed for graphics slot.
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Mo...ProductID=2877

My question is: Is the Asus one TRUELY better? Because I remember looking into P35 chipset motherboards with dual slots for crossfire and they advertised theirs with full 16x speed for both slots when in fact they were 8x electrical.

[zithe]

They're 16x full speed if you don't have more than one video card enabled. The board is meant to handle one card at 16x (in either slot) or two cards at 8x. That's pretty normal for midrange crossfire boards. With current video cards, 8x/8x is preferable over 16x/4x. At least in my opinion.

A second 4870/50 would be heavily bottlenecked by the 4x slot and you wouldn't see the same scaling as with 8x/8x, I think.

That gigabyte board is something to stay away from unless you use a 2600xt and NEVER plan to upgrade.

[ShogoXT]

Both of them? I tried to email Giga-byte about that and they only gave me 4x as the answer. I thought same as you at first, but now im not sure.

[zithe]

Originally Posted by ShogoXT

Both of them? I tried to email Giga-byte about that and they only gave me 4x as the answer. I thought same as you at first, but now im not sure.

That gigabyte is a single slot (pcie) board. Did you mix it up with another or is the only VGA slot at 4x? That'd be pretty upsetting.

[ShogoXT]

Look at the specs page. Im a bit confused here. Il link you my question to them in a moment.

[ShogoXT]

My Question:

This question is actually about the capability of the motherboard itself. I havent actually bought it yet. I know sometimes the specs are not the same as whats shown on Asus. It showed me for instance the Intel P35 chipset is incapable of 2 electrical 16x speed PCI-E slots (instead its double 8x). My question is, is there a similar limitation on the G43 and G45 chipsets. Also the same question with the G35,G33, and G31. I noticed you had your motherboards advertised at 4x PCI-E for the graphics slot. WILL IT STILL BE THAT WAY IF I DISABLE THE INTEGRATED VIDEO???

Thanks for your time.


Their answer:
G series chipset are limited for this particular model PCIE slot is x4

[zithe]

Originally Posted by ShogoXT

Look at the specs page. Im a bit confused here. Il link you my question to them in a moment.

WOW. I've never seen a modern (if you can call it that) board with such a limitation. o.o Think of the strongest AGP card ever made. The 3850. That's about the best card you can get and not bottleneck unless there's something I'm not understanding.

Originally Posted by ShogoXT

My Question:
Their answer:
G series chipset are limited for this particular model PCIE slot is x4

Their grammar sucks about as much as the board does. The price is horrendous for what you get.

[ShogoXT]

I know though Giga-byte wouldnt purposely put that limitation on there if they didnt have to. So im back to thinking since they were correct before, could it be a chipset limitation and Asus is posting wrong specs like they did for the P35 boards?

[zithe]

Originally Posted by ShogoXT

I know though Giga-byte wouldnt purposely put that limitation on there if they didnt have to. So im back to thinking since they were correct before, could it be a chipset limitation and Asus is posting wrong specs like they did for the P35 boards?

I was about to buy a $50 dollar board yesterday and it had more/better features all around. It was a gigabyte. Full 16x PCIe and 45nm support up to 1600mhz FSB. I went with a foxconn instead as usual.

I'm sure they did that on purpose. Hide this massive thing on the one page that a noobie wouldn't understand and charge them a load for it. Were you going to buy one of those?