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16x and 4x PCI-e 16 slots

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what's with soo many boards that have 2 fullsize 16x slot but the 2nd can only do 4x period? why can't they just have both do 8x when running multi gpu? :shadedshu
 

crazyeyesreaper

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costs slightly more, and it removes the reason to charge more for SLI Crossfire ready boards,

after all why would you buy a $140 board with x8x8 sli crossfire capability if you can get it for $110 its all about money and profit margin.
 

theonedub

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There are also chipset limitations. There are only so many PCIe lanes available (esp on low end boards). After one full speed 16x slot and the onboard peripherals are accounted for, there sometimes just isnt enough lanes left.

I think its a nice courtesy that even though there is only a 4x capability left the motherboard manufacturers give a full PCIe16 physical slot. At least that way you can still install full PCIe cards without modding where bandwidth isnt important.
 

crazyeyesreaper

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true enough onedub but you have to admit most of the time its BS


ASrock AMD 970 chipset thats x8 x8 shows its not the chipset ;) at least for midrange

Intel PCIe is handled by the CPU so 1155 gets 16 lanes max so x8 x8 can be done on any board :toast: just comes down to making sure you pay for the right to have it, now a few years back i would agree socket 775 is a great example Intel and nvidia chipsets ment to handle different situations was far different then what we see today
 
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its not the lanes tho... if it can do 16x and 4x.... why not 8x and 8x
 

JrRacinFan

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On ALOT of the boards the 4x gets pulled from the south bridge and pretty sure the 16x from the CPU's IMC.

EDIT
Which rolls back to what CrazyI's is mentioning, why sell a board thats capable of 8x+8x+4x crossfire or 8x+8x SLI? Marketing .....
 
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Mussels

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not to mention it just doesnt matter, because the secondary cards dont run their bandwidth via the slot. they simply dont need to move as much data (remember crossfire/SLI bridges? they exist for a reason)
 
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ah thats true. I guess i was just being picky :eek::p
 
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and on cheaper boards the pciex lanes are sometimes split to allow another usb3 or sata6 etc controller to be fitted or to uselesslessly allow 3x pciex1 slots as ive seen now and then.
 
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