Little question about swapping pcie generations in bios.

[maramsp]

Heya!

I write this thread in succesion of my "question about 2 sound blaster solutions" thread.

There i wrote in the ps, that i might gonna try switching pcie generations in the bios.
This i did now, but i find things a bit strange.

Ive read on Reddit and elsewhere that you can only swap the generations of all of them in one go.
But on the 3607 bios of the asus rog strix b550 wifi-ii it seems that at the advanced > onboard devices page, i can set everything of them seperately. And thats where my concern lies.

When i change all 3 of the pcie x1 lanes from auto, to gen 1, will they really only operate on gen 1 mode, and are not maybe still be in either gen 2 or gen 3?
And when i set the pcie x16 main lane to be in gen 4 mode (where my gpu is), will this not effect the other pcie lanes?

I mean, from what ive read online, when you wanna lower the pcie generations, then every pcie lane is affected, and my bios page claims you can set them individually. So whats the thing here?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings from Martijn Spiegelaar

 

[Rafael.luc]

Pci-e Lanes come from the processor, 16 Lanes go directly to the GPU Slot and the rest goes to the Chipset whose inputs are the other Slots. In principle you could change the GPU Slot generation and choose another generation for Chipset (all Slots from the Chipset inputs).

Setting a only generation for all Slots (GPU + Chipset) is for basic Chipsets, it should not be your case with the B550.

If you can set the generation of each slot individually I would have two deductions:

1- The B550 Chipset have individual inputs for Slots with different speeds (low probability). It is expected to have a separate entry only for NVMe.

2 - The motherboard BIOS sets different generations per Slot to improve compatibility with some Pci-e devices that "insist" on only working in a certain generation (the device should work in all Pci-e generations), it is a way to "trick" the device, not its real physical speed.

 

[Totally]

Iirc there is no benefit switching doing outside of having stability issue with older hardware running on the newer spec.

 

[maramsp]

Iirc there is no benefit switching doing outside of having stability issue with older hardware running on the newer spec.

And that is the case here, as my sound blaster x ae5 plus only is gen 1.2.
Still though, it didnt have worked for me. Still i had some channel swapping issues.
On reddit i found a post for the older sound blaster z series, and now im trying that out. But cannot go into a long game session to try it out, but i will tomorrow.
But thanks for your confirmation about older hardware

 

[Rafael.luc]

From what I read, your sound card should work on Gen 3. Post what you are using on your motherboard. Processor, Video card (what model?), SSDs

 

[OolongGoat]

I own that specific card, and I haven't had any issues with it running a GEN 1-4 slot.

It currently runs in a ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING. The PCI-E x1 slots are Gen 3.

 

[Waldorf]

@maramsp
on 500 chipset it should be done for each slot to match, doing it for my gpu (gen3) onx570, all others on auto, and still no issues with my SC (gen 2 or 3, cant remember).

i would definitely switch to manual with the gpu (gen 3), maybe chipset to gen 4, and SC to 1.

 

[nomdeplume]

Try reinstalling driver and reseating card?

Very basic yet I know some success can be had. Across a wide range of audio related cards these two steps are common solutions (at least on Windows) worth repeating a few times before abandoning as worthwhile.

 

[Waldorf]

didnt see any problems mentioned, just about switching pcie gen.

 

[nomdeplume]

didnt see any problems mentioned, just about switching pcie gen.

Still though, it didnt have worked for me. Still i had some channel swapping issues.

My perception was something being off inspired looking for better performance. A few hiccups or audible improvements being explored.

 

[Waldorf]

thought more as in (features) not working, or POST/os issues.
sure, always worth a try, but i dont think there is much in pcie comms that could cause ch swapping, would say more likely driver, maybe update.

 

[Rafael.luc]

Diagram:

Processor: Pci- e 4.0 for GPU (can allocate up to 16 Lanes) and SSD M.2 4 Lanes

Chipset (PCH) is Pci- e 3.0


Depending on what you are using on PC, there may be a lack of Pci-E Lanes. Shared Pci-e Lanes can also cause sound card problems.