PCIe Bus Width - x8 vs. x16

[FragTek]

So I just realized that for the past couple of years I have been running at x8 on my PCIe.... So I switched it over to x16. I haven't done any tests or anything but am I likely to see a performance increase from my video card, will it be significant?

Thanks.

[tinytomlogan]

Depends on the GPU frag tbh, if its a monster designed for PCIE2 then yes, otherwise it will be minimal if at all.

[AlienALX]

I don't know a great amount on the situ Frag tbh but I did do a lot of reading before I decided on a Crossfire board about this stuff.

Apparently when shared into two 8x lanes you lose at most 10-15% of the overall raw power that you would if you were using twin 16x. At the end of the day I could not justify spending £130+ on a motherboard with twin 16s when I could get one that shares into 2 x 8 for £30.

For some boring figures? Well, a Crossfired 5770 test bed in a review here scored about 17500. That was with an I7 and all sorts. My machine (940 3gb ram) 5770 Crossfire scored 15500.

[FragTek]

Thx Al and Tom.

[delusion77]

considering you have a 4870 - you will see little difference. pcie 2.0 x8 is the same as pcie 1.0 x16. there is plenty of bandwidth for it. but run it at x16 just cuz u can