question

[ralphandmike]

is all navi x8 on pcie 3.0 motherboards or is it just the lower cards that operate at x8 instead of x16

[i_build_nanosuits]

That depend on the cpu and the motherboard...not the graphics card.

[ralphandmike]

actually let me rephrase that. my question is i have an rx 5500xt and a msi b450 and a ryzen 3950x. my question is someone people have said that navi drops down to x8 instead of x16 using pcie3 on a b450 or earlier mobo does the higher tier navi such as the rx 5700xt and rx 5600xt  use the full x16 instead of the x8 like the rx5500xt does?

[Dr0y]

The rx 5500 xt uses x8 all the time, the only thing that pcie 4.0 will bring is when swaping ram with the system cause the cards need more.  Therefore the 8gb version would be better in theory but ... watch that video, it's better explained that anything I could do.   In the end it looks like it doesn't makes much difference except in battlefield 5

 

 

 

[ralphandmike]

57 minutes ago, Dr0y said:

The rx 5500 xt uses x8 all the time, the only thing that pcie 4.0 will bring is when swaping ram with the system cause the cards need more.  Therefore the 8gb version would be better in theory but ... watch that video, it's better explained that anything I could do.   In the end it looks like it doesn't makes much difference except in battlefield 5

 

 

 

right but my question is which rx 5000 series cards use the full x16 instead of x8? i would assume the rx 5600 and 5700 xt variants use the x16 for pcie3 even though they are the pcie4 version cards. but thats my question is which navi cards use the full bandwidth of pcie 3

[Dr0y]

People could correct me if I'm wrong, but in all my limited knowledge, all current amd  cards use x16 except the 5500xt.  Also, amd graphic card have the capability of saturating the pcie 3.0 x16 bandwidth, the only customer card coming close to it is the rtx 2080 ti. You can look for 2080 ti pcie scaling from tech power up for more info about that.

 

The reason why I think (it's only the start of an opinion here) amd only use x8 for the 5500 xt is for cost cut and because the card is not powerful enough to use that pcie 4.0 x16 bandwidth anyway.  The only way it impairs performance when using pcie 3.0 x8 is when you run out of vram and it has to swap to system ram, so the rx 5500 xt 8gb should be better in certain title which are vram heavy. 

 

Again, people here could correct me if I'm wrong.

[ralphandmike]

3 minutes ago, Dr0y said:

People could correct me if I'm wrong, but in all my limited knowledge, all current amd  cards use x16 except the 5500xt.  Also, amd graphic card have the capability of saturating the pcie 3.0 x16 bandwidth, the only customer card coming close to it is the rtx 2080 ti. You can look for 2080 ti pcie scaling from tech power up for more info about that.

 

The reason why I think (it's only the start of an opinion here) amd only use x8 for the 5500 xt is for cost cut and because the card is not powerful enough to use that pcie 4.0 x16 bandwidth anyway.  The only way it impairs performance when using pcie 3.0 x8 is when you run out of vram and it has to swap to system ram, so the rx 5500 xt 8gb should be better in certain title which are vram heavy. 

 

Again, people here could correct me if I'm wrong.

ok thanks for clarifying that. i just wanted to be sure. i want to get the 5700xt or better down the road so that clears up any questions i have.

[Dr0y]

If I were you I would wait, if you can, and see what both companies have to offer in the next couple months.  Nvidia is supposed to release the 3000 series and AMD is supposed to come with big navi at some point too.