Isn't the 5500 XT limited to 8 PCie lanes? Then is this gigabyte card lying?

[Nathanpete]

I thought I remember that the 5500XT was limited to 8 PCie lanes. Well I got a B450 board (2600X atm) and needed a GPU upgrade, but I only have $180 and am limited to Newegg (don't ask, just roll with it). Reviews say it is limited by PCie 4.0 x8, but tbh I'm not gonna be doing any GPU intensive applications, I would just like a card that could do light 1080p gaming, sometimes. 

Anyway, IDK whether to get a 1650S or a 5500XT, but then I find this: 

Sapphire Pulse RX 5500 XT: https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-radeon-rx-5500-xt-100418p4gl/p/N82E16814202361

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 5500 XT PCie 4.0 x16: https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-radeon-rx-5500-xt-gv-r55xtoc-4gd/p/N82E16814932239?Item=N82E16814932239

Is this just a incorrect title or does this have a new die revision that now have the ability to use 16 lanes? That wouldn't make much sense to me, but please tell me what is going on.

[BrinkGG]

2 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

I thought I remember that the 5500XT was limited to 8 PCie lanes. Well I got a B450 board (2600X atm) and needed a GPU upgrade, but I only have $180 and am limited to Newegg (don't ask, just roll with it). Reviews say it is limited by PCie 3.0 x8, but tbh I'm not gonna be doing any GPU intensive applications, I would just like a card that could do light 1080p gaming, sometimes. 

Anyway, IDK whether to get a 1650S or a 5500XT, but then I find this: 

Sapphire Pulse RX 5500 XT: https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-radeon-rx-5500-xt-100418p4gl/p/N82E16814202361

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 5500 XT PCie 4.0 x16: https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-radeon-rx-5500-xt-gv-r55xtoc-4gd/p/N82E16814932239?Item=N82E16814932239

Is this just a incorrect title or does this have a new die revision that now have the ability to use 16 lanes? That wouldn't make much sense to me, but please tell me what is going on.

Because the card is physically a PCIe x16 slot card, it gets listed as that. If it's electrically limited to 8x, that is a technical stipulation that you have to confirm with the manufacturer. Most retailers won't clarify that. 

[Nathanpete]

2 minutes ago, BrinkGG said:

Because the card is physically a PCIe x16 slot card, it gets listed as that. If it's electrically limited to 8x, that is a technical stipulation that you have to confirm with the manufacturer. Most retailers won't clarify that. 

Then why does it even bother to have the pins necessary for x16? 

[BrinkGG]

6 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Then why does it even bother to have the pins necessary for x16? 

There's a few reasons they could do this:

A handful of cards that have a fully pinned x16 slot use it as part of it's support bracket, just to make sure the card doesn't sag or cause stress around the PCIe bracket.

Making it full length allows you to use the clip at the back of the connector, furthering the physical support from the motherboard. 

It's cheaper to modify an existing PCIe GPU "blank" board assembly line then to make a new one specifically with an 8x slot. 

As to why the second half of the card is pinned, dunno. 

 

I also have a theory that this could help with PCIe lane management from the motherboard, but I honestly have no idea. 

 

[Nathanpete]

3 minutes ago, BrinkGG said:

There's a few reasons they could do this:

A handful of cards that have a fully pinned x16 slot use it as part of it's support bracket, just to make sure the card doesn't sag or cause stress around the PCIe bracket.

Making it full length allows you to use the clip at the back of the connector, furthering the physical support from the motherboard. 

It's cheaper to modify an existing PCIe GPU "blank" board assembly line then to make a new one specifically with an 8x slot. 

As to why the second half of the card is pinned, dunno. 

 

I also have a theory that this could help with PCIe lane management from the motherboard, but I honestly have no idea. 

 

Yeah I was asking about the second half of the pinout. But ok. 

[Jurrunio]

22 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Then why does it even bother to have the pins necessary for x16? 

Clueless people panic when they see an x8 connector on the card. I dont even want to imagine how many post will appear here (let alone other places like Facebook pages, Reddit etc) about "Is the 5500XT compatible with my motherboard?" "but its connector is shorter than what I have on the motherboard?!"

[igormp]

25 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Then why does it even bother to have the pins necessary for x16? 

It likely uses the same PCB of other x16 models (like the 5600), so overall production costs are lower.

[ewitte]

There are 1x, 4x, 16x slots on most board.  It could have made it shorter and only used part of the 16x slot but may have lost some of the power delivery or price savings of using the same PCB for other cards.

[Nathanpete]

2 hours ago, ewitte said:

There are 1x, 4x, 16x slots on most board.  It could have made it shorter and only used part of the 16x slot but may have lost some of the power delivery or price savings of using the same PCB for other cards.

I already knew all of this. Power delivery is not a concern, the closest thing it could be would be to save on the based PCB. 

[Mateyyy]

2 hours ago, ewitte said:

It could have made it shorter and only used part of the 16x slot but may have lost some of the power delivery

All of the 12V and 3.3V power pins in the PCIe slot are placed before the notch, so that shouldn't have affected power delivery in any way.