GPU-Z showing my GPU is running at PCI-Express x4 rather than x16?

[Simon Slays]

Hi all, 

 

It's just a quick question regarding my GPU supposedly running at x4 rather than x16 even though it is placed in the top PCIE slot on my ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero motherboard. I tried to run the render test on GPU-Z but it did not make a difference. It also does not change under load. I changed the PCIE setting from Auto to Gen3 in the BIOS with no difference. Will this affect my GPU performance or not really?

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question :)

 

Specs:

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2080 Ti OC 

ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero

Intel Core i9-9900k

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200Mhz

Intel 760p NVME

ASUS ROG Strix 1000G

[Terrorgod]

I would try reseating the gpu to make sure all the pins have proper contact. I would also check other software to confirm its not just cpuz getting a false reading (something like hwinfo). I used to use an old alienware laptop that had direct pcie x4 for egpus and it capped off around a gtx 1080 in performance so you are definitely losing some performance in certain games with only 4 lanes of pcie on 2080 ti.

[Simon Slays]

17 hours ago, Terrorgod said:

I would try reseating the gpu to make sure all the pins have proper contact. I would also check other software to confirm its not just cpuz getting a false reading (something like hwinfo). I used to use an old alienware laptop that had direct pcie x4 for egpus and it capped off around a gtx 1080 in performance so you are definitely losing some performance in certain games with only 4 lanes of pcie on 2080 ti.

Thanks for the response. I did take a look at HWInfo yesterday and it said that my PCIE lane speeds were running at 8GT/s which is PCIE 3 but I couldn’t find anything to say it was running at x16 rather than x4.

[emothxughts]

Following this topic because I have an RX580 card that also runs at x4 just like you and I'd like some answers too. I can't answer why our cards are running at just x4, but I can answer the question about performance. This video shows an RTX 3070 card being run at x4, x8 and x16 modes. X4 mode of course has the lowest framerates, but the difference is not too unplayably far from x16. As for my own experience, I am able to play modded Skyrim just fine on my RX580 card crippled at PCIe 3.0 x4, I could easily hit 75 fps (I only have a 75Hz monitor).

 

Edit: And yes, I put my card on the top slot, and this problem still occurs when I swapped mobo. It's definitely a card problem in my case, I just don't know what exactly.

Edited March 7, 2023 by emothxughts
some more details

[Robchil]

21 hours ago, Simon Slays said:

Hi all, 

 

It's just a quick question regarding my GPU supposedly running at x4 rather than x16 even though it is placed in the top PCIE slot on my ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero motherboard. I tried to run the render test on GPU-Z but it did not make a difference. It also does not change under load. I changed the PCIE setting from Auto to Gen3 in the BIOS with no difference. Will this affect my GPU performance or not really?

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question

 

Specs:

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2080 Ti OC 

ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero

Intel Core i9-9900k

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200Mhz

Intel 760p NVME

ASUS ROG Strix 1000G

In HWinfo64.. under your GPU look at PCIe Link speed, should be the bottom one.. if it's doing 8.GT/s it's 8x.. etc.. mine says 4 but runs at 8x.. how do i know.. my second card is 8x.. running the same speed when i use SLI.. that's sadly been less and less now. 

 

 

[Simon Slays]

On 3/6/2023 at 4:54 PM, Simon Slays said:

Hi all, 

 

It's just a quick question regarding my GPU supposedly running at x4 rather than x16 even though it is placed in the top PCIE slot on my ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero motherboard. I tried to run the render test on GPU-Z but it did not make a difference. It also does not change under load. I changed the PCIE setting from Auto to Gen3 in the BIOS with no difference. Will this affect my GPU performance or not really?

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question

 

Specs:

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2080 Ti OC 

ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero

Intel Core i9-9900k

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200Mhz

Intel 760p NVME

ASUS ROG Strix 1000G

Thought I would update this in case someone finds it in the future. I removed the CPU and checked for bent pins in the socket and there was none, I then placed it back in the slot and reapplied thermal paste. I then bought a CompuCleaner Xpert to blow the PCIex16_1 slot and the back of the motherboard. Once I turned the system back on and went into the BIOS it changed from x4 Native to x16 Native. Hope this is useful for anyone in the future.