RTX 3070 Running at PCIe x1 3.0 No Matter What I do

[Simon6969]

Hello everyone,

The MSI RTX 3070 that I've recently bought started to run @ PCIe x1 3.0 speed randomly. I've bought it about 4 days ago, it was perfectly fine for 3 days or so and just yesterday when I wanted to play Forza Horizon 5, I've noticed my FPS, that usually sits around 80 to 130 in extreme settings, dipped below 30fps, even 0 at times. The weird thing is that even at the lowest settings in forza horizon 5, the benchmark score is horrendous, sitting around 40fps max at the lowest settings possible, with a RTX 3070. I've done many things to troubleshoot. I've just noticed that it shows up at GPU-Z PCIe x1 3.0, which should be the reason I'm having low FPS in many games with an RTX 3070. I've went through many Reddit and forum threads, yet found nothing that would fix my issue.

 

The troubleshoots that I've done:

1. Uninstalled Nvidia Drivers with DDU and reinstalled the latest drivers, twice.
2. Updated the bios to the latest version,
3. Cleaned the GPU and the PCIe Slot from any possible dust etc,
4. Checked power saving settings, set everything to high performance,
5. Reset bios settings back to default,
6. Remove CMOS Battery and put in back in.
7. Checked every single possible setting in NVIDIA, Windows Display Settings and Ingame settings for any setting that might cause this, such as V-Sync, frame limitor etc.
8. Turned it off and on again

My PC Specs:

AMD Ryzen 5 3400g,
Gigabyte b450m s2h

MSI RTX 3070 8GB,

Crucial 2x8 16GB @ 3000mhz
1x HP EX900 M.2 1TB
1x Samsung evo 860 500gb
1x WD Black HDD 500gb
Corsair 750w 80+gold psu

Note: I know that this setup might and will cause bottlenecks, I've bought the GPU as it was on sale and Im currently saving up to upgrade to an AM5 setup. Although, this shouldn't be the reason for the GPU to run at PCIe x1 3.0 speeds.

Looking forward to any possible help,
Thanks.

[C2dan88]

10 minutes ago, Simon6969 said:

I've just noticed that it shows up at GPU-Z PCIe x1 3.0, which should be the reason I'm having low FPS in many games with an RTX 3070. I've went through many Reddit and forum threads, yet found nothing that would fix my issue.

Look at the pci  traces bottom of the card. Make sure they are no damage on the gold fingers. 

What mobo you using? Does it have second pci-e slot.

If you can see nothing wrong, try the card in another motherboard/another pc. If you have same issue return card for refund or send for rma the card is damaged.

 

 

[TrigrH]

 Ryzen 5 3400G only supports pcie 3.0 and might only be X8 depending on whats installed or what board you are using.

 

This doesn't explain the 1x, so power management mode is set to prefer maximum performance? in nv control panel?

[Fasauceome]

28 minutes ago, Simon6969 said:

I know that this setup might and will cause bottlenecks, I've bought the GPU as it was on sale and Im currently saving up to upgrade to an AM5 setup. Although, this shouldn't be the reason for the GPU to run at PCIe x1 3.0 speeds.

Did you try putting the graphics card in a different PCIe slot on the motherboard?

[Simon6969]

24 minutes ago, C2dan88 said:

Look at the pci  traces bottom of the card. Make sure they are no damage on the gold fingers. 

What mobo you using? Does it have second pci-e slot.

If you can see nothing wrong, try the card in another motherboard/another pc. If you have same issue return card for refund or send for rma the card is damaged.

 

 

The motherboard that I have is Gigabyte b450m s2h. There's no visible damage on the GPU or the slot.
 

 

22 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

 Ryzen 5 3400G only supports pcie 3.0 and might only be X8 depending on whats installed or what board you are using.

 

This doesn't explain the 1x, so power management mode is set to prefer maximum performance? in nv control panel?

Yes, I've set it to maximum performance.

 

 

8 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Did you try putting the graphics card in a different PCIe slot on the motherboard?

The motherboard that I have only has 1 PCIe slot for the GPU

[Simon6969]

Also showing up as x1 on HWInfo. I've literally tried every possible step in every single thread, yet no help. I have no idea why suddenly the performance drop drastically and the GPU switches to PCIe x1. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[Tan3l6]

As there is no secondary x16 PCIe socket on the motherboard, the second best solution would be to test in any other machine, if possible. The card either has problem with your system specifically or has some hw issue of it's own.

[Simon6969]

I've tried it on another board and its totally fine. Can gpu bios flashing fix my issue or would it make it worse?

[Simon6969]

Solved by downgrading to an older bios version. If anyone in the future comes across this thread with the similar issue, before trying to take your GPU apart, try the steps I've done on the thread. If you have upgraded your BIOS to the latest version recently, try downgrading the bios to an older version.(You downgrade it the same way you upgrade it, basically download it, put into an usb stick, flash it in your bios but make sure that you read your manual first.)
Thanks for the help guys.