Wait hold on a minute! -.-

[Spev]

 

After watching this video on PCI-E 3.0 I thought to myself, what is my board? I'm using a Gigabyte GA-X58-OC with a GTX 970, board is old, GPU is new. The GTX 970 uses 3.0, is my motherboard holding it back? According to this video HALF of the bandwidth would be cut. What would that even mean for a GPU, half the performance it could???

 

Here is my motherboard: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3870#ov I've looked in the specs section, am I can't find anything.There is something that mentions 2.0 on the #2. Anyways I'm just trying to figure this out guys, I have my GPU installed on the very top slot on my board. Any help with this and is my performance being affected?

[QueenDemetria]

Any help with this and is my performance being affected?

Shouldn't be. PCI-e 2.1 should have enough bandwidth for most top of the line graphics cards. The only time that you might run into issues is with modern SLI/CFX set ups, but as long as you have a single 970 you should be fine.

[Semper]

No, no single consumer-grade card is capable of saturating even PCI-E 2.0 8x

[Spev]

Shouldn't be. PCI-e 2.1 should have enough bandwidth for most top of the line graphics cards. The only time that you might run into issues is with modern SLI/CFX set ups, but as long as you have a single 970 you should be fine.

So my top slot is 2.1? I thought there was only 2.0 and 3.0, anyways technically my motherboard is bottlenecking my GPU?

[QueenDemetria]

So my top slot is 2.1? I thought there was only 2.0 and 3.0, anyways technically my motherboard is bottlenecking my GPU?

It may only be 2.0, but there is no performance differences between 2.0 and 2.1 anyways. Your motherboard is not bottlenecking your GPU, as 2.0/2.1 can supply enough bandwidth for your card. If there is any bottleneck, it would be with your CPU(which is pure speculation on my part).

[Spev]

It may only be 2.0, but there is no performance differences between 2.0 and 2.1 anyways. Your motherboard is not bottlenecking your GPU, as 2.0/2.1 can supply enough bandwidth for your card. If there is any bottleneck, it would be with your CPU(which is pure speculation on my part).

Alright I'm not saying you're wrong as I'm not familiar with this...just as the video explains it says that 2.0 to 3.0 literally delivers DOUBLE the bandwidth. I would think that would make a performance increase or count as a bottleneck, if it doesn't well that just doesn't make sense to me. Unless double bandwidth does not increase GPU performance.

[QueenDemetria]

Alright I'm not saying you're wrong as I'm not familiar with this...just as the video explains it says that 2.0 to 3.0 literally delivers DOUBLE the bandwidth. I would think that would make a performance increase or count as a bottleneck, if it doesn't well that just doesn't make sense to me. Unless double bandwidth does not increase GPU performance.

A single GPU doesn't use that much bandwidth, so it can't take advantage of the "double" that 3.0 has to offer.

 

A good way to think about this would be like drinking water from a hose. Lets assume that you have the garden hose on full blast. You would probably be able to drink most of the water, but some of it will splash on your face and spill on the ground. This is because you cant drink the water being supplied fast enough. Now lets replace the garden hose with a fire hose/hydrant. There will be water spilling all over the place, but you will still be drinking the same amount. Between the garden hose and the fire hose, you won't be deprived for water(or bandwidth), but really you will be wasting water(unused bandwidth).