pcie lane problem

[naokuronao]

Hello, I'm using an X99A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard from msi. I'm having an issue, when plug in my wifi expansion card into the 4th pcie slot, my graphics card on the first slot will run at x8 instead of x16. With just only my graphics card, it will be at x16 speed. My cpu is the i7-6850k which has 40 pcie lanes so there should't be problem with using another pcie slot. I could plug it at other slots but it will be too close with my graphics card and I prefer not to do that.

[suchamoneypit]

What GPU? Although This could be an issue, I don't think any GPU out there could realistically saturate a x8 PCI-E slot so performance would be unaffected ( everyone says it will never bottleneck but I personally don't know the numbers of how much bandwidth the card uses)

[Gonio]

Check the mobo manual for correct PCIe placement. Not saying it is in this case, but the mobo might sometimes hold a specific placement order for correct lane funtioning.

[naokuronao]

48 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

What GPU? Although This could be an issue, I don't think any GPU out there could realistically saturate a x8 PCI-E slot so performance would be unaffected ( everyone says it will never bottleneck but I personally don't know the numbers of how much bandwidth the card uses)

I do agree with that. I'm using the overkill Titan X Pascal as my graphics card.

[naokuronao]

46 minutes ago, Gonio said:

Check the mobo manual for correct PCIe placement. Not saying it is in this case, but the mobo might sometimes hold a specific placement order for correct lane funtioning.

Sorry for the late reply, I just re-read the manual. It does say that the slot I plug my wifi expansion card is an x8 slot. Other than that the manual just explains about the correct SLI configuration for my board. Would it be better plugging into a pcie 2.0 lane instead?

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, naokuronao said:

Sorry for the late reply, I just re-read the manual. It does say that the slot I plug my wifi expansion card is an x8 slot. Other than that the manual just explains about the correct SLI configuration for my board. Would it be better plugging into a pcie 2.0 lane instead?

just plug to pcie x1 slot

[naokuronao]

3 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

just plug to pcie x1 slot

II will try but I don't have the space which is why i was curious if there any workarounds.

[NumLock21]

5 minutes ago, naokuronao said:

II will try but I don't have the space which is why i was curious if there any workarounds.

Why?

[naokuronao]

4 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Why?

Mentioned earlier, those slots are blocked my graphics card.

[incarnate]

7 minutes ago, naokuronao said:

II will try but I don't have the space which is why i was curious if there any workarounds.

There are no workarounds for things that are working as intended.

 

You are plugging your wifi card into a slot that is meant for sli. Pick literally any other slot and the "problem" goes away.

 

Having said that, I doubt that there is a performance difference anyway. Gen 3.0 8x is the same bandwidth as gen 2 16x. I doubt that it is bottlenecking the titan.

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, naokuronao said:

Mentioned earlier, those slots are blocked my graphics card.

It makes no sense, how many titan XP do you have?

[naokuronao]

1 minute ago, incarnate said:

There are no workarounds for things that are working as intended.

 

You are plugging your wifi card into a slot that is meant for sli. Pick literally any other slot and the "problem" goes away.

 

Having said that, I doubt that there is a performance difference anyway. Gen 3.0 8x is the same bandwidth as gen 2 16x. I doubt that it is bottlenecking the titan.

I see, thanks for clarifying!

 

I don't mind too much about it running at x8 as long as it can still perform as intended, but I will try to see if I can fit it the intended pcie slot.

[naokuronao]

3 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

It makes no sense, how many titan XP do you have?

I'm just using one but I changed the cooler on the graphics card to the accelo extreme cooler.

[NumLock21]

35 minutes ago, naokuronao said:

I'm just using one but I changed the cooler on the graphics card to the accelo extreme cooler.

The cooler is a triple slot design. Easy fix. Looking at your board manual, counting from top to bottom. PCIe x16 slots 1, 2, 3 ,4. #1 and #2 runs at x16 with a 40 lane cpu, while #3 and #4 runs at x8. Remove your gpu and plug that to pcie x16 slot #2 and your wifi card to pcie x16 slot #1. There is a pci x1 slot between your wifi card and gpu.

Now your gpu will still run at x16 and still have plenty of breathing room.

[naokuronao]

7 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

The cooler is a triple slot design. Easy fix. Looking at your board manual, counting from top to bottom. PCIe x16 slots 1, 2, 3 ,4. #1 and #2 runs at x16 with a 40 lane cpu, while #3 and #4 runs at x8. Remove your gpu and plug that to pcie x16 slot #2 and your wifi card to pcie x16 slot #1. There is a pci x1 slot between your wifi card and gpu.

Now your gpu will still run at x16 and still have plenty of breathing room.

Thanks for the input! I was thinking about that as well. I'm just worried that because its right above the cooler and it could get pretty hot from the graphics card. But I will try and see if it will work out!

[NumLock21]

5 hours ago, naokuronao said:

Thanks for the input! I was thinking about that as well. I'm just worried that because its right above the cooler and it could get pretty hot from the graphics card. But I will try and see if it will work out!

You worry way too much. Your front intake fans should draw cool air over them. Still concern with them? Grab a Antec spot fan or add a side panel fan.

[smokefest]

8x or 16x dosnt change anything in performance. 

My 1070 is on 8x and I get same or better fps than other people online with 16x. Most of the time i get way more fps because of my OC

[naokuronao]

19 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

You worry way too much. Your front intake fans should draw cool air over them. Still concern with them? Grab a Antec spot fan or add a side panel fan.

Well, I'm still relatively new to pc building and I bought a lot of expensive hardware haha. But thank you again for your reply.

[naokuronao]

15 hours ago, smokefest said:

8x or 16x dosnt change anything in performance. 

My 1070 is on 8x and I get same or better fps than other people online with 16x. Most of the time i get way more fps because of my OC

That's awesome to hear! Yeah I hope I can get some nice oc as well with my graphics card too!