# PciE 4x vs 16x question



## lavoisier (Mar 29, 2007)

I have just installed an XFX 8800GTS and I fined that my PciE slot is only 4x. Would replacing the motherboard with a 16x supported slot give an increase in performance?

Thanks in Advance


----------



## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

I'm sorry I have to post your reply in the way of a question for the other team members. Has anyone heard of the primary graphics port for PCI-E only run at 4x?

I gotta look this up. It was bad enough making the switch from AGP and forking out the money for the PCI-E... but I never assumed anything less than PCI-E x16... hmmm The only thing i've seen about the x4 is perhaps using it in a dual video card scenario.


----------



## lavoisier (Mar 29, 2007)

My motherboard supports both AGP and PCI-E and the PCI-E slot is 4x. I have also tried to overclock the card using RivaTuner where I am told the graphics adaptor driver cannot be found. I then tried ntune and ATItool with much the same success.

I am sure this carsd I have should be doing far better than it is.

Any help or suggestions appreciated. 

Thanks


----------



## MaverickUK (Sep 9, 2005)

Yes smz, it does run at 4x as far as i'm aware and i'm pretty sure i'm not confusing that with PCI. PCI-E is almost similar to AGP in quite a few ways, just the amount of bandwith through-put is a lot more faster than it's AGP counter-part.


----------



## MaverickUK (Sep 9, 2005)

Infact, i believe it uses the same throttling (this is the wrong word, but i cant think for the life of me the word i want to use!) as AGP. From 1x all the way to 32x


----------



## lavoisier (Mar 29, 2007)

Rivatuner etc problem sorted. They were just not Vista compliant.

Still would like to know(in not too 'techy' language) about the 4x 16x etc.

Thanks Guys

PS in case you aren't aware :wink: I'm a newbie.


----------



## MaverickUK (Sep 9, 2005)

Basically PCIE and AGP have a first speed at 1x, but these speeds can be 'pumped' to a value that is a multiple of the origional value and the "4x" or "#x" etc shows this. If you see "32x" this means the origional speed is pumped 32 times faster than the origional value of 1x (the speeds are measured in mhz).

The # would be replaced with a number (i.e. 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1).


----------



## Kalim (Nov 24, 2006)

Yes PCIe x16 has the most bandwidth at 250MB/s x 16 lanes = 4GB/s

That amount of bandwidth is not utilized at the moment by anything. I'm not sure what the maximum utilized ATM is to say, as its differs in each application. Graphics intensive games usually prove a little difference with x16 bandwidth.

See here for comparisons of PCIe cards running at 1, 4, 8 or 16 times:
http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/printpage.php?id=438
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/10...ormance_with_galaxy_geforce_7300gt/index.html


----------



## lavoisier (Mar 29, 2007)

Thanks for the info. Doesn't mean to much to me, not being a 'techie'. 

I have changed my mobo and noticed an improvement in my card. My old mobo took both AGP and PCI-E, maybe this was something to do withit. 

I'm still trying to overclock my card but not getting very high rates using ATITool, getting 621 core and 1014 mem. Any suggestions how I could improve this?

Cheers


----------



## geek73 (Mar 29, 2007)

ATI tool is good at overclocking, the best thing you can do is get some watercooling if you want it to go any higher..You get better airflow as well. You dont want to overheat the crd or you will have a nice expensive paper wieght..


----------



## lavoisier (Mar 29, 2007)

When ATI Tool 3Dtests the card, it goes no higher than 73-74C. I thought cards had a limit of 120C and that 90-100C would be ok.


----------

