PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

[ironmysox]

My partner recently had a rig built for me to cheer me up after some personal problems. Details are in my sig. Total surprise for me so very nice gift. My reason for posting is GPUZ and the NVidia Control Panel detailed info show my GTX570 as being PCI Express x8 Gen 2. Now The card is in the top slot, PCI Express 16 labelled clearly. There is nothing occupying the other PCI Express slots. Most bios options are all at stock. She got me the 2600 not the 2600k so no over-clocking done on the board for CPU. Am I missing something or is that the way it is supposed to be? Things run very nicely but a friend pointed it out to me yesterday when he came to inspect my new toy.

Thanks in advance

Chris

[profJim]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

Is the PCI-e 8X slot being used?

From your motherboard user manual:
Expansion Slots

• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
  For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
  The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

The Gigabyte site shows that there is a "-B3" replacement version of your motherboard to fix the Intel Sandy Bridge chipset problem.

[profJim]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

GeForce.com - Get the Most Out of Your GPU shows that the 266.58 WHQL drivers are the most recent certified drivers. Is this what you are running?

I missed the fact in your first post that no other PCI-e slots are currently in use.
Did you load optimized bios settings before you made any bios changes?
Which operating system are you using?

[ironmysox]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

I'm running 64Bit Windows 7. I have done the optimised bios settings. Could any kind of power saving option cause this type of glitch do you thing? My brother is bringing around a GTX460 so I can hopefully eliminate the gfx card from this scenario.

[ironmysox]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

Well, I decided to try the Optimise Bios settings again (i'm 99.9% sure I did that before :0/) and bingo. Now it displays quite clearly that it is running in 16x Gen 2 mode. Thank you for your help. Something so simple as well.

Many many thanks.

Chris

[profJim]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

Here is my GPU-z screenshot.
I'm haven't enabled any bios power savings features with my overclocked setup.
With win7 x64, I'm using balanced power savings where the only enabled option is to turn off my monitor after 45 minutes.

[profJim]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

Glad to hear that your setup is fixed.
BTW, wash and wear socks don't need ironing.

[ironmysox]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

Ha ha ha. Thanks once again :-)

[760slayer]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

Hey guys just made an account because I am having this issue. Don't know how to display my system specs on the forum yet, but I will figure that out later. Anyhow I am running a GTX 460 on my M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 board on BIOS version 2101. Both PCI-E x16 2.0 slots are clearly labeled, and it shows the same in my motherboard manual. I'm running Windows 7 64 Bit. The card is running solo, no SLI. I tried it in both slots and only one of them reads it correctly as x16, the other reads as x8 and should be x16. The reason I ask for fix even though one slot works correctly, the one that reads incorrectly has a much better airflow position than the one that reads correctly. What I'm wondering is which option in the BIOS setup do I need to change in order to fix the issue. The help would be greatly appreciated.

[profJim]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

From the Asus web page for your motherboard:

2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 support

Check your motherboard user manual where you might find that your second pci-e slot might always run at 8x speeds.
The answer might be what Asus means by "2.0 x16 support" for the second slot.
You might find the information if you do a web search using: m4a89gtd pro review

To list your system components in your signature:
--> User CP tab (upper left corner of web page)
--> select Edit Signature
--> enter your hardware components (brand, model, etc.)
--> include your bios version
--> preview
--> Save when complete
Be sure to include your bios version, motherboard version, power supply, cpu heatsink/fan setup and the model numbers of all components.

Let us know what you find.

[760slayer]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

you were 100% corect "2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 support

[profJim]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

Glad to help out and that you found the answer.
For an interesting read, check out my MSI 460 GTX Hawk overclock and cooling results thread using VRM heatsinks and an additional video card cooling fan:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/video-ca...g-results.html

[profJim]

Re: PCI Express 8X Gen 2 Problem

It would be interesting to do some demanding gaming benchmarks with your video card in the x16 and then in the x8 pci-e slots.
You might find that there's little difference in some/many games.
My P35 gaming benchmark scores are very similar to the scores that newer systems with high end GTX 460 cards get.

Note the 8GB/s bandwidth/throughput for my single pci-e 16x slot.