Solved: ASUS Maximus II Formula PCIe x16 question

644 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by SANNIN3Xjima, Mar 6, 2009

SANNIN3Xjima

Discussion Starter · Mar 6, 2009

I forgot which thread of mine had this answer (which went off topic) which was why I couldn't find it, so I'll just ask it again.

I am currently using a GTX260 on the motherboard, but I think I'll be adding a dedicated card to folding too and maybe dual monitor like that instead of using one card. According to newegg's specification, it says that single it will run as x16. But dual will run as x8. Does this limit it to crossfire? Obviously, I am not crossfire because I will have to nvidia cards. So I am just wondering how they will run. If that really happens, what are the differences from x16 to x8?

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Brutuz

· #2 · Mar 6, 2009

Well, It's P45, so its PCIe 2.0, which means 8x PCIe 2.0 is the same as 16x PCIe 1.1, so that means that it shouldn't limit it.

In short, 8x PCIe 2.0 is big enough for most Graphics Card.

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SANNIN3Xjima

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 6, 2009

But then if I put 2 cards, does it mean that both will run at x8?

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SpcCdr

· #4 · Mar 6, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brutuz

Well, It's P45, so its PCIe 2.0, which means 8x PCIe 2.0 is the same as 16x PCIe 1.1, so that means that it shouldn't limit it.

In short, 8x PCIe 2.0 is big enough for most Graphics Card.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninjinsamax3

But then if I put 2 cards, does it mean that both will run at x8?

YES!
However, that is still debateable whether or not that even results in a "bottleneck"
As Brutus pointed out x8 on PCIe2.0 is equivalent to the old PCIe 1.0 x16
(I think there is still some residual "cringe factor" left over from when older boards split the bandwidth and the second card ran PCIe 1.0 at x4

I think the guy ou really want to chime in on this one is Robilar as IIRC he did a "realworld" test and the only time he saw a bottleneck was when he tried to quadfire two 4870x2's! Everything else showed no "bottleneck" on 2x x8 vs 2x x16.
GL
Cheers