PCI Express x16 Video Card in x8 Slot

[VelociRacer]

I have a GeForce 7600 GT card:
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Products/VGA/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2424

In this motherboard:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2507

I just found out that this motherboard's PCIe x16 slot supports only up to x8 bus speed. I was bummed to know that instead of the 4GB/s bandwidth of the x16 bus I am only getting only 2GB/s, which is slightly less than AGP x8 of 2.1GB/s.

In the attached driver screen, you see the x8 bus speed. Can anyone confirm that this should read x16 if the motherboard supports it?

Am I maxing out the PCIe x8 bandwidth with the 7600 GT card? Will I need the X16 to see its full potential? Or is x8 plenty for this card?

I'd like to know if it is worth the hassle of returning the motherboard.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Am I maxing out the PCIe x8 bandwidth with the 7600 GT card? Will I need the X16 to see its full potential? Or is x8 plenty for this card?


The latter. x8 is plenty :) 7600gt is a decent card, but it's not interface bandwidth limited IIRC.

~MiSfit

[VelociRacer]

Thanks for easing my mind. I got this from another forum and it was a shocking revelation that for 7600 GT, it doesn't matter. Even for an 8800 GTS, it barely matters:

Crossfire Meets PCI Express 2.0 | Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/23/crossfire_meets_pci_express/page3.html)

... especially the benchmark numbers at the end of that article

[Blue_MiSfit]

exactly!

PCIe wasn't even really necessary for a long time - from a bandwidth perspective.

It's architecturally vastly superior though. And it provides more power to the GPU, which is nice in this day of high powered monster GPUs.

~MiSfit