AMD Bolton D4 chipset only has PCI-e 4x support?

[MightyMalus]

The higher end Bolton D4 will come with RAID 0/1/5 and 10 support coupled with only PCI-e 4x support. On the other hand, the good news for graphics fanatics that this comes with support for dual CrossFire graphics which will allow you to match your discrete graphics card with the Richland’s APU graphics.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/amds-28nm-richland-chipset-codenamed-bolton/#ixzz2JTc2lHR9
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This is old rumors, but I personally find this rather weak. Why even bother buying a dGPU for an APU when it would be much worse than the same dGPU on a cheap CPU?

Am I missing something here?

 

[inf64]

Same rumor calls Richland a 28nm chip... Disregard.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

They properly mean the available PCIe lanes from the chipset. The APU itself provides the standard issue PCIe x16 for the graphics card...

 

[MightyMalus]

They properly mean the available PCIe lanes from the chipset. The APU itself provides the standard issue PCIe x16 for the graphics card...

What is the purpose of the PCIe lanes from the chipset?
*not very tech savvy here*

 

[Jimzz]

What is the purpose of the PCIe lanes from the chipset?
*not very tech savvy here*

Those can be used for ethernet, sound, etc... Most only use 1x lane so 4 lanes you can put a good deal of stuff on it.

 

[Vectronic]

They properly mean the available PCIe lanes from the chipset. The APU itself provides the standard issue PCIe x16 for the graphics card...

This.

PCI-E lanes are 1 to 4x... so a x16 socket would be 4x4x, most boards come with 8 lanes of "up to" 4x per lane, that's why you can have 2 or 3 x16 sockets on a board, where they will run @ x16 with only one slot in use, but x8 with two slots in use, etc.

 

[tweakboy]

Their making a chip named after Michael Bolton.

 

[ShintaiDK]

PCIe x4 for a PCH aint bad. Intels got PCIe x8 via the PCH. Dont think anyone would notice if it was reduced to x4.

 

[VirtualLarry]

PCIe x4 for a PCH aint bad. Intels got PCIe x8 via the PCH. Dont think anyone would notice if it was reduced to x4.

Are you sure about that? I thought that Intel had x8 PCI-E between the CPU and the PCH, and the PCH had 4 x1 2.0 ports off of it.

My reasoning is this, if Intel really had x8 off of the PCH like you claim, then we would be seeing Crossfire 1155 boards with x16 PCI-E 3.0 (off of the CPU), and then a second x8 PCI-E 2.0 slot (off of the PCH). Since nearly every board I'ver seen, without a PLX chip is x16/x4, I think that you are incorrect.

Or maybe the PCH has one x4, and four x1, and those are used for the onboard sound and LAN chips.

Edit: For comparison, my 990FX/SB950 board, has two x16 PCI-E 2.0 slots, another x4 slot, and an x1 slot or two, along with onboard LAN, sound, and Marvell SATA6G.

 

[sm625]

I use a pciE-X1 Nvidia 9300 gpu card, and the thing flies, it is no slower than an X16 for a card of this level. You really need to get up around HD7870 levels before pciE-X4 becomes a limiting factor. (Aside from mechanical limitations of course.)

According to this article, one Radeon HD7970 put forth the following scores:
At 1920x1200:
PCIe 1.1 x4: 31.5FPS
PCIe 3.0 x4: 33.4FPS
PCIe 3.0 x8: 33.9FPS
PCIe 3.0 x16: 33.9FPS

 

[SPBHM]

I use a pciE-X1 Nvidia 9300 gpu card, and the thing flies, it is no slower than an X16 for a card of this level. You really need to get up around HD7870 levels before pciE-X4 becomes a limiting factor. (Aside from mechanical limitations of course.)

According to this article, one Radeon HD7970 put forth the following scores:
At 1920x1200:
PCIe 1.1 x4: 31.5FPS
PCIe 3.0 x4: 33.4FPS
PCIe 3.0 x8: 33.9FPS
PCIe 3.0 x16: 33.9FPS

well, don't forget about CPU vs PCH PCIE differences, probably lower latency for the CPU,

also I think Intel at least, uses DMI at PCIE 4x 2.0 speed between the CPU and the PCH, so loading more things and a graphics card could be worse.


and not every game/cards needs the same amount of bandwidth

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-scaling-p67-chipset-gaming-performance,2887-6.html

 

[ShintaiDK]

Are you sure about that? I thought that Intel had x8 PCI-E between the CPU and the PCH, and the PCH had 4 x1 2.0 ports off of it.

I assumed it was about the PCIe lanes extending from the PCH, Intel got 8 lanes here. Not the link between the PCH and CPU. But yes, both AMD and Intel uses the same PCIe x4 link types between CPU and PCH. Just with each propertary modifications.

ICH/SB southbridge chips are attached the same way, just to a northbridge chip.

Nobody would use the x8 slot for crossfire, since it needs to pass and share the x4 to the CPU.