Asus A8R-MVP: will 1 videocard only run at x8 or full x16?!

Dance123

Senior member
Jun 10, 2003
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Hi,

Regarding the A8R-MVP, if you only use 1 PCIe card (which I intend to do), even one that has Crossfire capability!, will it run at full x16 or x8?

Asus site over here is very confusing about that. What do they mean with "2 x PCI Express x16 slot for discrete graphics card" and "Support ATI CrossFire graphics cards (both at x8 mode)".

So if you run 2 cards in Crossfire mode, they will both be x8, right, but what if you only have 1 card that also has Crossfire capability? Will it also only run at x8?

Second, what do they mean with "2 x PCI Express x16 slot for discrete graphics card".

Does that mean you can have 2 cards running at x16, but not Crossfire or something? I don't understand. Also, what do they mean with the word "discrete"?!

Anybody could please explain the above a bit, especially if the 1 videocard you use has Crossfire capability, can this confuse the mobo so that it will only run at x8 or will it run at full speed x16?!
 

Kromis

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2006
5,214
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It will run in full x16. I mean, isn't it always like that for most motherboards with PCI-E?

The A8R32-MVP will run at full speeds for both PCI-E slots even if there are 2 cards in CrossFire. If you are using 2 cards for the A8R-MVP, then they will run at x8 speeds each.
 

Dance123

Senior member
Jun 10, 2003
387
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But what do they mean with "2 x PCI Express x16 slot for discrete graphics card". What do they mean with the word "discrete"?

Does that mean you can have 2 cards running at x16, but not Crossfire or something? I don't understand.

 

OBCT

Senior member
Jul 10, 2006
236
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discrete simply means a separate graphics gard, rather than integrated graphics.
 

Kromis

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2006
5,214
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Let's just forget about what they say. The fact is that the A8R-MVP will either run with 1 x16 PCI-E slot or 2 x8 in CrossFire. What they mean by discrete is that the slot(s) will run at full speed (x16) if you use a single card.

When they say 2 x PCI Express x16 slot means that both of the slots will run at x16, but not at the same time. So you can use either slot and its x16. If you use both, they become x8 each. Capisci?
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
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Originally posted by: Kromis
Let's just forget about what they say. The fact is that the A8R-MVP will either run with 1 x16 PCI-E slot or 2 x8 in CrossFire. What they mean by discrete is that the slot(s) will run at full speed (x16) if you use a single card.

When they say 2 x PCI Express x16 slot means that both of the slots will run at x16, but not at the same time. So you can use either slot and its x16. If you use both, they become x8 each. Capisci?


Bingo.

BTW, there is next to no difference in performance between 8x & 16x right now, just FYI ;)