Asus Sabertooth Z77....PCI express Question.

[popop]

I have searched the Internets and have found conflicting answers(imagine that). So I would like a definitive answer.

On the ASUS Sabertooth z77 board, can I use the second(middle)and not have any slow down? i.e. use PCI express 3.0 and full X16 bandwidth.

 

[dawp]

according to the user's manual only the the upper most slot is is capable of x16.

you can download it from usa.asus.com

 

[Soulkeeper]

if you look at a picture of the back of the motherboard you can see that only the first slot is electrically wired for 16x
Most of the z77 boards are setup this way.

As for "slow down" the general consensus seems to be you only get a few % going from 8x to 16x

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Unless the board maker puts some other controller chip on the board; Z77 chipset and the 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors don't support dual 16x slots. Off the top of my head I believe that it tops out at 20x total lanes of bandwidth. So even when you add a second card it will drop the first slot down to 8x.

 

[popop]

Unless the board maker puts some other controller chip on the board; Z77 chipset and the 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors don't support dual 16x slots. Off the top of my head I believe that it tops out at 20x total lanes of bandwidth. So even when you add a second card it will drop the first slot down to 8x.

I meant use the second slot only