Chosing PciE x16

[wolfy87]

I was wondering if my motherboard has 2 pcie graphic ports,
and I have a single card, can I use any that I like?

For example if i want to make some cooling solution that interferes with my NB heatsink, can I put my card in second(lower) pcie x16 slot?
should I change some settings in Bios and how?

 

[angry hampster]

AFAIK you should be able to plug it in the other slot and run just fine, unless it was specifically designed as an 8x slot. On many SLI configs, PCI-E bandwidth gets literally split when two cards are plugged in, turning both into PCI-E x8 slots. However, as long as you're only using one, it shouldn't matter which one you actually use.

..hope that made sense.

 

[BassBomb]

Depends on the board.

My board's second slot is really 4x Pcie but can fit a 16x card. So that would hamper performance

 

[wolfy87]

Well, I know that, I said I have TWO FULL x16 pci express slots...
So it really doesn`t matter, If my drivers are installed I can put card into any one of them right?

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Yes.

 

[wolfy87]

ok then, until..(if) I buy second card on mz x38 DS4, I¸ll keep this one in lower slot...
It looks kinda easier for card cooler to get the fresh air from front of the case, and it doesnt stand in the way of airflow...

 

[lopri]

wolfy87, it depends on the board/BIOS. In theory the two slots should be identical (i.e. 100% interchangeable) but unfortunately that's not the case in practice. I've heard that most X38 will let you use a video card in the 2nd PCIe x16 slot. But in that case, the top PCIe x16 slot will accept only another video card. (i.e. CrossFire)

 

[wolfy87]

ok..ok...I¸ve been borring enough...
thank you guys...
always great people here on AnandTech! THUMBS UP