gigabyte P55A question

[longbow89]

Just a quick question guys..I'm about to buy the GIGABYTE P55A-UD3 and was wondering if my single gpu would run in x16 or x8..I ask this because I'm hearing that these new motherboards with sata6/usb3 lower the pci speed from x16 to x8 speeds...does this only happen when using sata6/usb3??..Because I will not be using sata 6 or usb3.

 

[vailr]

I believe that you wouldn't see that happen when using only one video card. If the sata6/usb3 features aren't actually being used, the system can dynamically allocate resources to other installed cards as needed. The more expensive X58 boards have more resources to allocate, so they can do multiple video cards at full 16x speed.
Wikipedia says:
P55 chipset = 8 PCIe 2.0 channels <--(seems incorrect)
X58 chipset = 36 PCIe 2.0 channels

Side note: the GA-P55A-UD3R
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3240
is not yet available at Newegg, but seems to be a very similar product.
The only difference seems to be: it supports JBOD.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/J/JBOD.html

 

[ehume]

That P55A-UD3R is not going to be available at Newegg. I wrote Gigabyte and they told me they would not be selling it here. So it's either send off to the UK or get a -3P. I'm still considering my options, but I will be getting one of those.