Gigabyte X48-DS4 Primary PCI-E Only Running At x4

[MoMeanMugs]

This is getting rather frustrating. I bought a used board off these forums and had issues with it. The primary PCI-E slot would only run at x4 speed when I stuck my 5870's in. I tried removing and reinstalling the ATi drivers, upgrading the BIOS, and swapping the cards around. The bottom slot always runs at x16. I RMAed the board and got a new one in today. Same fucking problem! Before sending off the old one, I put my 4850 back in and loaded Vista x64 Ultimate off an old drive. It also ran at x4 in the primary slot and x16 in the secondary slot. Anyone have any ideas to try? I'm tempted to just get an AMD AM3 board and a 1055t.

System specs:
Gigabyte X48-DS4
Q9300 (stock)
2x Asus 5870
4x 1GB Super Talent PC6400 DDR2
WD Black 1TB HDD
Asus Blu-ray drive and Asus DVD-RW drive
Corsair 850HX
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

I've installed the latest chipset drivers as well.

 

[ModestGamer]

This is getting rather frustrating. I bought a used board off these forums and had issues with it. The primary PCI-E slot would only run at x4 speed when I stuck my 5870's in. I tried removing and reinstalling the ATi drivers, upgrading the BIOS, and swapping the cards around. The bottom slot always runs at x16. I RMAed the board and got a new one in today. Same fucking problem! Before sending off the old one, I put my 4850 back in and loaded Vista x64 Ultimate off an old drive. It also ran at x4 in the primary slot and x16 in the secondary slot. Anyone have any ideas to try? I'm tempted to just get an AMD AM3 board and a 1055t.

System specs:
Gigabyte X48-DS4
Q9300 (stock)
2x Asus 5870
4x 1GB Super Talent PC6400 DDR2
WD Black 1TB HDD
Asus Blu-ray drive and Asus DVD-RW drive
Corsair 850HX
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

I've installed the latest chipset drivers as well.

Its a chipset limitation.

If you want 2 full 16 pcie lanes. You stuck with 890fx chipsets.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

I think you're mistaken. The X48 chipset will do 2 x16 slots at full speed.

 

[ModestGamer]

I think you're mistaken. The X48 chipset will do 2 x16 slots at full speed.

obviously as noted above.they claim 16gb/s for the whole bus.http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/chipsets/x48/x48-overview.htm for 8gb/s per 16 gbs across 2 16x lanes. but thats on the mb builder to support properly.do you have any other pcie devices ?

 

[MoMeanMugs]

I don't mean to be rude, but you're incorrect. I know I'm the one asking for help, but I also know what I'm talking about. The P965 will do x16 and x4 during Crossfire, P45 will do x8 and x8, X48 will do x16 and x16, and X58 will do x16 and x16. You've also contradicted yourself in that x16 + x4 > x16. It also doesn't explain why the top slot runs my 4850 by itself at x4.

To answer your question, I think one of the onboard NIC's runs off the PCI-E bus, but I don't have any other PCI-E add-in boards besides the two 5870's.

 

[lopri]

Unless there is a known fix for that specific board, it's likely the board is defective. Although it's rare that you got two in a row. (Are you sure Gigabyte didn't just send your old one back?)

I've seen that issue myself and from others, and sometimes using a different video card do a fix but it tends to come back eventually.

 

[ModestGamer]

I don't mean to be rude, but you're incorrect. I know I'm the one asking for help, but I also know what I'm talking about. The P965 will do x16 and x4 during Crossfire, P45 will do x8 and x8, X48 will do x16 and x16, and X58 will do x16 and x16. You've also contradicted yourself in that x16 + x4 > x16. It also doesn't explain why the top slot runs my 4850 by itself at x4.

To answer your question, I think one of the onboard NIC's runs off the PCI-E bus, but I don't have any other PCI-E add-in boards besides the two 5870's.

the chipset has 32 total lanes. How many is the nic using. diasble it and try again.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

Lopri, turns out I was duped. They said they replaced it, but I compared SN's, and it's the same board. I'll be making a call on Tuesday for an explanation and a chance for them to make it right.

ModestGamer, I disabled every onboard feature except the SATA controller, but no dice. Now that I see that it's the same board, it makes sense why it's operating the same way. Wish I hadn't wasted my time putting everything back together.

 

[ModestGamer]

your board has 32 total lanes. if other devices share those lanes then your not going to get 2 16x slots regardless of how big the physical socket is. Personally i'd find a better board.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

I understand what you're saying, but that doesn't explain why when I have just the 4850 in the primary slot, it still runs at x4. When I move it to the secondary slot, it runs at x16. The board is defective.

 

[ModestGamer]

I understand what you're saying, but that doesn't explain why when I have just the 4850 in the primary slot, it still runs at x4. When I move it to the secondary slot, it runs at x16. The board is defective.

unless the other 12 lanes are resevred. did you look in the bios settings ?

 

[MoMeanMugs]

Yes, I looked. There are no options to control the bus width. The only option for anything PCI-E is to pick which slot is used for the primary card. I've switched back and forth, but it doesn't make any difference. The newest BIOS revision doesn't have any options either.

 

[ModestGamer]

Yes, I looked. There are no options to control the bus width. The only option for anything PCI-E is to pick which slot is used for the primary card. I've switched back and forth, but it doesn't make any difference. The newest BIOS revision doesn't have any options either.

sounds like they have a bios bug and or the hardware does not properly support the pcie 32lane bus design.

 

[tcsenter]

Its either a BIOS bug or ATI driver problem. Lots of issues with Intel motherboards every time ATI releases a new GPU Series, requiring BIOS updates. Seen it with P35, P45, X38, X48...

 

[MoMeanMugs]

They haven't released a BIOS update for a year and a half, so I doubt they'll ever put out a new one. I'm pretty sure it's not an ATi problem as it affects three different cards across two different OS's and many driver sets.

ModestGamer, it's supposed to have 32 lanes dedicated to the x16 slots. All the other PCI-E lanes run off the southbridge. I'm guessing my X48 chip has a physical defect.

 

[ModestGamer]

They haven't released a BIOS update for a year and a half, so I doubt they'll ever put out a new one. I'm pretty sure it's not an ATi problem as it affects three different cards across two different OS's and many driver sets.

ModestGamer, it's supposed to have 32 lanes dedicated to the x16 slots. All the other PCI-E lanes run off the southbridge. I'm guessing my X48 chip has a physical defect.

I pulled the data sheet. Its 32 lanes and 16gb/s thats all that chipset supports.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

Do you actually read anything I write, or do you just think you know everything?

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-x48-ds4_1.3_e.pdf

 

[Arcanedeath]

that board support 2 16x pci e 2.0 slots that run off x48 northbridge. the rest of the PCIE slots are run off the ICH with a DMI link conecting the 2. if the top slot only works at 4x its a problem because it's normally always fixed at 16x with that board unless you force 1x in the bios or put a non 16x card in the slot it should always run at 16x and if it won't he has a defective motherboard.

 

[ModestGamer]

Do you actually read anything I write, or do you just think you know everything?

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-x48-ds4_1.3_e.pdf

I don't care about tge gagbute manual. The chipset has a total of 32lanes. A fact that seems to allude your thought process for whatever reason.

 

[ModestGamer]

that board support 2 16x pci e 2.0 slots that run off x48 northbridge. the rest of the PCIE slots are run off the ICH with a DMI link conecting the 2. if the top slot only works at 4x its a problem because it's normally always fixed at 16x with that board unless you force 1x in the bios or put a non 16x card in the slot it should always run at 16x and if it won't he has a defective motherboard.

comes back to the question. Is something reserving the other 12 lanes ? there are 32 total. you may pick any 32. You cannot add more lanes however.For those of us who lived through ISA and PCI days this was a nuasance problem and by the looks of the chipset design may have carried over to the pcie Chipset.

 

[tcsenter]

I don't care about tge gagbute manual. The chipset has a total of 32lanes. A fact that seems to allude your thought process for whatever reason.

Actually, it has a total of 38 lanes, if you include the Southbridge (ICH9). Even more if you count the DMI interface (which is just a modified/proprietary PCI-E x4 link).

 

[MoMeanMugs]

I don't care about tge gagbute manual. The chipset has a total of 32lanes. A fact that seems to allude your thought process for whatever reason.

I don't see any allusions in here, and nothing is eluding me. I know how to look at a block diagram. Thanks for being an ass.

 

[bigsnyder]

As others have tried to point out, it is well documented that the two PCIe X16 slots on this board (and the various variations) have 32 DEDICATED lanes from the northbridge . The SIX other PCIe lanes run off the southbridge. MoMeanMugs obviously has a defective board.

@ModestGamer
Since you are pulling datasheets, you must have missed this one concerning the ICH9(R):

PCI Express* Interface
The ICH9 provides up to 6 PCI Express Root Ports, supporting the PCI Express Base
Specification, Revision 1.1. Each Root Port supports 2.5 GB/s bandwidth in each
direction (5GB/s concurrent). PCI Express Root Ports 1-4 can be statically configured
as four x1 Ports or ganged together to form one x4 port. Ports 5 and 6 can only be used
as two x1 ports. On Mobile platforms, PCI Express Ports 1-4 can also be configured as
one x2 port (using ports 1 and 2) with ports 3 and 4 configured as x1 ports.
Note: The integrated Gigabit Ethernet controllers data lines for 1000 Mb/s speed are
multiplexed with PCI Express* Root Port 6 and therefore unavailable if a Gigabit
Ethernet PHY is connected. The use of a 10/100 Mb/s PHY does not consume PCI
Express Root Port 6 and therefore the port is available to be utilized as a x1 Port.

Source page 49

 

[felang]

I don't care about tge gagbute manual. The chipset has a total of 32lanes. A fact that seems to allude your thought process for whatever reason.

this guy is a deuche!!!

I have an Asus P5E X38 board (same as X48), and can confirm that both my cards run at 16x...