GTX 670 running at x4 mode

davidst99

Senior member
Apr 20, 2007
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Hi,

Will running a GTX670 x4 take a big hit on performance in a SLI setup? I have 2 PCI 3.0 and one PCI 2.0 slots. My Z97 motherboard can either do 16/0/4, 8/8/0 or 8/4/4. I would like to add a PCI x4 storage device card to the PCI 2.0 slot but that would make my 2nd PCI 3.0 run at x4. Thanks.

David
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
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"16/0/4, 8/8/0 or 8/4/4."

I would expect 8/8/4 if it can work at 16/0/4

anyway, one slot is probably connected to the PCH, the other 2 to the CPU... make sure you use only the CPU connected slots for graphics cards.
 

Braxos

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May 24, 2013
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Sli works only on x8 or x16 nvidia doesn't support x4 on sli. So think it again
 

blackened23

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2011
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There are two types of PCIE lanes. 8 lanes run off of the PCH (chipset) and 16 lanes from the CPU. If it's a PCIE gen 3 slot, it is running off the CPU. Motherboards generally also have a PCIE gen 2 slot (or sometimes more than 1). If it is a gen 2 slot, it is running off of the PCH. PCH and CPU slots don't interfere with one another. I'm 99.9% sure your x4 storage device will not affect SLI speeds. You should be fine. But you should state your motherboard model to be sure.

Basically, that means that the SLI slots will run off of the CPU pci express lanes, and the x4 storage device you're using will run off of the PCH. The chipset (PCH) lanes and CPU lanes are separate. Therefore, they will not interfere. This is how the vast majority of motherboards will work with very few exceptions, and like I said, if you can name your motherboard specifically it can be verified. But there are very rarely instances of an x1/x4 slot interfering with SLI pci express slot speeds. That is very rare unless the board is just poorly designed.

edit: you also mention the 3rd slot is gen 2. If you say the 3rd slot is PCIE 2.0. That means it is DEFINITELY running off of the PCH. So it will not interfere with SLI. The upper 2 slots will be the SLI slots running at x8/x8 and you can put whatever you want in the PCIE 2.0 slot - if it is a 2.0 slot, it *IS* running off of the PCH which means it won't interfere with SLI speeds.
 
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davidst99

Senior member
Apr 20, 2007
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Hi, I have the Gigabyte Gaming 7 motherboard. The manual says that if I have anything in the PCI 2.0 slot, the second PCI slot will run at x4 mode. I believe all Gigabyte Z97 motherboards are doing this configuration. Thanks.

EDIT

The third slot says PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4. "The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX8 and PCIEX16 slots. When the PCIEX4 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode and the PCIEX8 will operate at up to x4 mode."
 
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