GTX 780 on PCI-E 2.0 x4

[CakeMonster]

So... sleep deprived, hungry and impatient I set out to remove my last graphics card and install my GTX 780, and I managed to actually physically destroy my PCI-E 3.0 x16 port. Yup, I'm not kidding. First time in 15+ years of installing computers that I've ruined a motherboard. The plastic thing came lose since I was pulling the card thinking I had loosened the fastening thingy... So, yeah...

Anyways, the mobo (Gigabyte Z87-DH3P) still works, and its second full size PCI-E slot is 2.0 x4 according to Google. So how bad will my GTX 780 be punished that bandwidth?

I found an AT test of PCI-E 3.0 speeds with a 7970, and it didn't look that bad. I was looking at the PCI-E 3.0 x2 speeds since I figure those are comparable to PCI-E 2.0 x4:

Again, that is for a 7970, I would expect a faster card to be punished more percentage wise. Are there any other factors playing into this?

(Yeah, I will end up getting a new mobo and trying to donate this to someone who can use the slot without a penalty or even the IGP but for now I'm curious how much my graphics performance will suffer.)

 

[nurturedhate]

You are correct. 2.0 x4 is basically 3.0 x2.

 

[BrightCandle]

And yes its not too bad in some games, and others its quite a large impact. I wouldn't be so worried about running 4x on 3.0 as 8x on 2.0 really isn't much impact at all (as you can see from the results), but 2x sometimes is really bad.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Did you actually damage the slot, or just the retaining clip? You know you can use the slot without the retaining clip intact, right? It just might have the risk of slipping out of the slot if you jostle it. Just be careful.

I did that to the primary slot on my 990FX Extreme4 ASRock board.

 

[CakeMonster]

Unfortunately the slot is ruined, the whole plastic socket/slot came loose from the board, I was sure I had the retaining clip loosened but nope so I dragged the whole thing out with the card. Strangely it didn't feel much different from normally pulling out a card... the socket was not attached to the board with anything but those metal threads. I screwed up royally but I'm not impressed with the design either, it could have been fastened on the back of the board.