nVidia cards and PCI-e lane requirements?

[thilanliyan]

Is there any specific requirement on the number of pci-e lanes for a nVidia 1080 for example? (eg. it won't run in a pci-e slot with only x4 bandwidth).

 

[muka3d]

PCIe is designed to be backwards compatible, so there isn't a requirement imposed by these cards, per se. However, for maximum performance, you'll want to put the card in your fastest slot (for example, PCIe x16 Gen3, which matches the maximum capability of GTX 1080). Putting it into a slower slot (say, x4) will still work, but you may be leaving some performance on the table.

For more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1080_PCI_Express_Scaling/

 

[thilanliyan]

Thanks for your help. The 1080 I have wasn't working properly in my motherboard with other cards in it but I got it working now by changing the slot speeds manually instead of leaving them on Auto.