PCI-E X1 in a PCI-E x16 slot?

[Godsmack74]

I have a PCI-E X1 dual monitor Matrox card that I need to put in a PCI-E x16 slot, will this work?

Please respond if you have practical knowledge of actual use and it working.

 

[Peter]

Electrically, yes. Both ends of a PCIE link must negotiate the working link width, and the slot pinout is such that cards with narrower links connect correctly.

From the software end, you're putting a graphics device into a slot where a silly BIOS might expect to see nothing but a graphics device - so no potential for a problem there either.

 

[Bull Dog]

I'd be "very" surprised if it didn't work.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: Peter
Electrically, yes. Both ends of a PCIE link must negotiate the working link width, and the slot pinout is such that cards with narrower links connect correctly.

From the software end, you're putting a graphics device into a slot where a silly BIOS might expect to see nothing but a graphics device - so no potential for a problem there either.

I would also be extremely suprised(as stated in the above post) if a lower level PCIe card would not work in a higher level one. PCIe is designed from the ground up to where all higher speed slots are backwards compatible with all lower speed cards.

A bios not allowing a 1X card working in a 16X slot is like a bios not letting a single core processor work in a board that supports dual core processors. It just doesn't make sense.

I have never seen a scenario when a 1X card would not work in a 16X slot. You should have no problems.

 

[videopho]

Speaking of the evil, or X1. What can I buy today besides that Matrox card to fill in my 2 available x1 slots? e.g. I'd be very happy to get rid of my pci soundcard or tv tuner to get the x1 equivalents if possible. Doesn't someone make a HDTV tuner with x1 card?

 

[Continuity28]

Originally posted by: videopho
Speaking of a devil, or X1. What can I buy today besides that Matrox card to fill in my 2 available x1 slots? e.g. I'd be very happy to get rid of my pci soundcard or tv tuner to get the x1 equivalents if possible.

Not if Creative has anything to say about it! :roll:

I'm not sure on TV Tuner cards though.

 

[Peter]

The reason why there are so few PCIE 1x cards is, there aren't that many native PCIE 1x _chips_ out yet. Sure, one could slap a PCIE-to-PCI bridge chip in front of a normal PCI device, but what's the point as long as we still have native PCI slots?

PCIE videograbber chips exist at least from Philips and ATI, and Tuner cards in PCIE 1x shape are coming. Terratec are already shipping one in Germany, LifeView have announced a couple quite a while ago (not spotted in Germany just yet).

Gigabit network cards are available too.

Potentially, SATA cards could be made as well, PCIE SATA chips are available.

Higher spec I/O chips are mostly PCIE-4x: SATA and SAS RAID chips, dual channel gigabit ethernet, etc blah blah.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

think I was somewhere that Belkin was going to come out with wifi cards using PCIe x1

http://www.pcstats.com/NewsView.cfm?NewsID=45109

 

[Peter]

... and LifeView's dual-tuner PCIE 1x TV cards are here too. So are a handful of Gigabit ethernet cards.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: Peter
The reason why there are so few PCIE 1x cards is, there aren't that many native PCIE 1x _chips_ out yet. Sure, one could slap a PCIE-to-PCI bridge chip in front of a normal PCI device, but what's the point as long as we still have native PCI slots?

PCIE videograbber chips exist at least from Philips and ATI, and Tuner cards in PCIE 1x shape are coming. Terratec are already shipping one in Germany, LifeView have announced a couple quite a while ago (not spotted in Germany just yet).

Gigabit network cards are available too.

Potentially, SATA cards could be made as well, PCIE SATA chips are available.

Higher spec I/O chips are mostly PCIE-4x: SATA and SAS RAID chips, dual channel gigabit ethernet, etc blah blah.

actually i believe the protocol for PCI-E and PCI are the same, thats why they both have "PCI" in them, so you dont really need a bridge chip for translation.


there are quite a few x1 nic cards, and there is the power color ati tv analog tuner. There is also a matrox x1 g550 video card.

 

[Peter]

Yes you do need a bridge chip, no room for belief here.

The software protocol is similar (but far from identical - PCIE has a substantial extension to the legacy PCI configuration procedure), but the hardware protocol is completely different, high-speed differential point-to-point signalling with packet traffic, not a parallel, bussed, transaction based setup.

http://www.plxtech.com/products/pci_exp...X8111/briefs/PEX8111_PB_EC_26Oct05.pdf
http://www.plxtech.com/products/pci_express/PEX8114/default.asp
http://www.pericom.com/products/pci/psempart.php?productID=PI7C9X110
http://www.intel.com/design/bridge/41210.htm

 

[hans007]

yeah i know that hardware wise, it was different since pci-e is serial, and not a shared bus. i figure x1 devices will start to appear once companies like intel start phasing it out of their motherboards.

usually its intel that does it, maybe they will cut it down to like 1 pci slot, like how they are phasing out ATA by only having one channel on all the new chipsetgs.