PhysX (PPU) - it'll need PCI-E 4x ...so who's ready?

[Diasper]

Having read up a bit more on the PhysX Processing Unit (PPU) is seems the future revisions will be wanting to use PCI Express 4x.

Now is it me or are no boards supporting that currently outside of the DFI?

Even the new ATI chipset is lacking enough PCI-E lanes and is sticking to only using PCIE 1x outside of its graphics slots.

Do any other motherboards have PCI-E 4x?

Or are we left waiting for the new nForce4 SLI X16 chipset with more PCIE lanes (38 lanes for AMD) ...and likewise for ATI perhaps in due time?

Ultimately, all those who have bought recent nforce4 motherboards without PCI-E 4x it seems will be stuck with only able to buy the introductory and basic PCI/PCI-E 1x part (as I understand they'll release) when a shiny more powerful PPU will be released alongside - that is of course unless you are willing to fork out on a new motherboard as well.

In short, it seems all those lovely new nforce4 motherboards that people have bought and planned to plug-in a nice powerful PPU and receive a very nice performance boost - well, it simply won't work.

Or am I wrong?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Any of the Sli board can be set to run 8x in slot 1, and 8x in slot 2. And any highend card runs fine at 8x with no performance loss (not sure about the 7800). If the PPU can run in an 8x slot your good to go.

 

[Diasper]

That's what I thought originally, but if you look, PCI-Express Slots depending on speed and use are different sizes.

Graphics card slots = full-size
PCI-E 1x = very short
PCI-E 4x = slightly longer


You can see this illustrated on the DFI Ultra where the PCI-E 4x is the slot closest to the CPU socket and above the top graphics card slot.

It seems to me that you won't be fitting a PCI-E 4x PPU into a PCI-E 1X slot for sure. As for the graphics card slot - I suspect by the looks of it, it won't be working either.

(edit) So you know, I would actually want myself to be wrong on this

 

[imported_Kensai]

Mine does!
Technically you can put an x4 card into an x16 slot, etc. etc. Small card into a bigger slot will work but not vice versa unless it's notched or modded.

 

[Diasper]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Mine does!
Technically you can put an x4 card into an x16 slot, etc. etc. Small card into a bigger slot will work but not vice versa unless it's notched or modded.

Where did you read that? That occured to me but seemed unlikely given it would then make sense to make all PCI-E slots the same size or at the very least have only one size outside of the full-size PCI-E slot for your graphics card.

 

[JME Fidelity]

This PPU sure looks like its going to deliver some amazing results, if from what ive seen in demos is really how it will work.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: Diasper

Originally posted by: Kensai
Mine does!
Technically you can put an x4 card into an x16 slot, etc. etc. Small card into a bigger slot will work but not vice versa unless it's notched or modded.

Where did you read that? That occured to me but seemed unlikely given it would then make sense to make all PCI-E slots the same size or at the very least have only one size outside of the full-size PCI-E slot for your graphics card.

I've done it...

 

[coomar]

so ony the dfi has it?

 

[the cobbler]

MSI K8N Neo4/Platinum has an x4 slot.

 

[MDE]

Asus A8N-E has a 4x slot.

 

[jdogg707]

A8N-SLI Premium has it.

 

[coomar]

my dual slot gpu and xp-120 are killing slots

could i put the dual slot in the 2nd 8x and run the ppu in the first one?

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: Diasper

Originally posted by: Kensai
Mine does!
Technically you can put an x4 card into an x16 slot, etc. etc. Small card into a bigger slot will work but not vice versa unless it's notched or modded.

Where did you read that? That occured to me but seemed unlikely given it would then make sense to make all PCI-E slots the same size or at the very least have only one size outside of the full-size PCI-E slot for your graphics card.

I've done it...

also I've seen (@ Tomshardware) how they blocked the lanes with tape on a videocard to test the performance ranging from PCIe x1 to x16. And you can only wonder how much performnce it'll gain.

 

[hans007]

most of the boards with 4x slots, only run them at 2x anyway.

i have an a8n-e, it physically has 2 x1, 1 x16 and an x4, but even in the manual it says the x4 slot only has x2 bandwidth for x20 total.

 

[SynthDude2001]

How much are these things going to cost? If I can only get a basic version that "only" costs $150 or $200 that fits in an x1 slot, I don't think I'll particularly care that I'm missing out on the even more expensive x4 slot version...

(FWIW, I'm planning on purchasing that new ASRock board at some point, and it only has one x16 and one x1 PCI-E slot.)

 

[papaHesch]

Originally posted by: hans007
most of the boards with 4x slots, only run them at 2x anyway.

i have an a8n-e, it physically has 2 x1, 1 x16 and an x4, but even in the manual it says the x4 slot only has x2 bandwidth for x20 total.

hans007,

I have the A8N-SLI premium board from Asus and I can not find very much on the speed of the 4x land. It says twice the speed of a 1x lane (which is 2x) but why would they use a 4x connector. Basically, where did you find the specs and could you give me a quote to see if it matches the verbage in the A8N-SLI verbage. Here is a link that helps with this topic PCI-E information link. Has anyone ever got anything to run in their 4x slot? I have tried with little luck with a card that supports 4x but nothing below. Which makes me believe that it is 2x in speed.

Thanks,
Papa