Why is my 8600GT running at PCI-E 8x?

[nycxandy]

I've read that there is a very small difference in performance between PCI-E 8x and 16x. However, that's not the point. I would just like to know why I'm running at 8x when both the card (EVGA 8600GT) and motherboard (Asus P5K-E) are spec'ed for 16x. I'm using the latest nvidia drivers (169.20) and latest motherboard drivers (1006). Can anyone help?

 

[Cuular]

BIOS setting for the particular PCI-e you are using?

 

[Capt Caveman]

How do you know you're running at 8x?

 

[krnmastersgt]

GPU-Z would show it running at 1x,4x,8x,16x, My guess is the board was designed to run 2 cards at 8x each instead of 16x, the different in performance shouldn't be too drastic and I forgot how you change those on the Asus boards.

 

[Oyeve]

Isnt there a big jumper on that mobo for sli? Maybe its jumped for sli. Check the manual and see what position the jumper should be on for single card.

 

[ArchAngel777]

At this point in time, the fact that you are running at 8x is not a big deal whatsoever, even with the fastest card currently available.

Take for instance a hose. If the hose (PCI-E 8X) diameter isn't bottlenecking the water pressure (GPU Power) then moving to a larger hose will NOT increase the flow. At this current time, an 8X Slot will NOT hinder an 8800 ULTRA in any way. You have no worries, so enjoy your rig and leave your OCD at the door.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
At this point in time, the fact that you are running at 8x is not a big deal whatsoever, even with the fastest card currently available.

Take for instance a hose. If the hose (PCI-E 8X) diameter isn't bottlenecking the water pressure (GPU Power) then moving to a larger hose will NOT increase the flow. At this current time, an 8X Slot will NOT hinder an 8800 ULTRA in any way. You have no worries, so enjoy your rig and leave your OCD at the door.

true. We never even got close to Agp 8X. I think.

 

[nycxandy]

GPU-Z reports 8x. I have a P5K-E, so there is no SLI. I don't think it matters now since I'm going to upgrade to a 9600GT. We'll see how that fares.

 

[Sylvanas]

Some people I have seen have this issue in the past got it fixed by upping the PCI-E frequency by a few mhz.