Can an i5-2500 run at pcie 3.0 x16?

[JaredzzC]

Hi,

I was doing some research because I wanted to crossfire my R9 290.
I knew I needed a new motherboard because my current one is only pcie 2.0 x16 and will run at x4 if crossfire is enabled.

I thought it was as simple as 'get a motherboard with pcie 3.0 x16 slots', but then I found out it's not. I didn't realise that the CPU had an impact on the bus lane/transfer rate...

Will an i5-2500 (non-K variant) be able to run at PCIe 3.0 x16?
I'm glad I came across this because I was almost ready to buy a new motherboard and another R9 290 without knowing that the performance could be hindered due to my CPU as I don't exactly want to by another one on top of everything else I wanted.

Regards,
Jared.

 

[maktovic]

Short answer→NO
You cant run a PCIe 3.0 at its specified speed with 2nd gen CPU and it will operate at the speed of PCIe 2.0 only even with a motherboard with PCIe 3.0 slot

 

[cdrkf]

Hi,

I was doing some research because I wanted to crossfire my R9 290.
I knew I needed a new motherboard because my current one is only pcie 2.0 x16 and will run at x4 if crossfire is enabled.

I thought it was as simple as 'get a motherboard with pcie 3.0 x16 slots', but then I found out it's not. I didn't realise that the CPU had an impact on the bus lane/transfer rate...

Will an i5-2500 (non-K variant) be able to run at PCIe 3.0 x16?
I'm glad I came across this because I was almost ready to buy a new motherboard and another R9 290 without knowing that the performance could be hindered due to my CPU as I don't exactly want to by another one on top of everything else I wanted.

Regards,
Jared.

From memory the Sandy bridge chips (i.e. 2000 series like you have) only have PCIe 2.0 support. However you can probably get a motherboard that can be configured as x 8, x 8 rather than x16, x4 which would probably be better for crossfire.