Question Can i move my GPU to the 2nd Slot of PCIe x 16 without losing performance/speed ?

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bibiorunitia

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Dec 2, 2011
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Hi , i recently bought a SSD PCIe M.2 Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 gb But i feel like i heats too much since is between the CPU and GPU and i want to know if i move my GPU to the 2nd slot of PCIe it could reduce speed/performance or something from my graphic card? . I have an Asus Rog Strix B350-F Gaming Motherboard and Asus Rog Strix GTX 1070Ti . Thanks in advance
 
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alexoiu said:
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or x8/x4)
x4 in case first slot is used !
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It's stated like that because it's assumed the 2nd slot won't be used unless the 1st slot already is. The board can't switch the full x16 bandwidth between both slots. The 2nd slot is probably only physically wired for x4.

I guess it's easy enough for the OP to just try it out and see what bandwidth they get in the 2nd slot, but I'm almost positive it will be x4.

Just download GPU and look at the bus interface field. Make sure you run some graphics load in the background to get an accurate reading, because the bus interface will downclock at idle.
 
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I believe performance was OP's primary concern. Whether it's x4, x8 or x16 (questionable, IMO) it probably is not going to affect gaming performance appreciably whichever slot he's using. Maybe during game loads and/or changing levels/maps he'll have to agonize a few milliseconds longer, but not in the game itself. Unless doing something that does a lot of heavy bus transfers (GPU compute tasks, perhaps) it's been pretty well determined that PCIe bandwidth is not a significant contributor to performance when the card in question has sufficient local memory. Surely a 2070ti will meet that requirement.
 
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drea.drechsler said:
I believe performance was OP's primary concern. Whether it's x4, x8 or x16 (questionable, IMO) it probably is not going to affect gaming performance appreciably whichever slot he's using. Maybe during game loads and/or changing levels/maps he'll have to agonize a few milliseconds longer, but not in the game itself. Unless doing something that does a lot of heavy bus transfers (GPU compute tasks, perhaps) it's been pretty well determined that PCIe bandwidth is not a significant contributor to performance when the card in question has sufficient local memory. Surely a 2070ti will meet that requirement.
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Going down to x4 could have a not-insignificant impact though.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-pci-express-scaling/24.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-pci-express-scaling/6.html

Still likely only single digit percentage, so not huge, but I'd still avoid it if I could.
 
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TJ Hooker said:
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Still likely only single digit percentage, so not huge, but I'd still avoid it if I could.
Click to expand...

That's about what I recall, about 6-9% or so. GPU throttling due to heating can be even greater so you'd have to run some benchmarks under controlled conditions to appreciate it.

So in a game? I'm just not sure it will be noticed. The point to OP is: just do it. If it's not causing any issues, with gameplay as smooth as before, don't worry about the details.
 
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drea.drechsler said:
That's about what I recall, about 6-9% or so. GPU throttling due to heating can be even greater so you'd have to run some benchmarks under controlled conditions to appreciate it.

So in a game? I'm just not sure it will be noticed. The point to OP is: just do it. If it's not causing any issues, with gameplay as smooth as before, don't worry about the details.
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We have no evidence that there was any issue with the card in the first slot though, overheating or otherwise. The OP just said it "feels" like it gets too hot, plus I think they were talking about the SSD, not their graphics card.

If it was actually necessary to use the 2nd slot then yeah I'd say it isn't a huge deal, but I doesn't seem like that's the case.
 
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TJ Hooker said:
We have no evidence that there was any issue with the card in the first slot though, overheating or otherwise. ...
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I didn't mean to imply OP was experiencing a GPU overheating problem. I'm just saying that to reliably differentiate 6-9% performance in a GPU you have to be careful about controlling the test set-up as the GPU can heat up and throttle in back-to-back tests which will skew results. Point being, if you're at that point is it really appreciable?

The worry about his NVME getting hot isn't really an issue, IMO, for a number of reasons. Firstly: over-heating was an issue with first gen NVME's, later NVME's being very, very much better. Secondly, System drives really don't get the heavy sequential read/write activity that merits the concern. Thirdly, his NVME doesn't sit directly under the GPU so it's getting good airflow around it. And last, modern FLASH rams used in NVME SSD's actually like to be hot.
 
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alexoiu said:
What other correct advice than the manufacturer advertised specs? x16 in single and x4 in dual... I really don't get it.
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It doesn't explicitly say x16 in either slot. As I said, it's stated the way it is because they assume that if you're only using one slot it'll be the first one.

If it was capable of x16 bandwidth for either slot, why wouldn't APUs be able to use either slot (at x8)? Note that the specs state that APUs can only use the first of those two slots. This only makes sense if only a reduced subset of the full x16 link goes to the 2nd slot (i.e. the last 4 lanes, which APUs lack).
 
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TJ Hooker said:
It doesn't explicitly say x16 in either slot; as I said, it's stated that way because they assume that if you're only using one slot it'll be the first one.

If it was capable of x16 bandwidth for either slot, why wouldn't APUs be able to use either slot (at x8)? Note that the specs state that APUs can only use the first of those two slots. This only makes sense if only a subset of the full x16 link goes to the 2nd slot (i.e. the last 4 lanes, which APUs lack).
Click to expand...

Ok, I give up...
Just think about this: 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or x8/x4)
 
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alexoiu said:
Ok, I give up...
Just think about this: 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or x8/x4)
Click to expand...
I'll try this one more time:

"2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16" - this part means that the two slots are physically x16 in size. It says nothing about bandwidth.

"(x16 or x8/x4)" This part means that if only the first slot is populated it will run at x16 bandwidth, if both slots are populated they will run at x8/x4 bandwidth. It doesn't address the scenario where you're only using the 2nd slot because there's no reason to do that. Just like there's no reason for Asus to increase board layout complexity by routing all 16 lanes to the 2nd slot.

I get how someone can (mis)interpret it the way you did. I've explained repeatedly why that interpretation is not correct.
 
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This horse might be dead, but according to the specifications on Newegg, only one of the two x16 slots is 3.0 and for x16. The other one is wired 2.0. Now in order to get the 3.0 you have to have a later processor. See below: https://www.newegg.com/asus-rog-strix-b350-f-gaming/p/N82E16813132988

AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation / Ryzen 1st Generation Processors
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or x8/x4)

AMD Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics / 7th Generation A-Series/Athlon X4 Processors
1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x8 mode)

So the older processors still only get x8 in the slot. Too many slots for me! lol
 
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Wow , Thanks for the advices guys , i am going to test in the second slot with the GPU-Z and see how is going.

drea.drechsler said:
The worry about his NVME getting hot isn't really an issue, IMO, for a number of reasons. Firstly: over-heating was an issue with first gen NVME's, later NVME's being very, very much better. Secondly, System drives really don't get the heavy sequential read/write activity that merits the concern. Thirdly, his NVME doesn't sit directly under the GPU so it's getting good airflow around it. And last, modern FLASH rams used in NVME SSD's actually like to be hot.
Click to expand...
Btw is normal for my NVME SSD gets too Hot like 60 ºC , sometimes more ? , i asked this in other Post but no answers D: .

My CPU is a Ryzen 7 1700 and Ripjaws x2 8GB of RAM
 
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SSJBart2003 said:
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AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation / Ryzen 1st Generation Processors
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or x8/x4)

AMD Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics / 7th Generation A-Series/Athlon X4 Processors
1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x8 mode)
...
Click to expand...

Just another specification call-out that's as open to interpretation as the one(s) on Asus's web page that's confounding TJHooker and alexiou. I take it that "3.0/2.0" means it supports 3.0 for devices that need Gen3, but also supports Gen 2.0 for devices that need that.

@bibiorunitia : According to Samsung's spec's, operating temp for the drive is 0-70C so 60C wouldn't be alarming. And IMO, it is extremely unlikely to be getting that hot just from the CPU and GPU and especially if they aren't considerably hotter than that which would mean they'd be unstable. NVME controllers run hot by nature during heavy drive activity.

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/970-evo-plus-nvme-m2
 
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