[SOLVED] Does it matter if all pci-e slots are used?

Sep 12, 2021
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Hi, i wanted to know that if you use most or even all the PCi slots does it affect the capabilities of the other pci components? Or does it not make a difference?
Thanks
 
Solution
Hi, i wanted to know that if you use most or even all the PCi slots does it affect the capabilities of the other pci components? Or does it not make a difference?
Thanks
It depends on the motherboard and what slots you populated.
  • If there are multiple PCIe x16 slots, at least two of them will be connected to the CPU. In this case, the number of lanes gets distributed between them to the closest power of 2 up to the most they need. So if you have an x16 card in one slot and a x1 card in another, the x16 card will only get 8 lanes, even though there are 15 available after the x1 card uses what it needs.
  • For the rest, they typically disable storage ports. Some motherboards with multiple M.2 slots will only let you use the...
Hi, i wanted to know that if you use most or even all the PCi slots does it affect the capabilities of the other pci components? Or does it not make a difference?
Thanks
It depends on the motherboard and what slots you populated.
  • If there are multiple PCIe x16 slots, at least two of them will be connected to the CPU. In this case, the number of lanes gets distributed between them to the closest power of 2 up to the most they need. So if you have an x16 card in one slot and a x1 card in another, the x16 card will only get 8 lanes, even though there are 15 available after the x1 card uses what it needs.
  • For the rest, they typically disable storage ports. Some motherboards with multiple M.2 slots will only let you use the M.2 slot or a specific PCIe slot. Others will disable a pair of SATA ports.
 
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