Electrical PCIe lanes? (I want to speak to the manager!)

[petreza]

<Karen Mode>
I am tired of having to prowl through the forums for confirmation that a GPU specification:
PCIe 4.0 x16
is really
PCIe 4.0 x16
and not
PCIe 4.0 x16 (x8 electrical)

How about always including the parenthesis:
PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 electrical)

I get that the card needs a x16 physical slot (not counting open-ended x8 physical slots, which might not be recommended for heavy cards), but I also need to know how many of the lanes are in use. For my use case - not gaming - it matters.
Several times now I thought I found a video card that meets my needs, only to discover that it is a x8 electrical.
</Karen Mode>

Whom at the PCI-SIG do I have to make happy, in order for them to enforce some transparency?

 

[Nighthawk117]

Dumb question, you mean the GPU isn't x16 or the motherboard?

 

[boju]

Gpu specification is what it says, 16x. 8x, 4x etc, electrical depends on the motherboard and cpu. All motherboards first pcie slot runs at full 16. Add another card in second slot then interface can change depending on motherboard and how many lanes cpu supports between multiple pcie slots. You're investigating the wrong component to find your answers.