Question GPU at PCIe x2 3.0

[FrutyX]

Heya,

i have noticed something recently, according to GPU-Z, my GPU supports PCI-Express x16 3.0, however, it runs with PCI-Express x2 3.0 (under load), now this isn't any technical problem here, I checked the manual and it's just in the wrong slot (one that is running at x2, not x16).

The main reason why it is in the wrong slot was space, space in the case.

The weird thing is, I did not noticed any bad performance, it's running smooth and my GPU can still surprise me even in new games (some can run on Medium to High, depending on the optimization), so the question is, how big is the performance loss? Or is there any? Will I gain something by trying to swap these slots?

I've been running like this for almost a year, and did not noticed this.

Case: MSI Mag Forge 100M (All fans placed)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE B550 GAMING X V2 (BIOS F16)
Power supply: Corsair RM750x (2021)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 (No OC)
CPU Cooler: SilentiumPC Fera 5
Memory: Kingston FURY 16+16GB KITS (4x8) DDR4 3200MHz (XMP)
Graphic Card: ASUS Dual Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5 (No OC)
SSD (OS): Samsung SSD 860 EVO 250GB (TRIM on)
SSD 2: Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB (TRIM on)
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

 

[pete_101]

Yes, it will make quite a difference, could be as much as 20%. It's hard to say as I've only ever seen videos comparing 4x to 8x to 16x and the 4x is usually 10% slower, I've never seen 2x tested.

 

[Viking2121]

x2, thats kind of a weird one, usually they drop down to x1. But it depends on the game, you will see worse performance in memory intensive games, But yeah there is a lot of games where it may not matter much, normally them lighter to run games.

Sure performance is smooth, but smooth doesn't always mean its running at the best that it can, I would definitely find a way to throw it back into the top slot for the best performance possible, but if your happy with it, then hey. If you get a newer GPU just expect much wore performance on a x2 slot.

 

[Lutfij]

I would highly recommend that you drop the discrete GPU into your first PCIe x16 slot on your motherboard.

 

[FrutyX]

Thanks everyone, I've swapped the slots and now it's running as intended, with hopefully, some more extra juice out of it.