Question GPU stuck on PCIe 3.0 x1 ?

[ducamvinh]

Hi I'm running a GTX 1050ti on a Asus EX-B250-V7 motherboard

For some reasons GPUz and HWinfo both says that my card is running at x1 instead of x16. I have tried various ways that I've found on the internet. I've tried resetting the bios by removing the CMOS battery, I've tried reflash the BIOS
I've also put my card under load to see if the reading change but nothing has worked.
In the motherboard BIOS, there are no options for PCIe, as shown here in this video

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pygz5enLKVM


But when I change Mining mode to Enable, when I went to save, it showed that I have changed some PCIe options, like PCIEx16 speed and so on, which I couldn't find anywhere in the BIOS
Can someone please offer some help, please

 

[Diddly]

Make sure to test with GPU-Z - click in the built in stress tool to see if the PCIE switches to gen3 x16 under load

 

[ducamvinh]

Make sure to test with GPU-Z - click in the built in stress tool to see if the PCIE switches to gen3 x16 under load

Already tried that, no luck

 

[The Big Technowski]

Hi, can you write full system specs?
Is the Graph.cards installed into the PCI-E slot directly or do you use any pci-e riser cable in between?
Do you have a spare PCI-E gfx card or motherboard to troubleshoot?

 

[ducamvinh]

Hi, can you write full system specs?
Is the Graph.cards installed into the PCI-E slot directly or do you use any pci-e riser cable in between?
Do you have a spare PCI-E gfx card or motherboard to troubleshoot?

CPU: Intel Pentium G4600
Mobo: Asus EX-B250-V7
RAM: 8GB DDR4
GPU: Zotac GTX 1050 ti OC

The graphics card is the only PCIe device installed in my system. I put it directly into the slot that says PCIEx16, it's the only slot that is red and has fancy metal reinforcement and what not, so pretty sure i don't have that wrong.

 

[The Big Technowski]

PSU?

Did the GFX card always worked with minimized PCI-E speed?
If not, when this problem appeared? Was it after a new software installation or update or something similar?

Is this a (used) PC build you just bought or build it by your self?
If yes, have you checked thoroughly the gfx card for damaged components, corrosion etc.

It's a complicate problem, can be hardware can be software.

 

[ducamvinh]

PSU?

Did the GFX card always worked with minimized PCI-E speed?
If not, when this problem appeared? Was it after a new software installation or update or something similar?

Is this a (used) PC build you just bought or build it by your self?
If yes, have you checked thoroughly the gfx card for damaged components, corrosion etc.

It's a complicate problem, can be hardware can be software.

It's a clean, new windows 10 install on my PC that i built some years ago, as you can probably tell from the specs. The PSU is a 400W unit, but the graphics card doesn't have a power connector, it takes power directly from the PCIe slot. Now honestly i've run some benchmark, looks like everything is fine, gpu usage at 100%, clock speed is right, i even compare my score with online results and everything does fall in place.
But i'm playing Darksiders 3, and some weird things happen. The game usually stay under 50fps, even when gpu usage is around 70%. I read online that the game has a 60fps frame cap, but my system usually stay under 50, sometimes it gets higher, but most of the time it's under 50, i tried removing the frame cap based on online guides, but it doesn't seem to work

 

[grimfox]

If you are getting comparable frame rates as others with this GPU, then I would say it's a software reporting problem with your particular mobo/GPU.

For general knowledge, there are some instances where a NVMe SSD will "steal" PCIe lanes from a PCIe socket, but this doesn't usually happen to the primary x16 PCIe socket (the one nearest the CPU). You might check your mobo manual to see if something like that can happen. USB3.0, ethernet ports and even sata controllers will sometimes steal PCIe lanes. Typically not from the primary PCIe socket, but intel has restricted the number of lanes available on consumer platforms (compared to AMD) which may cause problems if you are using several of these devices and the mobo is poorly designed...weird things happen. To be clear, I don't suspect this is what is happening, it's just something that could happen in the worst case circumstance.

 

[The Big Technowski]

If you check Darksiders 3 system requirements your system sits at the minimum requirements thus the below 60 FPS, I guess.

Now honestly i've run some benchmark, looks like everything is fine

If by fine you mean that the card runs now at PCI-E x 16, then propably you have a component that creates this kind of symptom, I can't figure out if it is the the GPU, M/B or the old PSU. If you have the chance to test on a different mobo or with a different GPU, it would shed some light into the mystery.

 

[ducamvinh]

If you check Darksiders 3 system requirements your system sits at the minimum requirements thus the below 60 FPS, I guess.


If by fine you mean that the card runs now at PCI-E x 16, then propably you have a component that creates this kind of symptom, I can't figure out if it is the the GPU, M/B or the old PSU. If you have the chance to test on a different mobo or with a different GPU, it would shed some light into the mystery.

It's not that my system is under specs, it's that the GPU usage is only at 70%. Usually when stressed, GPU usage will go up to 100%, thus cranking out as many fps as it can. My GPU for some reason decide to only give about 70% of its capabilities most of the time for some reasons, which leads me to believe maybe it's because of the limited PCIe lanes that is bottlenecking performance

But then again, it only happen when in that game, most benchmark programs does push out 100% GPU usage, so maybe it's the game, honestly, i have no idea

 

[The Big Technowski]

Can you raise please the game settings and the resolution and check out the GPU usage and the GPUz PCI-E indicator?

Here a video that demonstrates the 1050 ti with a variety of CPUs among them the G4560 (close to yours 4600) while playing Darksiders 3 on 1080p and 720p at epic settings. 45 AVG.FPS and 60 AVG.FPS respectively.

View: https://youtu.be/Yu4SLcVNpIM?t=1027

 

[ducamvinh]

Can you raise please the game settings and the resolution and check out the GPU usage and the GPUz PCI-E indicator?

Here a video that demonstrates the 1050 ti with a variety of CPUs among them the G4560 (close to yours 4600) while playing Darksiders 3 on 1080p and 720p at epic settings. 45 AVG.FPS and 60 AVG.FPS respectively.

View: https://youtu.be/Yu4SLcVNpIM?t=1027

Wow thanks, looks like that helps. Still doesn't fix the softwares reading lower PCIe lanes, but i'll probably let it rest, performance doesn't seem to be affected much. It's weird that the readings from the softwares actually change, sometimes it's x1, sometimes x2, sometimes x4, but whatever i guess, not worth the effort

Thanks guys for all the help.

 

[badjona7an]

Hello there. I've had the same issue with my graphics card running at x1 instead of x16 and found it was caused by a third party PCI Bus driver installed by the graphics card software. As soon as I reverted back to the windows default driver my card is running now correctly at x16. Note I've also had to prevent the device from been updated automatically on each reboot. Hope you find it helpful.