[SOLVED] Graphics card-sound card conflict possibility

Jan 26, 2021
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I am building my first pc and have a ton of questions. I am using an Asus ROG Strix z390 Gaming E motherboard, a Gigabyte Aorus RTX 2070 super video card and a Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card. The mobo has 3 PCIe 3.0 x1 slots and 3 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. I would like to mount the video card vertically but don’t want the riser cable to cover the sound card (looks too pretty). My only two options are to plug the sound card into the PCIEX1_1 slot (the topmost slot) and the video card into the PCIEX16_1 slot (the topmost x16 slot) OR to plug the video card into the PCIEX16_2 slot and keep the sound card in the top x1 slot. Are there any potential bottlenecks or other problems with either of those arrangements?
 
Solution
Just keep the GPU in one of the X16 slots for maximum bandwidth, although even at X8 I doubt any bandwidth limitations will be reached. The sound card will be fine in any slot and have no restrictions.