GTX 970 Link Width only 8x

[callofduty5843]

Using gpu z and cpu z i saw my link width only being 8x instead of 16x, i have no power saving feature enabled or anything else, what can i do?
I don't have any SLI or something occupying the other pci slots
here's some screenshot of gpu z:

http://imgur.com/2DqmX3L
http://imgur.com/Bk5q3UX
http://imgur.com/lcXG9fe

My rig is
Strix GTX 970
i5 6500
16gb of corsair vengeance ram
msi h170 gaming m3 as rig

 

[pete_101]

Does it stay at 8x when you run the render test? If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the blue question mark beside where it says x8 1.1, click on it and start the render test.
If it does, are you using the top 16x slot on the motherboard?

 

[callofduty5843]

.

 

[callofduty5843]

Does it stay at 8x when you run the render test? If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the blue question mark beside where it says x8 1.1, click on it and start the render test.
If it does, are you using the top 16x slot on the motherboard?

Yes i'm using the top one,i already tried a render test, i'll show you the result:
That's a screenshot during render test:
http://imgur.com/Cns6bhS

 

[pete_101]

Maybe something else is using the other 8 lanes. Do you have any other cards or SSD installed into the lower slots?

The CPU has 16 lanes, they all go to the top slot, then 8 go from there to the next couple of slots down, then 4. So, even though all 16 go to the top slot, not all of them will be used for the graphics card if you are using the other slots.

 

[callofduty5843]

Maybe something else is using the other 8 lanes. Do you have any other cards or SSD installed into the lower slots?

The CPU has 16 lanes, they all go to the top slot, then 8 go from there to the next couple of slots down, then 4. So, even though all 16 go to the top slot, not all of them will be used for the graphics card if you are using the other slots.

The other slots are completely empty, here's a pic of my build if you don't trust me

http://imgur.com/dAQtwzJ
http://imgur.com/1supKv9

 

[Antonis117]

Does it stay at 8x when you run the render test? If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the blue question mark beside where it says x8 1.1, click on it and start the render test.
If it does, are you using the top 16x slot on the motherboard?

The link width remains at x8 no matter the load. What you want to say is the speed of the slot (1.1 or 3.0).

 

[Antonis117]

Do you have any m.2 ssd installed or any other expansion card installed on any other pcie slot? (Including the x1 x8 x16).

 

[callofduty5843]

Do you have any m.2 ssd installed or any other expansion card installed on any other pcie slot? (Including the x1 x8 x16).

Nope, as you can see here:
http://imgur.com/1supKv9
http://imgur.com/dAQtwzJ

 

[Antonis117]

Do you have any m.2 ssd installed or any other expansion card installed on any other pcie slot? (Including the x1 x8 x16).

Nope, as you can see here:
http://imgur.com/1supKv9
http://imgur.com/dAQtwzJ

Ok. Now you could turn off your pc, switch off the power supply, take your gpu out and carefully re-install it back to the same slot and try again. This worked for me once with a GTX650 on a Z77 motherboard. After re-installing the gpu it finally showed as x16 instead of x8.

 

[callofduty5843]

Do you have any m.2 ssd installed or any other expansion card installed on any other pcie slot? (Including the x1 x8 x16).

Nope, as you can see here:
http://imgur.com/1supKv9
http://imgur.com/dAQtwzJ

Ok. Now you could turn off your pc, switch off the power supply, take your gpu out and carefully re-install it back to the same slot and try again. This worked for me once with a GTX650 on a Z77 motherboard. After re-installing the gpu it finally showed as x16 instead of x8.

Actually i did this already twice, maybe i can change the PCI slot?

 

[Antonis117]

Do you have any m.2 ssd installed or any other expansion card installed on any other pcie slot? (Including the x1 x8 x16).

Nope, as you can see here:
http://imgur.com/1supKv9
http://imgur.com/dAQtwzJ

Ok. Now you could turn off your pc, switch off the power supply, take your gpu out and carefully re-install it back to the same slot and try again. This worked for me once with a GTX650 on a Z77 motherboard. After re-installing the gpu it finally showed as x16 instead of x8.

Actually i did this already twice, maybe i can change the PCI slot?

Xmm. Well try and re-install it on the next PCIEx16 slot which runs at x4 speed.

 

[callofduty5843]

Do you have any m.2 ssd installed or any other expansion card installed on any other pcie slot? (Including the x1 x8 x16).

Nope, as you can see here:
http://imgur.com/1supKv9
http://imgur.com/dAQtwzJ

Ok. Now you could turn off your pc, switch off the power supply, take your gpu out and carefully re-install it back to the same slot and try again. This worked for me once with a GTX650 on a Z77 motherboard. After re-installing the gpu it finally showed as x16 instead of x8.

Actually i did this already twice, maybe i can change the PCI slot?

Xmm. Well try and re-install it on the next PCIEx16 slot which runs at x4 speed.

I just noticed this:
http://i.imgur.com/mbTmhyl.jpg

There are two pins in a wrong position, is this correct?

 

[Antonis117]

Well that was my concern to honest. Thats why I told you to take it out and replace it carefully. I was worried since you told there is nothing else installed on the motherboard, that the pins on the right half of the slot were shorting. That means that it cant run at x16 speed but at half with the left half of the slot. Now you can take a hairpin and try to straight them. It is difficult I know but it is the only thing you can do now.

 

[callofduty5843]

Well that was my concern to honest. Thast why I told you to take it out and replace it carefully. I was worried since you told there is nothing else installed on the motherboard, that the pins on the right half of the slot were shorting. That means that it cant run at x16 speed but at half with the left half of the slot. Now you can take a hairpin and try to straight them. It is difficult I know but it is the only thing you can do now.

Thanks for the help, I'm such a dumb, first build of my life, I'm just thinking about how much strength I used to put the card into the slot 2 years ago

 

[Antonis117]

Well that was my concern to honest. Thast why I told you to take it out and replace it carefully. I was worried since you told there is nothing else installed on the motherboard, that the pins on the right half of the slot were shorting. That means that it cant run at x16 speed but at half with the left half of the slot. Now you can take a hairpin and try to straight them. It is difficult I know but it is the only thing you can do now.

Thanks for the help, I'm such a dumb, first build of my life, I'm just thinking about how much strength I used to put the card into the slot 2 years ago

Well it happens. A few months ago I did the same thing with a memory slot which resulted not working at all.