Question H61 chipset and available PCIe lanes ?

[Abhi@000]

I bought a cheap H61 motherboard last year and installed an i5-2400 CPU, plus an Nvidia 1030 GPU in the motherboard's one and only x16 slot.

Gpu-z shows bus interface to be PCIe x4 2.0 @ x4 2.0 even after putting it under load.
After checking online, I found that the processor supports 16 pcie lanes, but the intel h61 express chipset specifications on intel website showed 'PCI Express Configurations' to be x1,x2,x4 and 'Max# of PCI Express Lanes' to be 6.
Can I do something to increase that from pcie x4 for utilizing better gpus? I know i5 2400 will bottleneck but dont know how bad will pcie x4 be.

I want to upgrade my gpu once before I have savings to upgrade mobo, cpu and ram altogether. If my mobo can't allow more than pcie 2.0 x4, I think I will have to skip gpu upgrade and directly upgrade everything before that.

 

[kerberos_20]

cpu pcie lanes and chipset pcie lanes are separate
you still have 16 lanes from cpu + few lanes from chipset
now as your gpu runs at two lanes only, that means its not connected in slot properly, could be something inside slot, or pins needs cleaning

 

[Abhi@000]

cpu pcie lanes and chipset pcie lanes are separate
you still have 16 lanes from cpu + few lanes from chipset
now as your gpu runs at two lanes only, that means its not connected in slot properly, could be something inside slot, or pins needs cleaning

I reseated the gpu twice and checked for any dust or obstruction but it is still working at PCIe x4 2.0@ x4 2.0.

1. What does PCIe x4 2.0@ x4 2.0 exaclty means? does it means mobo is only allowing x4 2.0 and gpu is using that?
2. I have attached two pictures of my gpu, does it looks like a x4 or x8 only card by the pcb wiring?

https://imgur.com/a/HDQLRoJ

View: https://imgur.com/a/HDQLRoJ

3. Is it possible that in a cheap H61 mobo, the manufacturers may have deliberately wired x16 as just x4? I dont have motherboard manual to check. The second of the two pcie slots is a x1 slot and its unpopulated.
4. If there are many devices connected to PC, will the chipset sending large amounts of data to cpu cause it to reduce number of lanes going to pcie x16 slot, given I5-2400 can handle maximum of 16 lanes only?

 

[kerberos_20]

just noticed you have nvidia 1030, in that case all seems to be fine
your cpu supports just pcie 2.0 and gtx 1030, even tho supports pcie 3.0, it has just 4 lanes
all in all PCIe x4 2.0@ x4 2.0 is correct with your CPU and gpu combo

pcie gen3 came with 3rd gen intel..so unless you replace cpu with lets say i5-3400, gppu would be stuck at pcie gen 2
to be fair, 1030 doesnt really need too much bandwith

 

[Abhi@000]

just noticed you have nvidia 1030, in that case all seems to be fine
your cpu supports just pcie 2.0 and gtx 1030, even tho supports pcie 3.0, it has just 4 lanes
all in all PCIe x4 2.0@ x4 2.0 is correct with your CPU and gpu combo

pcie gen3 came with 3rd gen intel..so unless you replace cpu with lets say i5-3400, gppu would be stuck at pcie gen 2
to be fair, 1030 doesnt really need too much bandwith

Thanks a lot.
Which spec of GPU tells how much PCIe bandwidth it will requires for optimal performance?
Will rx 6600 saturate x16 of PCIe 2.0?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Which spec of GPU tells how much PCIe bandwidth it will requires for optimal performance?
Will rx 6600 saturate x16 of PCIe 2.0?

In GPU specification parameter bus interface is the parameter, you're looking for.

Rx 6600 is PCIE 4.0 x8 card.
On your pc it will run at PCIE 2.0 x8 mode.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-6600.c3696

 

[kerberos_20]

In GPU specification parameter bus interface is the parameter, you're looking for.

Rx 6600 is PCIE 4.0 x8 card.
On your pc it will run at PCIE 2.0 x8 mode.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-6600.c3696

that sound like performance drop, but should still run better than 1030

 

[Abhi@000]

In GPU specification parameter bus interface is the parameter, you're looking for.

Rx 6600 is PCIE 4.0 x8 card.
On your pc it will run at PCIE 2.0 x8 mode.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-6600.c3696

Thanks,
Why would it not choose PCIe 2.0 x16? Is it because just like gt 1030 has x4 connections on pcb, the 6600 has only x8 connections?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Why would it not choose PCIe 2.0 x16?
Is it because just like gt 1030 has x4 connections on pcb, the 6600 has only x8 connections?

Yes. Exactly.