Impact of PCIE 2.0 X4 for gaming

[vinnykellberg]

I bought a Dell prebuilt a while back with an i7. The main PCIE X16 slot doesn’t have room for a dual slot card because there are no brackets to the right. Can’t cut off part of the case because there is an audio jack in the way so it wouldn’t matter.

There is a PCIE X16 slot though that will fit but Dell website says it is only wired for PCIE X4 speed. How much will this impact performance in gaming if I use a GTX 1050ti?

Please don’t try to tell me to return the GPU or say I should’ve built my own PC. This was a fun project that I’ve spent many hours on.

Thanks,
VK

 

[pete_101]

It will have some impact on performance, but on a low/medium GPU like the 1050Ti, it won't be a big difference. Best guess would be around 5% lower performance.....you may want to search Youtube etc as there will be videos comparing the different generations and number of lanes being used.

 

[Karadjgne]

I'm confused. The top pcie x16 should line up with the top slot on the rear of the mobo, and any other slots will be below that, allowing use of dual slot cards. The gpu goes in upside down in an ATX case. The only issue would be if it's BTX in which case the gpu would go in right side up, and access to the case is from the right side of the tower, not the left side that's common to ATX. (looking from a front view). If it is indeed BTX style (rather uncommon nowadays) then yes, you might have fitment issues with cards rated at taller than 1 slot, but generally the motherboard slot is set lower, to allow for that.

A 1050ti is iffy. It's right around the area where pcie x4 caps out. If it was an old gt740, you'd have no issues, if it was a gtx1070 the issue would be obvious, but as close as the 1050ti is, it's going to boil down to the games in question. Some might show no problems, some might be slower by comparison, you personally won't be able to tell, the card/socket only doing what it can. The only way to tell for sure would be test in the x16 vrs test in the x4, in your pc.

 

[vinnykellberg]

Yes it’s a BTX motherboard unfortunately. If it helps any PCIE 2.0 X4 is basically PCIE 1.1 X8

 

[Karadjgne]

Well a gtx1080ti has a very hard time even getting close to saturating pcie 2.0 x8, and thats a whole lot more card than a 1050ti, so I'd say you should be fine.

The only other thing I can suggest as a possibility is the use of a pcie x16 riser cable, if you can figure out a way to support the card from more than just the back at the slots. Then the card can be used in the pcie x16 via cable.

 

[BFG-9000]

The closest performance match I could find was a GTX680. I will say that the lower the resolution you use, the worse the impact will be.

It looks remarkably similar to the scaling of the much faster GTX980: