Is there a way to check how many PCI lanes my CPU is using?

[lancer420]

The title says it all. The reason I'm asking is because i have an X1 sound card plugged into an x8 slot, and i wanna make sure my CPU is only using one lane for it rather than eight. Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

Might want to share your full system's specs with us to understand how many lanes you're using. List them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

Your CPU doesn't use a lane, it allocates lanes to the rest of the components on the board. Akin to this.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Motherboard model name?
Which slot are you using for your sound card?

Some slots are wired to pcie lanes on cpu, some - to chipset pcie lanes.
Also using second pcie x16 slot sometimes switches 1st pcie slot into x8 mode.

 

[lancer420]

Might want to share your full system's specs with us to understand how many lanes you're using. List them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

Your CPU doesn't use a lane, it allocates lanes to the rest of the components on the board. Akin to this.

Sorry about that. Okay here's my specs.
Asus rog ramage v edition 10 motherboard

I7 6900k

Dual gtx 1080ti's in sli

Asus essence stx 2 sound card

Corsair dominator platinum 64gb quad channel

Windows 10 pro 64 bit

Evga 1200 platinum power supply (don't know the exact model sorry)

Samsung 850 pro 2tb SSD

Caselabs sma8 full tower case (again I don't know the exact details)

And custom loop water cooling for both GPU'S, CPU, chipset and VRM.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Ok - so your cpu has 40 pcie lanes.
Your motherboard allows to use first 3 pcie x16 slots in x16 mode.

I'd just use pcie x1 slot for your sound card.

Anyway - read the manual.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-RAMPAGE-V-EDITION-10/HelpDesk_Manual/

 

[lancer420]

Ok - so your cpu has 40 pcie lanes.
Your motherboard allows to use first 3 pcie x16 slots in x16 mode.

I'd just use pcie x1 slot for your sound card.

Anyway - read the manual.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-RAMPAGE-V-EDITION-10/HelpDesk_Manual/

Having my sound card at the bottom and my graphic cards at the top would look really awkward. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[mdd1963]

Benchmark the rig with the sound card in the correct X1 slot, then again in your desired x8/X16 slot...; if no difference, go with whatever you find aesthetically pleasing...

 

[lancer420]

Benchmark the rig with the sound card in the correct X1 slot, then again in your desired x8/X16 slot...; if no difference, go with whatever you find aesthetically pleasing...

Alright. What benchmark should I use? Will any of them do?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Use whatever slot you want for your sound card - 3rd, 4th pcie x16 slots or pcie x1 slot.
Only slot that makes any difference in your config is pcie x4 slot. Using it will disable some of USB ports.
Rest of them - no difference. It will not impact your graphics cards in 1st and 2nd pcie x16 slots.

 

[lancer420]

Use whatever slot you want for your sound card - 3rd, 4th pcie x16 slots or pcie x1 slot.
Only slot that makes any difference in your config is pcie x4 slot. Using it will disable some of USB ports.
Rest of them - no difference. It will not impact your graphics cards in 1st and 2nd pcie x16 slots.

Yeah. I wasn't really worried about the graphics cards I was worried about the CPU. Using 100 percent of something be it ram, storage or lanes seems like a bad idea. So I just wanted to make sure that if I was in fact using every single PCI lane, that my CPU and other components wouldn't get bogged down. That's the point of this thread. I apologize if I wasn't very clear earlier. If it isn't problematic to be using all the PCI lanes and/or I'm not then my concerns will be eased.

 

[SkyNetRising]

If it isn't problematic to be using all the PCI lanes and/or I'm not then my concerns will be eased.

Yea, there's no reason to be concerned about that.

 

[lancer420]

If it isn't problematic to be using all the PCI lanes and/or I'm not then my concerns will be eased.

Yea, there's no reason to be concerned about that.

Excellent. Thanks!

 

[Pinhedd]

Might want to share your full system's specs with us to understand how many lanes you're using. List them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

Your CPU doesn't use a lane, it allocates lanes to the rest of the components on the board. Akin to this.

Sorry about that. Okay here's my specs.
Asus rog ramage v edition 10 motherboard

I7 6900k

Dual gtx 1080ti's in sli

Asus essence stx 2 sound card

Corsair dominator platinum 64gb quad channel

Windows 10 pro 64 bit

Evga 1200 platinum power supply (don't know the exact model sorry)

Samsung 850 pro 2tb SSD

Caselabs sma8 full tower case (again I don't know the exact details)

And custom loop water cooling for both GPU'S, CPU, chipset and VRM.

Assuming that the Broadwell-E microprocessors retain the same PCI-E layout as their predecessors, the 40 lanes are broken down into 3 root complexes. There are 2 complexes that are 16 lanes wide, and one complex that is 8 lanes wide.

Each of the 16 lane wide complexes has up to 4 ports and can be multiplexed down to 4/4/4/4; the 8 lane wide complex has two ports and can be multiplexed down to 4/4. In total up to 10 individual PCIe devices can be connected to the CPU directly, each running at 1x or 4x.

My Rampage IV Extreme has two sockets that connect to the 16x wide complexes and are intended for devices that can operate at 16x such as GPUs. These are the only sockets connected to those complexes. Additional PCIe slots are connected to the third complex and share the bandwidth of that complex.

A common configuration is a full size socket running at 8x max and a quarter size socket running at 4x max. This allows for two peripherals to be attached to the CPU directly without interfering with GPU bandwidth. Additional 1x sockets are connected to the PCH PCIe lanes rather than the CPU PCIe lanes.

As long as your sound card is not plugged into one of the sockets intended for high bandwidth cards it should not interfere with your GPUs.