Motherboard/1070 GTX compatibility question

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reedturman

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Dec 8, 2017
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Hello everyone, I just recently bought a GTX 1070 to use with my Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC motherboard. To summarize my understanding of what is needed for a 1070 to work properly: A PCie 3.0 slot is required, an i7 with at least 3.2 ghz, and a PSU that has 8 pin.

However, when I ran the GPU-Z diagnostic I noticed that next to the "Bus Interface" tab there is a question mark. As well as the accompanying tooltip:

"The graphic card reports that it supports:
PCIe-Express x16 v3.0.

It is currently running at:
PCIe-Express x16 v1.1."

And in the memory type tab, it simply says "Unknown."

My main question: Is this something that I can't fix with drivers or does my motherboard need replacing? When I checked into this issue, this is the website from Gigabyte I used to confirm that I could support a 1070 using PCIe 3.0 slots.

http://

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you for reading.
 
Solution
T
When you see GPU-Z reporting PCIe 1.1, is this at idle? As I said above, it's normal for the PCIe connection to drop down to lower bandwidth to conserve power when not in use. Try running a GPU benchmark (e.g. Unigine Heaven, it's free) and look what GPU-Z says while it's running.

What are the rest of your system specs?
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If you have it in the highlighted PCIE slot it will run in 3.0 mode:
2qMFeRh.jpg
 
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I take it you didn't read the entire tooltip, i.e. the part where it says something like "Power saving features may affect the results displayed"? Try running a GPU benchmark/stress test and look at the PCIe bus speed while it's running.

To summarize my understanding of what is needed for a 1070 to work properly: A PCie 3.0 slot is required, an i7 with at least 3.2 ghz, and a PSU that has 8 pin.
Click to expand...
Technically, all you need is a PCIe slot that is physically x16 (any PCIe revision), and an 8 pin connector. Although preferably at least PCIe 2.0 x16 or PCIe 3.0 x8 (electrically). Don't know where you got the 3.2+ GHz i7 requirement from.

Do you actually have any performance issues?
 
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@SR-71 Blackbird

I do have the slot pictured above. I also failed to mention that I have freshly formatted the computer, and have had difficulty getting the drivers on my own.

Although I did find the motherboard's install CD, and tried updating that. When I run the diagnostic it knows which type of memory I have now, and seems to show up as 3.0 instead of 1.1. Will test a game shortly to see if it helped.

And thank you for your help.
 
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@ SR Blackbird 71

Sorry for the confusion, but I have acquired the video card drivers without issue. It is the motherboard drivers I am having difficulty acquiring. The GA-Z87X-OC is a several year old model, and on the official site I had no luck attaining the drivers.
 
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@ SR 71 Blackbird

thanks for the information, I will try those links, but it looks like the same stuff the CD gave me after it updated.

Sorry for the bother, I think it's just an old motherboard. :/
 
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I'm not sure if you saw the edits I made to my first post, but the fact that the bus interface is listed as something other than PCIe 3.0 x16 with your PC at idle is nothing to be concerned about. The fact that it can't identify your VRAM type is a little weird but I'll ask again, have you seen any actual issues with performance?

And what issues are you having with your motherboard drivers?

There is absolutely no reason that card wouldn't work with that mobo, it's definitely not too old
 
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@ TJ Hooker

I only briefly mentioned delay, I'll try to elaborate.

When I played a game there was input delay from when I did something, to when it actually would occur on screen. So in NBA2k, I'd release the button, but the shot meter would keep filling as though I hadn't let go of the button for a while. Additionally, I had to lower the graphics to low to get somewhat smooth gameplay without the choppiness that comes with an overwhelmed video card (Stuttering, frame rate drop, etc). So the HD Radeon 7850 that I replaced was technically running games better for whatever reason.

The issue I am having with my motherboard drivers is that no matter what I seem to upgrade, my diagnostics (GPU-Z) seem to think that my card is in a PCIe v1.1 slot.

Thank you for the information about this mobo being able to handle the card, that leads me to believe the problem is in fact driver/configuration oriented.
 
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When you see GPU-Z reporting PCIe 1.1, is this at idle? As I said above, it's normal for the PCIe connection to drop down to lower bandwidth to conserve power when not in use. Try running a GPU benchmark (e.g. Unigine Heaven, it's free) and look what GPU-Z says while it's running.

What are the rest of your system specs?
 
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Solution
Update: I think it's all sorted out, and it was a combination of things, I will rattle them out, and perhaps you all tell me what you think fixed it.

Before installing the video card, I formatted the PC with the AMD Radeon still in it. So when Windows 10 started anew, it preloaded AMD drivers (It was my first time fresh installing windows 10, just upgraded recently from 7) so after installing the 1070, when I right clicked on desktop it would bring up options for both AMD and nvidia. I tested NBA2k18 and Dishonored 2. Dishonored 2 ran on Ultra, but poorly, somewhere between choppy and just slow. NBA2k18 had delay, and stuttered when I tried to change to 144 hz.

So I formatted, and now only nvidia showed up when I right click, and I also used driver booster to upgrade every possible driver, and then I used GPU-Z and saw the memory was unknown and the bus interface said 1.1, and not 3.0 like I'd hoped. So I tracked down the gigabyte mobo CD, and the memory displayed properly, but the bus interface was still 1.1.

Then you (TJ Hooker) mentioned how it idled at 1.1. So I downloaded Killing Floor 2, and sure enough, during gameplay it displays as 3.0 again. It runs incredibly smooth, and on ultra. Something about formatting to remove AMD, or Driver Booster, or Gigabyte Drivers. Or perhaps NBA2k18 and Dishonored are specific cases. So to be clear, I think the "Pick as the Solution" would be a TJ Hooker telling me about the idle display, that's what prompted me to download a game and check, but in reality it was the combination of both TJ Hooker and SR 71 that guided me in.

So I am waiting to test something a bit more intensive, and then NBA2k (something that didn't work previously) before I declare it solved. However, I think it is solved.

@ TJ Hooker
i7 - 4770k (~3.5 ghz)
GTX 1070 TI
GA-Z87X-OC Gigabyte Motherboard

sorry I didn't upvote you guys sooner.
 
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Been testing it for days now, seems very stable. Had a scary moment when I spilled on my keyboard, and had a bad boot (I'm guessing having basically all the keys pressed during a boot is bad, but that's for another day) that I had to amend by reinstalling all the drivers (again 😛) but everything is running very smooth.

Thanks again for all the help, TJ Hooker and SR 71 Blackbird.
 
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