Question Need help choosing PCIe slot for GPU - ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4

[msaadeh489]

Hello, I have an ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 (here's the manual for reference) with Ryzen 7 5800x and RTX 3070. After reading the mobo manual again I realized that there is the PCIE1 slot that's stated to be PCIe 4.0 x16 to be used "for PCI Express x16 lane width graphics cards" but this whole time I've been using the PCIE3 slot which is PCIe 3.0 x16 slot to be used "for PCI Express x4 lane width graphics cards." Have I been limiting my performance this whole time and is it worth installing it in the PCIE 4.0 slot?

 

[Lutfij]

Drop your GPU in the first PCIe slot on your motherboard;

then you should be A-OK.

What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard at this moment of time?

 

[msaadeh489]

Drop your GPU in the first PCIe slot on your motherboard;

then you should be A-OK.

What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard at this moment of time?

I'm on version 2.40 from 2022/10/20

 

[Moonstick2]

Your PCIe_3 slot runs cards at PCIe 3.0 x4 = 4 GB/s. Your PCIEe_1 slot runs cards at PCIe 4.0 x16 = 32 GB/s. So yes, you've been limiting your performance and yes, you should move the card.

Take some benchmarks before and after, as it would be interesting to see the amount of difference.

 

[msaadeh489]

Your PCIe_3 slot runs cards at PCIe 3.0 x4 = 4 GB/s. Your PCIEe_1 slot runs cards at PCIe 4.0 x16 = 32 GB/s. So yes, you've been limiting your performance and yes, you should move the card.

Take some benchmarks before and after, as it would be interesting to see the amount of difference.

Not the most professional benchmarks, but I ran the same OC profile and tested before and after switching slots.

Unigine Heaven max settings:
Before: score 3740, fps 148.5
After: score 3954, fps 157

UserBenchmark GPU Score:
Before: 152%
After: 158%

So a pretty considerable difference, I'm glad I did it and I appreciate the help