PCI-e 2.0 x16 Graphics card in a PCI-e 2.0 x4 slot.

diligentservant

Commendable
Oct 29, 2016
4
0
1,510
Hi, I have a problem and I would really appreciate it if you could me solve this. I tried fitting a GTX 470 into my hp dc7900 which has one 2.0 X16 pcie slot. However the card wouldn't fit in the slot because the CPU cooler doesn't allow full size Graphics Cards to fit in the case (I know, I was wrong for not properly researching whether my computer could fit a full size gpu). So I tried fitting the gpu in the x4 slot and it fit perfectly. However, I am now concerned about how much of a performance hit I will take due to fitting a x16 card into an x4 slot. Will I take much of a performance hit or will the reduction in performance be minimal?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Solution
It will be a pretty big performance hit, as you're dropping to a quarter of the bandwidth, and you're using chipset PCI-E lanes which can't communicate with the CPU as fast as the PCI-E lanes controlled directly by the CPU. You're going to need to see if you can get a replacement CPU cooler that would allow for a full size graphics card.
It will be a pretty big performance hit, as you're dropping to a quarter of the bandwidth, and you're using chipset PCI-E lanes which can't communicate with the CPU as fast as the PCI-E lanes controlled directly by the CPU. You're going to need to see if you can get a replacement CPU cooler that would allow for a full size graphics card.
 
Solution