PCIe 3.0 Graphics Card Running on a PCIe 2.0 x4 Slot?

[Riley2018]

I have a GTX 950, and I need to know how performance will be affected if I run it on a PCIe 2.0 x4 slot. Thanks!

 

[ThomasKK]

GTX 950 won't fit in a x4 lane - every GPU needs PCI express 3/2/1 x16 slot.

On the other hand, if you have a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, you will lose about 1-3% of performance since all PCI express versions are backwards compatible. With GTX 950 you won't notice any changes in performance if you use PCIe 2.0 x16 lane instead of PCIe 3.0 x16 slot.

 

[Riley2018]

GTX 950 won't fit in a x4 lane - every GPU needs PCI express 3/2/1 x16 slot.

On the other hand, if you have a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, you will lose about 1-3% of performance since all PCI express versions are backwards compatible. With GTX 950 you won't notice any changes in performance if you use PCIe 2.0 x16 lane instead of PCIe 3.0 x16 slot.

I feel so slow, yeah I misunderstood the motherboard specifications without looking at the actual motherboard. It's an ASRock A88M-G/3.1.

These are the specifications of the PCIe slots:
- 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slot (PCIE1 @ x16 mode) *
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE3 @ x4 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slot
- 1 x PCI Slot

So, the slot is running at x16, but why does it say (PCIE1 @ x16 mode) and (PCIE3 @ x4 mode) next to both of them? That's what I'm not understanding.

Here's a link for the motherboard overview/pictures if needed. http://

 

[ThomasKK]

Your motherboard says it has "1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, 1 PCI 2.0 x1, 1 PCI ", which means you can put your GTX 950 into PCI express 3.0 without any performance loss. Also, PCIe 2.0 x16 will work too with 1-3% lower performance.

Yep, writings on motherboards can be confusing, there is how PCIe slots look like: (you just gotta know how it looks 😀)
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/190_041.jpg

 

[Riley2018]

Your motherboard says it has "1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, 1 PCI 2.0 x1, 1 PCI ", which means you can put your GTX 950 into PCI express 3.0 without any performance loss. Also, PCIe 2.0 x16 will work too with 1-3% lower performance.

Yep, writings on motherboards can be confusing, there is how PCIe slots look like: (you just gotta know how it looks 😀)
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/190_041.jpg

Thanks! Yeah, the stuff in parenthesis was confusing to me, but I appreciate it!

 

[ThomasKK]

You're welcome!