Mar 26, 2022
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My motherboard is a B560 DS3H AC (rev. 1.0), found here: https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/B560-DS3H-AC-rev-10#kf

Im wondering if i will be able to run a multi gpu setup at higher than pcie x1 with this motherboard. Expansion slot specs on mobo:
  1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
    * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
    (The PCIEX16 slot conforms to PCI Express 4.0 standard.)(Note)
  2. 4 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x1 (PCIEX1_1~4)
    (The PCIEX1 slot conforms to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
Could someone tell me more in depth what this means? Does this mean I have 1 pcie slot running at x16 and the other 4 running at x1? Will this hurt performance if i have 2 gpus? It says "4 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x1 (PCIEX1_1~4)" but if its x16 is there then a way to change it to be able to run at x16 and not x1 in bios?
Additionally would there be a way to get a converter from my m.2 (labeled as a x4 slot) to a gpu slot and not lose too much performance? would this be better than running it in a x1 pcie slot?

I ran Superposition benchmark and only lost like 200 points ~5 fps running it on x1 pcie slot, is this accurate to real life gaming because while gaming on x1 I get like a -50 fps, however my gpu is at full usage despite being on the x1 mode.
 
Solution
running an m.2 drive through an adapter will yield nothing vs buying a cheaper sata ssd. real world there is pretty much zero difference. so no need to go that way for no gain and only added expense. as for running the x1 slots as x16, that not gonna happen either. there are only so many pcie lanes to go around and 16 of them to the first slot and 4 more to the m.2 slot and more for the various sata ports is more than the cpu has available!! you can't just create new pcie lanes out of nothing. that is baked into the mobo when it is created.

finally, there is nothing to be gained by running 2 gpu's anyway. sli is dead and nothing is being coded for it anymore. 2 gpu's is nothing but a waste of space and power for what is usually...

Math Geek

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running an m.2 drive through an adapter will yield nothing vs buying a cheaper sata ssd. real world there is pretty much zero difference. so no need to go that way for no gain and only added expense. as for running the x1 slots as x16, that not gonna happen either. there are only so many pcie lanes to go around and 16 of them to the first slot and 4 more to the m.2 slot and more for the various sata ports is more than the cpu has available!! you can't just create new pcie lanes out of nothing. that is baked into the mobo when it is created.

finally, there is nothing to be gained by running 2 gpu's anyway. sli is dead and nothing is being coded for it anymore. 2 gpu's is nothing but a waste of space and power for what is usually performance LOSS vs a single card.

saving you a lot of trouble. run the single gpu in slot 1, your m.2 in it's slot and then sit back and enjoy your system :)
 
Solution