using the 2nd pci-e slot for a single gpu

[cheesus90]

Hey guys,

I just bought a new i5 4670k with an Asus z97 AR motherboard.

I was wondering if i can use the 2nd PCI-E slot for my single gtx 560ti?

This is simply for aesthetic purposes.
The GPU covers the silver heatsink on the motherboard when using the 1st PCI-e slot, and i actually want the silver heatsink to be visible.

All 3 PCI-e slots run at 16x on this motherboard,

here's a picture:

All the 3 slots are visible in the picture along with the silver heatsink on the right..
If you look closely at the text just above PCI-e slots it says that they all run at 16x.

Correct me if i'm wrong and does it matter which slot i use, since im only using a single card and i dont plan on adding another one.

 

[cctmsp13]

They may be labeled 16X, but that doesn't mean they'll actually run at that. Looking carefully at the pic, it appears many contacts are missing from the _2 slot. It's probably only wired for 8X.

That said, video cards rarely saturate the pci-e bus. The card should work, and probably won't take much of a performance hit

 

[cheesus90]

Thanks for responding.
I read through the user manual and heres a shot of a table from one of its pages : http://i.imgur.com/lFdUF5U.jpg
(Not exactly sure what they mean by 'N/A')

Also, I do not want the gpu's performance to suffer at all since 560ti is an old card and can barely keep upto par with the new games. Im being forced to run games at medium quality settings to get a decent frame rate out of it (40-60 fps)..

What do you suggest i do? Aesthetics and performance both matter a lot to me.