Question Why do so many motherboards have two PCIe 5.0 slots?

Dec 14, 2024
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When it's clear that virtually no one uses two GPUs, and certainly not two GPUs that need PCIe 5.0?

So why would anyone use that second 5.0 slot with the effect of cutting the GPU's bandwidth by half? Take the Godlike MB, for example.

It makes more sense to me to have one 5.0 slot, with the second and third (or even fourth) at 4.0 or even 3.0. Gigabyte does this the way it makes sense to me.

Indeed, If I have a fancy 5090 GPU, I sure do not want its potential bandwidth path cut in half by a puny little 4.0 card.

Or am I missing some use case that everyone knows about but me?

Wouldn't be the first time...
 
When it's clear that virtually no one uses two GPUs, and certainly not two GPUs that need PCIe 5.0?

So why would anyone use that second 5.0 slot with the effect of cutting the GPU's bandwidth by half? Take the Godlike MB, for example.

It makes more sense to me to have one 5.0 slot, with the second and third (or even fourth) at 4.0 or even 3.0. Gigabyte does this the way it makes sense to me.

Indeed, If I have a fancy 5090 GPU, I sure do not want its potential bandwidth path cut in half by a puny little 4.0 card.

Or am I missing some use case that everyone knows about but me?

Wouldn't be the first time...
There are other uses for PCIe v5.0, like for instance NVMe SSDs. Since CPUs and chipsets already have lanes to support V5.0 why not make them available? It doesn't cost them any.
 
dont forget some people use capture cards, streaming cards, additional nvme add-in cards. and and some people might have a 2nd card running that has a function or feature that their gaming card does not have,,

also maybe nvidia will revive "sli" again..