Best Video Card For Pci Express X16 Slot
PCI Express Theoretical Max Bandwidth
- PCI Express Definition From PC Magazine Encyclopedia
- Best Video Card For Pci Express X16 Slot
- See All Results For This Question
- Www.newegg.com › P › Plpci Express X16 Video Card Newegg.com
- PCI Express X16 Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce Forums
- View Product 9.5
- See More Results
- Mobo is MCP61PM-HM (HT2000) with one PCI Express x16 slot. Also has one PCI slot and one PCI Express x1 slot. Current graphics card is GTX 260 with 512MB. Monitor is Dell U2713HM running at 2560x1440. I would like to upgrade graphics capability, specifically for Skyrim: Elder Scrolls. Budget is around $250.
- You can down and up plug pci-e devices. Meaning you could put a videocard in that pci-e 16x size (but 4x wired) slot but if it is a highend graphics card, it will likely suffer from the reduced pci-e lanes. Much the same, if you have a pci-e network card that is 1x sized, you cna insert that into pci-e 16x sized and wired slot.
1-16 of over 2,000 results for 'best pci express x16 graphics card' ZOTAC GeForce GT 730 Zone Edition 4GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 (x8 lanes) Graphics Card (ZT-71115-20L) 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,723. In some applications, yes - there can be a small performance drop when running a PCI-Express 4.0 capable card in a system/slot that is only using PCIe 3.0. We did not find any impact for gaming or GPU-based rendering, but we did measure a small decline (less than 5%) with video editing in DaVinci Resolve and a little bit larger drop (10%) with. EVGA Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS 512MB PCIe 512-P3-1301-KR HDMI DVI VGA Graphics Card. 5 out of 5 stars. (17) 17 product ratings - EVGA Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS 512MB PCIe 512-P3-1301-KR HDMI DVI VGA Graphics Card. EVGA GT 520 1GB DDR3 PCIe x16 Video Card w/ Low Profile Brackets.
The theoretical maximum bandwidth of PCI-e 3.0 is 8GT/s, or nearly 1GB/s per lane:
PCI Express Definition From PC Magazine Encyclopedia
| PCI-e 1.0 | PCI-e 2.x | PCI-e 3.0 | PCI-e 4.x | |
| x1 | 250MB/s | 500MB/s | 985MB/s | 1969MB/s |
| x4 | 1000MB/s | 2000MB/s | 3940MB/s | 7876MB/s |
| x8 | 2000MB/s | 4000MB/s | 7880MB/s | 15752MB/s |
| x16 | 4000MB/s | 8000MB/s | 15760MB/s | 31504MB/s |
For our test, we're looking at PCI-e Gen3 x8 vs. PCI-e Gen3 x16 performance. That means there's a 66.7% difference in bandwidth available between the two, or a 100% increase from x8 to x16. But there's a lot more to it than interface bandwidth: The device itself must exceed the saturation point of x8 (7880MB/s, before overhead is removed) in order to show any meaningful advantage in x16 (15760MB/s, before overhead is removed).
Use Cases, Future Tests, & Test Setup
The use cases here are not that large. Maybe you've got a thermal concern or a card that butts-up against the CPU cooler, or some sort of liquid routing challenge. HSIO lanes are assigned to ancillary devices – like PCIe SSDs – and won't eat into the CPU lanes available to the GPU. We're also not testing multiple GPUs, which is where we'd like to go next once we've got two of the same GTX 1080 in the lab. Ideally, we test in x16/x16, x16/x8, and x8/x8 – but that's not possible right now. We're also hoping to test dual-GPU, single-card configurations between an x8 and an x16 slot, as those may put more load on the interface.
For the time being, this test strictly looks at a single-GPU, single-card GTX 1080 Gaming X as it passes between x8 and x16 slots. If, for whatever reason, you're debating the performance reduction from moving to an x8 PCI-e slot with a single card, that's what this test looks into.
We used our normal test bench (detailed below) for this research. The EVGA X99 Classified motherboard is picky with its PCI-e slot utilization, and uses UEFI to clearly inform whether the connected device is receiving 1, 4, 8, or 16 lanes. We switched between the first x16 slot and the first x8 slot for these numbers, then validated in BIOS and software.
PCI-e generations can also be forced in the EVGA UEFI, but we did not explore the impact of PCI-e 2.x on the GTX 1080 at this time as it seemed even less likely of a use case.
Game Test Methodology
We tested using our GPU test bench, detailed in the table below. Our thanks to supporting hardware vendors for supplying some of the test components.
NVidia's 368.39 drivers were used for game (FPS) testing. Game settings were manually controlled for the DUT. All games were run at presets defined in their respective charts. We disable brand-supported technologies in games, like The Witcher 3's HairWorks and HBAO. All other game settings are defined in respective game benchmarks, which we publish separately from GPU reviews. Our test courses, in the event manual testing is executed, are also uploaded within that content. This allows others to replicate our results by studying our bench courses.
Windows 10-64 build 10586 was used for testing.
Each game was tested for 30 seconds in an identical scenario, then repeated multiple times for parity.
Average FPS, 1% low, and 0.1% low times are measured. We do not measure maximum or minimum FPS results as we consider these numbers to be pure outliers. Instead, we take an average of the lowest 1% of results (1% low) to show real-world, noticeable dips; we then take an average of the lowest 0.1% of results for severe spikes.
| GN Test Bench 2015 | Name | Courtesy Of | Cost |
| Video Card | This is what we're testing! | - | - |
| CPU | Intel i7-5930K CPU | $580 | |
| Memory | Corsair Dominator 32GB 3200MHz | Corsair | $210 |
| Motherboard | EVGA X99 Classified | GamersNexus | $365 |
| Power Supply | NZXT 1200W HALE90 V2 | NZXT | $300 |
| SSD | HyperX Savage SSD | Kingston Tech. | $130 |
| Case | Top Deck Tech Station | GamersNexus | $250 |
| CPU Cooler | NZXT Kraken X41 CLC | NZXT | $110 |
For Dx12 and Vulkan API testing, we use built-in benchmark tools and rely upon log generation for our metrics. That data is reported at the engine level.
Video Cards Tested
PCI-e 3.0 x8 vs. x16 FPS Performance
Let's just post all the charts first, then talk numbers – they're similar enough that this is the easiest way to read the data.
Metro: Last Light
Shadow of Mordor
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
GTA V
Ashes of Singularity (Dx12)
Here's what we've got for performance:
Between AVG FPS metrics in Metro: Last Light, we're seeing a 1.05% gap (1440p) and 0% gap (4K). Between 1% low metrics, that difference is 0.95% (1440p) and 0%.
For Shadow of Mordor, the numbers are similar – we're seeing a 0.93% performance difference between AVG FPS metrics (or ~1% for 4K).
Black Ops 3, when there is a difference, shows one also just below 1%.
GTA V shows a difference of 0.52%. Ashes is similarly small.
Inconsequential Differences & Margins for Error
These numbers are close enough in some instances – like the GTA V 58.3 vs. 58 FPS output – that they're effectively within margin of test error and do not definitively show a performance gap. When a reasonable performance gap is shown – like the ~1% difference in Metro: Last Light numbers – it is imperceptible to the user but measurable with our tools. And we do mean imperceptible – we're talking 96FPS vs. 95FPS, for Metro.
Metro, by the way, is the most reliable FPS benchmarking tool we have ever used. The game produces almost precisely the same AVG, 1% low, and 0.1% lows with every single test pass, and so we trust these metrics as being outside of test variance.
From a quick look, there is a little below a 1% performance difference in PCI-e 3.0 x16 and PCI-e 3.0 x8 slots. The difference is not even close to perceptible and should be ignored as inconsequential to users fretting over potential slot or lane limitations. We are not sure how this scales with SLI (particularly MDA 'mode') or dual-GPU cards, but hope to research once we've got more hardware in the lab.
We are also currently investigating the impact of PCI-e lanes on lower capacity VRAM cards, like 4GB. Hits to system resources may stress the interface more.
Editorial: Steve “Lelldorianx” Burke
Video: Andrew “ColossalCake” Coleman
PS. i have a 460 W power supply, will i need to get a more powerful one? Well that power supply is probably enough for most cards with the exception of the dual cards (HD 3870x2 and 9800GX2).
The very best card available is probably the GeForce 9800GTX at this time. That said, I don't recommend it, as it is about 5% faster than cards $100 cheaper.
A card that is right arround the performance of the 9800GTX is the GeForce 8800 GTS 512mb 256-bit (G92) core:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…
I think you will have enough power unless the rest of your system is really a power hungry monster.
/pci-express-pcie-2625962-79f643e7768d4b8e81e2eee6cf5b02e7.png "Slot")
For a jump down of about 15% in performance, the GeForce 9600 GT 512mb 256-bit. This card uses way less power is is also much cheaper ($125):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…
Even less expensive than that (with again low power requirements) is the Radeon HD 3850 with free steam black box for $110: Maybe 10% slower than the 9600GT
Best Video Card For Pci Express X16 Slot
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…
See All Results For This Question
If you really need to cheap out, the 8800GS is similar to the HD 3850, but has no blackbox, this takes a lil more power, but still not that much:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…
If all that is too expensive for you, you can drop to an 8600GT OC which is like 50% of the HD 3850: