Video card on second pcie16 slot, does it matter?

[niphilim222]

Hey i have a question, i have a creative sound card that i would like to use on the pci slot. The only way to do this is sticking 1060 on the second 16x sli slot. I can't go sli anyways with a gtx 1060 6gb model. Any ideas is it safe ????

 

The sound card would be on the above slot while the gtx 1060 will be bellow.

 

[bill8872]

Check the specks first on both the motherboard, and soundcard, but I don't think you will have any problems doing this..

[niphilim222]

Its a nice card, works like a charm. Letting you know its no ordinary card, Its the creative zx. It just fit above the Gigabyte mini. No static or interference, its shielded.

 

http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-zx I could in theory make a mini atx build like this in the near future.

Edited October 4, 2016 by niphilim222

[Surilindur]

First of all, my experience with computers is very limited, so anything I say should be taken with a grain of salt. If someone has a better understanding of things, feel free to correct me, I like learning new and having my mistakes corrected. :smile:

 

The thing that sounded interesting was that you mentioned putting your graphics card on the "second" PCIe slot on your motherboard. With the second PCIe x16 slot you mean the "lower" one? Have you checked if it actually is a x16 one and not x8 or such? My motherboard, for example, only has half the metal connectors on the lower slot, as opposed to all (full 16) on the above one. I have my graphics card (I only ever have one *cough* budget *cough*) on the upper PCIe slot, the one that has a full row of connectors. If you motherboard also happens to only have just half the connectors on the lower slot, maybe you could check online if it makes any difference to the performance, power or other aspects of the graphics card to have it on the lower slot... ? Or does it matter? It is something that has caught my attention, and I am not sure how it works, I have only ever had one graphics card (playing at a very conservative resolution) and I have managed to keep it on the upper slot. :blush:

 

One handy way to check the amount of the connector-metal-thingies is to point a lamp on the PCIe slots and see how the metal glitters.

 

Edit: Mmm. Hmm. Apparently some results seem to suggest that having a card on the x8 slot does not really matter much, two or so frames per second or something. :huh: At least if this is still relevant: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-crossfire-nvidia-sli-multi-gpu,2678-5.html

Edited October 4, 2016 by Contrathetix

[niphilim222]

The sound card is on the first pcie8x slot bellow the video card. Its a 16x slot i'm using which is normally used for sli. I found no problem doing this. Sense the gtx 1060 does not do sli to begin with.

Edited October 4, 2016 by niphilim222

[FMod]

It's totally and completely safe. If the slot looks like a 16x, you can always install x16 cards in it. Basically as long as it fits.

 

You might lose a negligible bit in performance, as the 2nd x16 slot usually runs as 8x. The only game I recall where the loss was meaningful was Alan Wake, and it's half a decade old.

Edited October 8, 2016 by FMod

[Surilindur]

It's totally and completely safe. If the slot looks like a 16x, you can always install x16 cards in it. Basically as long as it fits.

 

You might lose a negligible bit in performance, as the 2nd x16 slot usually runs as 8x. The only game I recall where the loss was meaningful was Alan Wake, and it's half a decade old.

 

Okay, thank you. Good to know. :thumbsup:

[Aragingmonk]

I use a Gigabyte GA- 970A-D3P and the manual states that the top slot 16x will give the best performance for the GPU. The other slots can be used though. Hope that helps.