MA790X-UD4 and 8x pcie

[woppy1]

a few days ago i posted a thread about my pcie bus not running in 16x but running in 8x. i have just recived my new board MA790FX-UD5P and this one is also running @8x it cant be the same fault on two boards the only thing i can now think of is it it the graphics card (GTX275). i have started the rma but before i send it back has anyone got anymore ideas about what it could be i have a new 4870x2 comming tomorrow to try,it wont have anything to do with a nvidia card on an AMD chipset could it
many thanks for any replys.

 

[velozzity]

what slot do you have the card in??????? If it's the lower one I think It will default to 8x no matter if you have 1 or 2 cards installed.
Also I have Gtx 275 and have had zero problems with it or the gtx 260 that I used for about a year on both this and the 780g chipset. So no amd + nvidia do not equal problems.

Have you got the latest bios also dont think that would be a problem but who knows?

Also if you hit CTRL+F1 in the bios main screen it will open up a menu that says like advanced Chipset Options, try getting into that screen and look for a pci express screen and playing around with the settings to see if it changes anything. I know mine has something like primary dual card mode (should be uppermost option) and something like auto and disabled, I put mine on disabled because I only have 1 card, also there was a setting for PCIE Gen 2 x16 speed or something to that effect, and beside it were the optioins hardware switch or software switch, I put mine of hardware switch, besides that I disabled all other settings listed below it (which I think referred to the other pcie slot)

Also can remember the exact screen but one that allows you to set the boot order of hard drives or dvd drive etc, and gives you options to disable or enable onboard sound etc, Is a setting that says something to the effect of primary graphics adapter, and has like 4 settings, they are internal, pci, peg1 and peg. For the longest time I thought that should be at PEG 1 (thought PEG 1 was the uppermost slot) but when I read the book PEG was the 1st slot, and PEG1 was the lower, make sure that is one PEG.

Sorry I could'nt be more clear on names of menus in bios but If you find the settings I have told you about changing you have to be in the correct menu.

 

[woppy1]

i changed them settings on the MA790X-UD4 but on the MA790FX-UD5P even in the hidden bios there is none of them settings
gpuz,cpuz,everest all say 8x
this vantage mark is done with a 940 chip @3.7
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1125847
this vantage mark is done with the [email protected]
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1203238
both the same settings on the graphics card,thats why i originly thought it was to do with the am3 chip thats why i got an am3 board.so the way im looking at the results is it is deffo running @8x

 

[velozzity]

can't really comment on the score given I have a Phenom II 720 and at 3.6ghz with a gtx 275 ftw (713-1515-1260 speeds for core shader and memory) I get around 11327 points with PhysX OFF. With it on it was in the 15000+ range. Your score with PhysX off should be a bit higher than mine. I would try to google some reviews of benchmarks of the gtx 275 and see what others are getting with an equivalent processor (and remember the corei7 that alot are using on the review will give equal or higher performance at stock thus higher vantage score than your 955 overclocked)

Moral of the story is if your getting good scores maybe the 8x is not really causing any bottleneck issues. 8x pcie generation 2.0 is the same as running 16x pcie generation 1 and I believe somewhere I read that only something like a gtx 295 would come close to bottlenecking on that much bandwidth.

 

[woppy1]

this is my score with physx off
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1204067
12373 750c/1571s/1250m

 

[velozzity]

Ok look at this review http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-275-review-test/18 the 275 ended up around 12760 points for the performance test. This is done with a corei7 965 at 3750 mhz which will score higher than yours because the vantage performance test is done at low resolution and a higher powered processor will win hands down, even with yours overclocked to 3.9 it is a little more powerful than the i7 at stock, but once the i7 is overclocked it takes back the lead.

What exactly is your gpu score, that may help isolate if your gpu is getting throttled or not.

Remember your score is approximately 1000 points higher than mine with a card slightly overclocked more and 4 core processor at 300mhz more core speed, Just the fact you scored higher to me means that their is no real bandwidth issue with the 8x because we have more or less the same gpu just yours is clocked a smidgen higher.

 

[woppy1]

gpu score is 12511

 

[velozzity]

Ok so my best score with my card at stock (well is overclocked by evga) was 12239. I had a GTX 285 that was overheating (but would run the benchmarks fine) that I sent back and that card was giving me around 12800 for the gpu score (it was a 285 ftw which was overclocked too)
I would be hard pressed to tell you that the 8x is causing issues with your current card, I feel that you are fine unless you are going for a 295 or a 4870x2 (which you have ordered already it seems) so I cant comment on what will happen if you dont resolve the 8x issue before using a faster card, but with the 275 your fine.

Also never read a reply as to where exactly you had the videocard installed at, is it in the uppermost slot, the one that should cover up the southbridge heatsink??????? and come very close to your cpu cooler/northbridge heatsink??????

 

[woppy1]

i think you could be right mate i have just compared it to a test done on guru3d with a 275 i did the same settings 750c/1605s/1282m there test was on a on a i7 [email protected] and it scored P14110
my score at the same settings P15474
the card is in the top slot
it must be a softwhere error that is telling mr 8x

 

[velozzity]

Glad you got that resolved at least but I would still contact Gigabyte and see If they have any more suggestions as to what could be causing the problem.