Is 8x holding me back

[McGondy]

Just a quick question about x16 vs x8 PCIe:
I have read countless times that it makes near to no difference when running multiple cards, however does it affect the performance of a single card? Cheers

(The reason it's on x8 is my soundcard does not fit in the top x1 PCIe slot due to my oversized cooler and graphics card, so it's running in the bottom x16 slot @x1 which is triggering the top x16 slot to run @x8)

 

[Aldakoopa]

A 6950 would probably not be affected by x8 bandwidth, as long as it's PCIE 2.0 or higher.

PCIE bandwidth is way ahead of the graphics cards currently. Testing done with a 6990 (dual GPU card requiring more bandwidth than your single GPU 6950) on x16 vs x8 vs x4 bandwidth showed little to no difference between x16 and x8 bandwidth on PCIE 2.0

 

[Bobnova]

About 1% for that card. Nothing worth worrying about.
Assuming PCIe 2.0, which you have.

 

[petteyg359]

Why not stick the sound card in the last slot? Then your upper slot doesn't get handicapped.

EDIT: Are you sure the top slot is at x8? Docs suggest that upper slot only goes to x8 if slot 2 is also in use.

 

[McGondy]

A 6950 would probably not be affected by x8 bandwidth, as long as it's PCIE 2.0 or higher.

PCIE bandwidth is way ahead of the graphics cards currently. Testing done with a 6990 (dual GPU card requiring more bandwidth than your single GPU 6950) on x16 vs x8 vs x4 bandwidth showed little to no difference between x16 and x8 bandwidth on PCIE 2.0

About 1% for that card. Nothing worth worrying about.
Assuming PCIe 2.0, which you have.

Cheers guys, I assumed as much but I just wanted some confirmation =]

Why not stick the sound card in the last slot? Then your upper slot doesn't get handicapped.

EDIT: Are you sure the top slot is at x8? Docs suggest that upper slot only goes to x8 if slot 2 is also in use.

Sound card is in the lowest slot. If any other slot is used, the top one is reduced to x8 - this is confirmed on GPUz using the render window thing that is recommended to get the bandwidth up.


My second question is, if I were to crossfire, will the middle slot also run at x8?