p5wd2 pre. and PCI-E slot Question.

[Ocdreams]

Hi, I have an Abit p5wd2 pre. Motherboard and I have a question about the 16x pci-E slot. I want to buy a 7800gtx card and I was wondering if I can use the Bottom PCI-E slot due to that if I used the top one then Im not going to be able to use the 2 regular pci slots below it.

Can someone help?

Thanks

 

[EternalX]

yes either slot will work for video, i tried both slots with my 7800gtx. Not sure if the pci-express bus speed is different or if that even matters tho.

 

[hkh]

The speed is different the blur slow only runs at 4x while the top runs at 8x.

 

[Ocdreams]

Nah! the Blue PCI-Ex16 slot runs @ full 16 lanes while the 2nd PCI-Ex slot runs at a max of x4, so in a way you can put the GTX card in the 2nd slot (black one) but the card's performance will drop by more, way more than half.

Think of it as an AGP 8x card running at 4x only, putting DDR 400 on a chipset that can handle DDR 333 only.......it would be a waste of performance to put the GTX in the 2nd PCI-Ex slot (black one).

When you put the GTX in the blue PCI-Ex slot, you're still going to be able to use TWO (white) PCI slots (2nd white and last one), unless you're getting a GTX 512. What other PCI cards do you have that you have to use 2 or more? or you just want to have the ability to use 2 or more in the future?

Thanks guys for your inputs. Well I have a audigy 2 sound card the wifi card that came with the board a DVB card for My TV viewing. and I need a spot for my koolance. LOL

 

[GearShift3r]

Oooh, okay. I wasn't quite sure about that either.


-GearShift3r

 

[EternalX]

I dont even think a 4x pci-express lane even gets loaded to the max, let alone the 8x or 16x lanes. Check in the video sections for more info.

 

[RangerXLT8]

I dont even think a 4x pci-express lane even gets loaded to the max, let alone the 8x or 16x lanes. Check in the video sections for more info.

I think your right, latest generations of cards probably just surpassed AGP8x bandwith.

Putting your card in the 4x PCI-Express is not going to hurt performance by even a small percentage.