pci-e x1, x4, x8

[mousiness]

Well theres obviously a massive raid over pci-e x16 graphics cards, but what bout those other pci-e i/o slots? will they ever make cards for them? There has been matrox video cards, powercolor tv tuners and im pretty sure gigabyte pci-e x1 cards that are made other than pci-e x16 cards, so what about the other buses, pci-e x4 and x8, im wondering if they will ever make cards for them or will they be just another unused i/o on the MoBo just like acr slots? Does anyone know anything about this?

[Kougar]

There are cards made for all these slots, even though they are not all commonly seen. Everything from sound to video to SATA or IDE controller cards can use 1x, 4x, or 8x slots.

Generally graphics cards require 16x, especially for higher end models that require higher bandwidth. The size of the PCIe slot is solely a reflection of it's bandwidth. Also, while some motherboards use a x16 PCIe slot, it really is only x8 in bandwidth terms. For example the first generation of SLI motherboards would have two x16 PCIe slots, but both would only have x8 bandwidth each.

Check out this page for details on the slots and respective bandwidths they offer. :) As the technology ages and more and more people have these slots, more companies will transition over from basic PCI to these new PCIe slots. http://www.gen-x-pc.com/pci_basic.htm

[werty316]

Mainly PCI-E x1 and x4 will be used for NIC and sound cards; basically any addon card. Also I think only server boards have PCI-E x8 slots. I have never seen a consumer board taht has a x8 PCI-E slot.

[mousiness]

VGA?? NIC isnt VGA btw, neither are sound cards... another pointless bus... gees so many pointless things are being made now,, just like Wi-Fi slots and such, at least until newer cards are made which i really hope will happen.

[Kougar]

Mainly PCI-E x1 and x4 will be used for NIC and sound cards; basically any addon card. Also I think only server boards have PCI-E x8 slots. I have never seen a consumer board taht has a x8 PCI-E slot.

I went poking around NewEgg before I posted... oddly enough they even have a PCI-E x1 slot FX Quadro graphics card in there. And you're right, generally x8 slots are only on server motherboards. However, quite a large number of physical x16 slots only have x8 in bandwidth, especially on older SLI platforms. Was interesting that NewEgg also had several motherboards with 3 x16 slots, and of course the Gigabyte Quad Royal that has 4 x16 slots... Imagine running 8 7900GTs in SLI on that! :rolleyes:

Mousiness, NIC stands for Network Interface Card, basically it's a stand alone card that lets you plug your ethernet/cat5e line into your computer for broadband. ;) I'm not sure why you think there are that many bus types out there, generally PCI, PCI-e, PCI-x, ISA, and AGP.... ISA is the oldest one and long gone, AGP is just about phased out as well, and PCI will eventually follow eventually. PCI-E will be around for a good while to come, but PCI-X I have not heard to much about as of late. It seems to be locked in the server realm from what I've seen.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/23/pci_express_battles_pci/ might explain PCI and PCI-X better...

[werty316]

Its all about what is current. I think it is because AGP cannot handle the bandwith of the newer cards so a new slot was needed. Its the same when M$ makes a new OS and AMD and Intel make new cpus, everything just keeps changing.


Heres an interesting guide on PCI-X:
PCI Express: An Overview (http://anonym.to/?http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/pcie.ars/1)


Here are articles on PCI-E:
PCI Express From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://anonym.to/?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express)

What is PCI Express? A Layman's guide to high speed PCI-E technology (http://anonym.to/?http://www.directron.com/expressguide.html)