GTX 980 stuck in PCI-E x16 2.0

JCNiest5

2[H]4U
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Apr 25, 2005
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Any ideas why a PCI-E 3.0 video card would be stuck in 2.0 mode? It idles in 1.1 mode, then when you stress it, it only goes to 2.0 mode. It's set to Auto in the BIOS. Setting it to Gen3 makes the system not boot. This is running on an MSI Z97 Gaming 5 with an i7 4790K. So, it can't be the CPU not having PCI-E 3.0 controller/capability.

The video card is an Asus Strix GTX 980.
 
I have the Asus X99-Deluxe

Setting mine to auto speed does not let it reach 3.0.
I always have to set mine to 3.0 manually.

Do you have the newest BIOS for that mobo?
 
I have an AMD 290 with Asus X99-Pro and it was stuck at 2.0 as well according to GPU-z (1.1 idle). I had to go into the bios and set the PCIE to GEN3 from Auto and it resolved the issue for me. I can't say it changed performance much if any after testing.
 
Yes I have the latest bios, which is 1.9 dated 12/24/14. My problem is if I set it to Gen3, my system fails to boot.
 
Okay, finally able to make it run at 3.0, but driver failed to respond and the speed sucks. It acts like a video card 10 years ago. It's either the video card or the motherboard. Runs fine in 2.0. I'm scratching my head now. Gonna try it on another pci-e 3.0 board and see what happens.
 
After the slot is forced to 3.0 mode in BIOS, power down and reseat the 980 and it's power connectors. Post back with results.
 
Okay, I've tried a GTX 960 with the same result, so I think the board is bad. I went to exchange the board but Microcenter is completely out of it. The salesman said they should get some in tomorrow. Hopefully they do so I can exchange it to get a good one. Will update this sometime tomorrow, if I get a new board to test it out.
 
Might want to try and reflash the BIOS, too. I had a similar issue with my ASUS board a year or so ago and I flashed a different kind of BIOS...I can't remember the name of it. Sorry I can't be of more help but there is another firmware for a controller. At least on the ASUS board you could see it on the first BIOS page so you might look around for that kind of resolution before going for an exchange (I swapped a couple boards before resolving the issue with a flash).
 
I was too quick to blame. Updating the BIOS to the latest fixes the 1.1/2.0/3.0 mode problem on the second board. Gonna try updating the BIOS on the first board, even though the current BIOS is the latest one, just updating it for the sake of trying different things.
 
Last edited:
@Mope54 -

Wow....what do you know?! You just helped me fix my problem! Reflashing the BIOS (even the same version) did the trick! I would never have guessed that!

Now, it's working as it should.

Thanks all, but particularly to Mope54.

I'm a happy camper now.
 
I had a similar issue with my GTX 970s (except one was running x4 3.0 and the other x8 1.1) and just swapping the card around fixed it. I think they were not properly seated. Now both run x8 3.0.
 
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