The difference between 8x and 16x (PCIe)?

[Xylo]

So, I have an DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D (full info. in sig), and due to various cooling issues, I was wondering something about the PCIe1 and PCIe4 (PCIe4 is the second SLI slot on the board) slots...

I have only one graphics card, and naturally it's in PCIe1 w/ the 16x enabled by default and what not... I've been told I can move it to PCIe 4, and switch the jumpers, but...

1) I'd only get 8x, right? So, just how much is that going impact my system's performance? A lot? A little? None? etc...

2) Would that even work? Or would I have problems w/ there being no card in PCIe1? (I'm pretty sure it should work though...)


Any advice would be most appreciated... Thanks!

 

[HighTest]

There are a couple of reviews where both the original nForce4 SLI and nForce4 X16 SLI have been compaired. Currently software shows only a small difference in performance, so it doesn't seem as if x8 or x16 effects gaming performance much "with current hardware". Eventually graphics cards may really require that much bandwidth to perform at top performance, but with any of the current generation, you'll notice little performance difference between x8 and x16 PCI-E setups.

Currently the only real benefit to the new X16 SLI chipset is the additional PCI-E lanes that vendors can use to add more PCI-E slots to their motherboard in comparison to previous boards. Again, not a significant difference for most enthusiasts at this point in time, so no need to sell your existing SLI mobo for an X16 SLI mobo yet.

So based on this, you should have similar gamming performance in either slot of your DFI.

Just benchmark before you move it and after you move it for your own validation.

Hope this helps.