PCI Express 2.0 x 16?
I am unsure about something concerning my motherboard and GPU support. My mb has two PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slots for graphics cards. The blue one says blue@ x16 mode. The black slot says black@ x4 mode. What are these modes? Does this mean they support different video cards (better or worse)?
Comments
It has to do with bandwidth of the bus slots. The blue one runs at X16 leaving only 4X for the second one...you might also note some boards say you can run two cards at 8X each (two 8's are 16..right!) If your running SLI or Crossfire you use the two slots (one board in each) they only run at X8 each...you lose bandwidth but gain some of it in graphics rendering from having two cards...not much gain though..maybe 20-35% Its cheaper to run one high end card at 16X than fooling around with two expensive cards for only a minor gain.
This is for running 2 video cards at once. Most motherboards don't support 2 at full speed so when you have 2 installed they run slower to accommodate the motherboards system bus.
If your using only one card, use the blue@ x16.
x4 is the older one
x16 is better because it supports high-end video cards that's usually sold at stores