PCIe 16x card in different slots.

[The_Other_One]

OK, I know a PCIe 16x card will work fine in an 8x slot. My rather pointless question is will it work in lesser slots? Say a 1x(with a little slot mod) I brought this up on a forum I mod, but someone said it wasn't possible. However, I'm not tottally convenced they are correct. Hehe, but I'm not willing to modify my board to test it out :rolleyes:

[phranq]

OK, I know a PCIe 16x card will work fine in an 8x slot. My rather pointless question is will it work in lesser slots? Say a 1x(with a little slot mod) I brought this up on a forum I mod, but someone said it wasn't possible. However, I'm not tottally convenced they are correct. Hehe, but I'm not willing to modify my board to test it out :rolleyes:



No, PCIe cards won't work in a x1 slot. Not to mention that it would be slow as hell if it did.

[Mike]

No, PCIe cards won't work in a x1 slot. Not to mention that it would be slow as hell if it did.

Well, an x16 card won't fit in an x1 slot...but if you cut it out to make it fit...believe it or not, it will work...at least in some cases, I believe toms hardware had an article a while back where they experimented with disabling pci-e lanes and got some video cards working in x1 mode...and yeah, the performance sucked...

In any case, such operation is going to be completely unsupported by both your video card and motherboard...it wasn't designed to work that way.

[phranq]

Well, an x16 card won't fit in an x1 slot...but if you cut it out to make it fit...believe it or not, it will work...at least in some cases, I believe toms hardware had an article a while back where they experimented with disabling pci-e lanes and got some video cards working in x1 mode...and yeah, the performance sucked...

In any case, such operation is going to be completely unsupported by both your video card and motherboard...it wasn't designed to work that way.


Sure Mike, have to go all technical :p . For that matter, x1 cards will fit in x16 slots, it's just not very useful. Yah, the pcie slots are funny, they'll take pretty much anything that "fits", but uhh it's not practical.

[The_Other_One]

Why are so many people so "IT'LL NEVER WORK!!!" Thare are 1x cards out there... Both workstation cards and I found a x1300 I beleive that was 1x...

Anyway Mike's basically hitting at what I was thinking. I knew the port had to be modified, but I figured it would work. However, what I don't undestand is why would it be unsupported by the motherboard? I mean, if there are some 1x cards out there, do they not work in all slots?

Another thought, remember the ol' 8bit ISA days? For kicks, I took an old 8088 and stuck a 16bit VGA card in it. Of course, the last connectors weren't connected to a thing, but the card worked great! Not all cards do this, but I heard a few video and sound cards were capable of just running in 8bit. Not totally pertaining to the post, but it was interesting :rolleyes:

[Mike]

Why are so many people so "IT'LL NEVER WORK!!!" Thare are 1x cards out there... Both workstation cards and I found a x1300 I beleive that was 1x...

Anyway Mike's basically hitting at what I was thinking. I knew the port had to be modified, but I figured it would work. However, what I don't undestand is why would it be unsupported by the motherboard? I mean, if there are some 1x cards out there, do they not work in all slots?

Another thought, remember the ol' 8bit ISA days? For kicks, I took an old 8088 and stuck a 16bit VGA card in it. Of course, the last connectors weren't connected to a thing, but the card worked great! Not all cards do this, but I heard a few video and sound cards were capable of just running in 8bit. Not totally pertaining to the post, but it was interesting :rolleyes:

What phranq said is the correct answer really, I personally would never bother trying to run an x16 card in an x1 slot...it would probably be slow and buggy at best.

However, a low end card like an x1300 that was designed to go in an x1 slot...that will obviously work fine.

[phranq]

Why are so many people so "IT'LL NEVER WORK!!!" Thare are 1x cards out there... Both workstation cards and I found a x1300 I beleive that was 1x...

Anyway Mike's basically hitting at what I was thinking. I knew the port had to be modified, but I figured it would work. However, what I don't undestand is why would it be unsupported by the motherboard? I mean, if there are some 1x cards out there, do they not work in all slots?

Another thought, remember the ol' 8bit ISA days? For kicks, I took an old 8088 and stuck a 16bit VGA card in it. Of course, the last connectors weren't connected to a thing, but the card worked great! Not all cards do this, but I heard a few video and sound cards were capable of just running in 8bit. Not totally pertaining to the post, but it was interesting :rolleyes:


Sure, it might be a fun project...but what do you have when you're done? A card that *might* work at a fraction of its capabilities. I guess it's one of those "just for fun" or "in theory" kinda things.