Anyway to put video card in #2 & still keep x16?

thegreywizard wrote: Is there any way to run the video card in PCI #2 but still keep it at x16?  Or will it always default to x8 if it's not in the 1st slot? It would be nice to free up the air space around the M.2 port since I will be watercooling and there will be little to no air flow around that area at all which wouldn't be good for an SSD if I end up using the M.2 slot.

That depends on the mother board and CPU you are using, which is... ??

I seem to recall you are using an X99M Extreme4, from another thread?

If so, the PCIE2 slot is electrically x16, so a video card in that slot should run at x16.

No idea what CPU you are using. An i7-5820k with 28 PCIe 3.0 lanes might default the PCIE2 slot to x8, even with the PCIE1 slot empty. The other i7-58xxk processors won't have that concern.

You are correct that a lack of air flow over an M.2 SSD in the M.2 port will affect its temperature. If your PC case has a side fan that you can direct at the mother board, that will help keep an M.2 SSD cooler.

I've found that front to back air flow will also help keep M.2 SSDs cooler, as well as video cards.

Maybe run something like GPU-Z:

Assuming you have GeForce Experience installed, right click the GeForce Experience icon in your system tray, click "Open Nvidia Control Panel"

Click System Infromation, bottom left, and you should see something like:



I am unsure if this reflects the current config of the system or the max config of the card.



Edited by GuruNot - 31 Mar 2016 at 2:21am