Graphics card must be in first slot? (H170M Pro4)
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: Intel Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock Intel Motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=2474
Printed Date: 19 Jan 2025 at 7:47am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Graphics card must be in first slot? (H170M Pro4)
Posted By: Stefan Pochmann
Subject: Graphics card must be in first slot? (H170M Pro4)
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2016 at 9:25am
The http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H170M%20Pro4/?cat=Manual" rel="nofollow - H170M Pro4 manual says:And:
Due to a wide CPU cooler, I wouldn't be able to use the PCIE1 slot. Does the above mean I wouldn't be able to use a single graphics card in the PCIE4 slot, i.e., I wouldn't be able to use a graphics card at all? Or if it's possible (and the manual is just misleading), would it only work in x4 mode? |
Replies:
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2016 at 12:35pm
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You should be able to use your video card in the PCIE4 slot. I have used video cards in slots other than the PCIE1 slot on several ASRock boards, and they worked fine. But, the PCIE4 slot is electrically an x4 slot. So the video card will only run at x4 speeds. ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2016 at 2:21pm
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As Parsec stated it will work fine but be restricted to PCIe 3.0 x4. Something worth noting though is that PCIe 3.0 x4 is roughly equal to PCIe 2.0 x8 which is roughly equal to PCIe 1.0/1.1 x16 when it comes to bandwidth. I would hazard a guess that only current generation upper mid range GPUs would be able to fully saturate PCIe 3.0 x4 so a GTX 970 or R9 390x may bottleneck slightly in an X4 (3.0) slot. You should not see any bottlenecking on GPUs below that however and that I can say with certainty as I have tested my GTX 960 in my H170's x4 3.0 slot and seen absolutely 0 difference in benchmarking/gaming performance. In fact I would have loved to use my GPU in the lower slot for aesthetic reasons if there wasn't a drive bay in the way in my chassis. ------------- 
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Posted By: Stefan Pochmann
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2016 at 9:28pm
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Ok, thanks. Good to know it would at least work at all (really think the manual should be improved there). I'm still a bit worried about speed, I'm not interested in gaming but only about calculations like for machine learning, and I couldn't find any relevant measurements (and I don't know much about it yet). Also, if I get one, it might be with the upcoming Nvidia Pascal, so maybe it would make more of a difference there. Oh well, I guess I'll stick with this board for now...
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