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[Resolved]NF4 Ultra-D - Which PCI-E Slot?


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Does it matter which PCI-E slot you use with Ultra-D? I have a strange problem with my monitor losing diplay after monitor is powered off and then turned back on while leaving computer running. Was thinking of trying the other PCI-E slot.

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I thought the top one was 16x and the bottom one 2x, and when in SLI mode they both run 8x, i remember reading the nforce4 chipset itself only supports 20 pci-e lanes, and that the new nforce4pro for socket 940 will support 32 lanes.

 

EDIT: I just checked the manual and the bottom 16x slot does run at 2x speed in standard mode.

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It fits a x16 card, but runs a 2x speed, just like a 16x slot runs at 8x in sli. Its phsycially keyed for 16 lanes, but runs at 2x in the standard config and when jumpers are set to SLI it runs 8x. You can check out the anandtech article about modding the ultra to an SLI, it show you that the second slot is 2x and what performance is lost (not much) by 2x mode.

 

EDIT: I just tripled checked and i was right, check page 68 and 69 of the pdf manual

 

in standard mode the config is

 

top slot-1x

first vidcard slot-16x

middle slot-1x

second vidcard slot-2x

 

jumpers on sli it is

 

top slot-4x

first vidcardslot-8x

middle slot-N.C. (dead)

second vidcard slot-8x

 

both configs give us the 20 lanes the nforce4 supports.

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ok hello dear people there^^

 

SEVERAL people tested it and said that, contradictory to what the manual tells, the lower AND the upper 16x Slot BOTH work @ 16x IF u do NOT plug in a PCIe Card into the OTHER 16x Card.

 

Switching the SLI-Jumpers to 'DUAL'... will make BOTH 16x Slots run at 8x.

Which will result in a 1-3% performance drop with a single Graphiccard (means: no real drop at all^^).

 

cya

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Yes, I've read the anand article as well and the 2x speed happens when you have 2 PCIe cards installed in both slots. To my understanding if you have just one card in PCIe slot 2 it will run at 16x speed. In my pdf manual page 69 shows a diagram and labels the 2nd PCIe slot as 16x and does not mention anything about 2x speed.

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It's 16x if it's the only card and you don't mess with jumpers.

 

I think using the lower slot really depends on case air flow here.

If your exhaust fan/s are on bottom of case it may be a good idea. If they are located higher It may give area under the card a "dead spot/hot spot". It's just that wussy lil fan on the GPU suckin down. If the fan design "expells" the hot air like with an Arctic Silencer it may be different and perhaps the prefered location.

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On mine, with a single card in the bottom slot, it was either 2x (jumpers normal) or 8x (jumpers SLI). There was no way to get 16x in the bottom slot.

 

Having said that, my 3DMark05 score was less than 1% worse at 8x vs. 16x in the top slot.

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