"Manhunt1908"Support motherboard new standard PCI Express v.3.0 is not really her competitive advantage"We basically get that in PCI Express 3.0, in fact, it has no real advantages, and it will not increase the speed in modern games. then this is no longer necessary or interesting to anyone, there is no increase, which means it sucks, but after all besides game features PCI Express v.3.0 standard, it has other functions, in particular, USB 3.0 directly depends on the motherboard with the PCI Express v.3.0 support function, they themselves say that, Well, the presence of two or four USB 3.0 ports in the computer, by today's standards, it is simply necessary, 3.0 is much faster than 2.0, many have tested this in practice. Like it or not, a motherboard with PCI Express v.3.0 is needed, a lot the latest technologies are tied precisely to this standard. It is unlikely that someone will refuse to have such a solid list on board their motherboard, given below!
SupremeFX IV
Perfect Sound
This motherboard boasts a high-quality audio system based on the integrated SupremeFX IV sound card featured on printed circuit board special line. Capacitive capacitors and electromagnetic shielding contribute to the highest sound quality. In addition, the SupremeFX IV includes a dedicated headphone amplifier.

GameFirst II
The GameFirst II function based on cFos Traffic Shaping technology will help you prioritize the use of the Internet channel various applications. Having received the highest priority, online games will work as quickly as possible, without annoying "lags", and other online applications that have a low priority for using the Internet channel will not interfere with this. To access this function, there is a convenient GUI ROG style.

Gigabit Ethernet controller
Intel network controllers are renowned for their stable and efficient operation at low CPU usage.

mPCIe Combo adapter and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0 controller
In order to save the main expansion slots, this motherboard is equipped with a special additional slot with an mPCIe Combo adapter, which can connect devices with mSATA interfaces (such as a solid state drive) and mPCIe ( wireless adapters WiFi, 3G/4G, GPS, etc.). Moreover, the package already includes an mPCIe card with support for Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.

Fusion Thermo Cooling System
To cool the elements of the power system on this motherboard, a special ROG Fusion Thermo cooler is used, which consists of a copper water block, massive radiators and a heat pipe. Thus, it can be used both as part of a liquid cooling system and for conventional cooling with fans. > Learn more
ROG Connect

Interface for overclocking and setting ROG Connect
With the ROG Connect function, you can monitor the status of the computer and configure its settings in real time using a laptop by connecting the latter to the main system via a USB cable.

Extreme Engine Digi+II
highly efficient digital system nutrition
The Extreme Engine Digi+ II power management system delivers highly efficient performance with variable frequency PWM digital processor and memory voltage regulators. It also uses high quality capacitors from Japanese manufacturers. A reliable and powerful power supply system is the key to the successful operation of a computer in overclocking mode!

ROG CPU-Z
The new face of the famous utility
ROG CPU-Z is a customized version of the well-known information utility from CPUID. It provides the same functionality and system accuracy as the original, but with a unique Republic of Gamers-style interface. With ROG CPU-Z you can get full information about the processor and some other components of your computer.

Multi-GPU technologies
LucidLogix Virtu MVP
High speed in graphics applications
LucidLogix Virtu MVP technology is a software for Windows 7, implementing automatic switching between the graphics core built into the processor and the discrete graphics card. By putting a discrete graphics card into sleep mode when its resources are not needed, energy savings are achieved, the noise level from the computer is reduced and the temperature inside is reduced. system block, which contributes to a more favorable mode of operation of all components. In addition, you can use the integrated graphics core to accelerate the main graphics card, which allows you to increase performance by 60% (as measured by 3DMark Vantage). It is also worth noting that this technology fully compatible with the Intel Quick Sync 2.0 video transcoding feature.

1. Hello! Please explain the difference in bandwidth between PCI Express 3.0 x16 and PCI Express 2.0 x16. There are still motherboards with PCI Express 2.0 x16 interface on sale. I'm with I will lose vidyuhi performance in performance if I install new video card interfacePCI Express 3.0 to a computer with a motherboard, where there is only a connectorPCIe 2.0? I think that I will lose, because the totalbaud rate PCI Express 2.0 has - 16 GB / s, and the totalPCI Express 3.0 data transfer rate is twice as fast - 32 GB/s.
2. Hello! I have a computer with a powerful but not new processor Intel Core i7 2700K and a motherboard that has a PCI Express 2.0 slot. Tell me, if I buy a new PCI Express 3.0 interface video card, then this video card will work twice as slow as if I had a motherboard with a connector PCI Express 3.0? Does that mean I need to change my computer?
3. Please answer this question. My motherboard has two connectors: PCI Express 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0, but in the connector PCI Express 3.0 new graphics card PCI Express 3.0 does not climb, the southbridge radiator interferes. If I install a video cardPCI-E 3.0 per slot PCI-E 2.0, will my video card perform worse than if it was installed in a PCI Express 3.0 slot?
4. Hello, I want to buy a used motherboard from a friend for two thousand rubles. Three years ago, he bought it for 7,000 rubles, but I'm confused by the fact that it has a slot for an interface video card PCI-E 2.0, and I have a video cardPCI-E 3.0. Will my graphics card on this motherboard run at full capacity or not?

Hello friends! To date, on sale you can find motherboards with a slot for installing PCI Express 2.0 x16 video cards, and PCI Express 3.0x16. The same can be said about graphics adapters, there are video cards with an interface PCI-E 3.0, as well as PCI-E 2.0. If you look at the official specifications of the PCI Express 3.0 x16 and PCI Express 2.0 x16 interfaces, you will find out that the total data transfer rate of PCI Express 2.0 is- 16 GB / s, and PCI Express 3.0 is twice as large -32 GB/s. I will not delve into the wilds of the specifics of these interfaces and just tell you that there is such a big difference indata transfer rate is visible only in theory, but in practice it is very small.If you read articles on this topic on the Internet, thenyou will come to the conclusion that modern PCI Express 3.0 interface video cards operate at the same speed in PCI Express 3.0 x16 and PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, and difference in throughputbetween PCI-E 3.0 x16 and PCI-E 2.0 x16 is only 1-2% video card performance loss. That is, it doesn't matter in which slot you install the video card, in PCI-E 3.0 or PCI-E 2.0, everything will work the same way.

But unfortunately all these articles were written in 2013 and 2014 and at that time there were no games like Far Cry Primal, Battlefield 1 and more coming in 2016. Also released in 2016 family of NVIDIA 10-series GPUs, such as graphics cards GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and even GTX 1060. My experiments with new games and new graphics cards showed that the advantage PCI-E interface 3.0 overPCI-E 2.0 is no longer 1-2%, but on average 6-7%. What is interesting if the video card is lower class than GeForce GTX 1050 , then the percentage is less (2-3%) , and if vice versa, then more - 9-13%.

So, in my experiment, I used a video card GeForce GTX 1050 PCI-E 3.0 interface and socketed motherboard PCI Express 3.0 x16 and PCI Express 2.0 x16.

H graphics settings in games are always maximum.

1. Game FAR CRY PRIMAL. Interface PCI-E 3.0 showed an advantage over PCI-E 2.0 as always higher by 4-5 frames, which is approximately 4 % %.
2. Battlefield 1 game. The gap between PCI-E 3.0 and PCI-E 2.0 was 8-10 frames , which is about 9% as a percentage.
3. Rise of the Tomb Raider. Advantage PCI-E 3.0 averages 9- 10 fps or 9%.
4. Witcher. The advantage of PCI-E 3.0 was 3%.
5. Grand Theft Auto V. The advantage of PCI-E 3.0 is 5 fps or 5%.

That is, there is still a difference in bandwidth between the PCI-E 3.0 x16 and PCI-E 2.0 x16 interfaces and is not in favor of PCI-E 2.0. Therefore, I would not buy a motherboard with one PCI-E 2.0 slot at the moment.

A friend of mine bought a used motherboard for three thousand rubles. Yes, once it was heaped up and cost about ten thousand rubles, it has a lot of connectors SATA III and USB 3.0, also 8 slots for RAM, it supports RAID technology, etc., but it is built on an outdated chipset and a PCI Express 2.0 video card slot on it! In my opinion, I'd rather buy it. Why?

It may well happen that in a year or two the latest video cards will work only in the connector PCI Express 3.0 x16 , and on your motherboard there will be a morally obsolete and no longer used by manufacturers connector PCI Express 2.0 x16 . You buy a new video card, and it refuses to work in the old slot. Personally, I have already encountered many times that the video card PCI-E 3.0 did not run on the mat. connector board PCI-E 2.0, and Even BIOS update didn't help. motherboard. I also dealt with video cardsPCI-E 2.0 x16, which refused to work on older motherboards with an interface PCI-E 1.0 x16, although everywhere they write about backward compatibility.Cases when a PCI Express 3.0 x16 video card did not start on motherboards withPCI Express 1.0 x16, even more.

Well, do not forget about the appearance of the interface this year PCI Express 4.0. In this case, PCI Express 3.0 will be obsolete.

I have been asked this question more than once, so now I will try to answer it as clearly and briefly as possible, for this I will give pictures of the PCI Express and PCI expansion slots on the motherboard for a better understanding and, of course, I will indicate the main differences in the characteristics, t .e. very soon, you will find out what these interfaces are and how they look.

So, to begin with, let's briefly answer this question, what is PCI Express and PCI in general.

What is PCI Express and PCI?

PCI is a computer parallel I/O bus for connecting peripherals to the computer motherboard. PCI is used to connect: video cards, sound cards, network cards, TV tuners and other devices. The PCI interface is outdated, so you probably won't be able to find, for example, a modern video card that connects via PCI.

PCI Express(PCIe or PCI-E) is a computer serial I/O bus for connecting peripherals to a computer motherboard. Those. this already uses a bidirectional serial connection, which can have several lines (x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 and x32) the more such lines, the higher the throughput of the PCI-E bus. The PCI Express interface is used to connect devices such as video cards, sound cards, network cards, SSD drives and others.

There are several versions of the PCI-E interface: 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 (version 4.0 will be released soon). This interface is usually designated, for example, like this PCI-E 3.0 x16, which stands for PCI Express 3.0 version with 16 lanes.

If we talk about whether, for example, a video card that has a PCI-E 3.0 interface on a motherboard that only supports PCI-E 2.0 or 1.0 will work, so the developers say that everything will work, but of course keep in mind that the throughput will be limited by the capabilities of the motherboard. Therefore, in this case, overpay for a video card with more new version PCI Express I think is not worth it ( if only for the future, i.e. You are planning to purchase a new motherboard with PCI-E 3.0). Also, vice versa, let's say your motherboard supports PCI Express 3.0 version, and the video card supports version 1.0, then this configuration should also work, but only with PCI-E 1.0 capabilities, i.e. there is no restriction here, since the video card in this case will work at the limit of its capabilities.

Differences between PCI Express and PCI

The main difference in characteristics is, of course, the bandwidth, for PCI Express it is much higher, for example, for PCI at 66 MHz, the bandwidth is 266 Mb / s, and for PCI-E 3.0 (x16) 32 Gb/s.

Externally, the interfaces are also different, so you won't be able to connect, for example, a PCI Express video card to a PCI expansion slot. PCI Express interfaces with a different number of lines also differ, I will now show all this in the pictures.

PCI Express and PCI expansion slots on motherboards

PCI and AGP slots

PCI-E x1, PCI-E x16 and PCI slots

PCI Express interfaces on video cards

That's all I have for now!

Introduction

Moore's law states that the number of transistors on a silicon chip that is profitable to produce doubles every couple of years. But do not think that the speed of the processor also doubles every couple of years. This is a common misconception, and users often expect exponential scaling of PC performance.

However, as you probably noticed, the top processors on the market have been stuck between 3 and 4 GHz for six years now. And the computer industry had to look for new ways to increase computing performance. The most important of these methods is to maintain a balance between platform components that use the PCI Express bus, an open standard that allows high-speed video cards, expansion cards, and other components to exchange information. And PCI interface Express is just as important for performance scaling as multi-core processors. While dual-core, quad-core, and six-core processors can only be loaded with thread-optimized applications, any program installed on your computer interacts with components connected via PCI Express in one way or another.

Many journalists and experts expected next-generation PCI Express 3.0 motherboards and chipsets to appear in the first quarter of 2010. Unfortunately, backward compatibility issues delayed the release of PCI Express 3.0, and today it's been half a year, but we're still waiting official information about the publication of a new standard.

However, we spoke with the PCI-SIG (Special Interest Group, which is responsible for the PCI and PCI Express standards), which allowed us to get some answers.

PCI Express 3.0: plans

Al Yanes, President and Chairman of PCI-SIG, and Ramin Neshati, Chairman of PCI-SIG Serial Communications Workgroup, shared their current plans for the implementation of PCI Express 3.0.

On June 23, 2010, version 0.71 of the PCI Express 3.0 specification was released. Jans argued that version 0.71 should fix all of the backwards compatibility issues that caused the initial delay. Neshati noted that the main compatibility issue was "DC wandering", which he explained in such a way that PCI Express 2.0 and earlier devices "did not provide the necessary zeros and ones" to comply with the PCI Express 3.0 interface.

Today, with the backward compatibility issues resolved, PCI-SIG is ready to release baseline 0.9 "later this summer". And behind this basic version, version 1.0 is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.

Of course, the most intriguing question is when PCI Express 3.0 motherboards will hit store shelves. Neshati noted that he expects the first products to appear in the first quarter of 2011 (triangle "FYI" in the plan picture).

Neshati added that between versions 0.9 and 1.0 there should be no changes at the silicon level (that is, all changes will only affect software and firmware), so some products should enter the market even before the final 1.0 specification. And products can already be certified for the PCI-SIG "Integrator's List" ("IL" triangle), which is a variant of the PCI-SIG compliance logo.

Neshati jokingly named the third quarter of 2011 as the date for "Fry's and Buy" (probably referring to Frys.com, Buy.com, or Best Buy). That is, during this period we should expect the appearance of a large number of products with PCI support Express 3.0 in retail stores and online stores.

PCI Express 3.0: Designed for Speed

For end users, the main difference between PCI Express 2.0 and PCI Express 3.0 will be a significant increase in maximum bandwidth. PCI Express 2.0 has a signal transfer rate of 5 GT/s, that is, a throughput of 500 MB/s for each lane. Thus, the main PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot, which typically uses 16 lanes, provides up to 8 GB/s of bidirectional bandwidth.

With PCI Express 3.0, we will get a doubling of these figures. PCI Express 3.0 uses a signaling rate of 8 GT/s, which gives a throughput of 1 GB/s per lane. Thus, the main slot for the video card will receive a bandwidth of up to 16 GB / s.

At first glance, increasing the signal rate from 5 GT/s to 8 GT/s does not seem like a doubling. However, the PCI Express 2.0 standard uses an 8b/10b encoding scheme, where 8 bits of data are transmitted as 10-bit characters for an error recovery algorithm. As a result, we get 20% redundancy, that is, a decrease in useful throughput.

PCI Express 3.0 moves to a much more efficient 128b/130b encoding scheme, eliminating 20% ​​redundancy. So 8 GT/s is no longer a "theoretical" speed; this is the actual rate comparable in performance to a signal rate of 10 GT/s if the 8b/10b coding principle were used.

We asked Jans about devices that would require a boost in speed. He replied that they would include "PLX switches, 40 Gb/s Ethernet controllers, InfiniBand, solid state devices that are becoming more popular, and of course graphics cards." He added "We haven't run out of innovation, it's not static, it's a continuous stream" and it paves the way for further improvements in future versions of the PCI Express interface.

Analysis: where will we use PCI Express 3.0?

Drives

AMD has already integrated SATA 6Gb/s support into its 8th chipset line, and motherboard manufacturers are adding USB 3.0 controllers. Intel is a bit behind in this area as it doesn't support USB 3.0 or SATA 6 Gb/s in chipsets (we already have pre-production samples of P67 motherboards in our lab and they have support for SATA 6 Gb/s, but USB 3.0 is in this generation we will not receive). However, as we've seen so many times in the AMD vs. Intel showdown, AMD innovation often inspires Intel. Given the speeds of the next generation drive interface and peripherals, there is no need to port any of the technologies to PCI Express 3.0 yet. For both USB 3.0 (5 Gb / s) and SATA 6 Gb / s (no drives have yet appeared that would fit the limits of this interface), one PCI Express second generation line will suffice.

Of course, when it comes to drives, the interaction between drives and controllers is only part of the story. Imagine an array of multiple SATA 6Gb/s SSDs on a chipset, when a RAID 0 array could potentially load a single Gen 2 PCI Express lane that most motherboard manufacturers use to connect the controller. So you can decide whether the USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb / s interfaces really require PCI Express 3.0 support after simple calculations.

As we already mentioned, the USB 3.0 interface gives a maximum speed of 5 Gb / s. But just like the PCI Express 2.1 standard, USB 3.0 uses 8b/10b encoding, meaning the actual peak speed is 4Gbps. Divide the bits by eight to convert to bytes and you get a peak throughput of 500 MB/s - exactly the same as a single lane of the current PCI Express 2.1 standard. SATA 6 Gb/s runs at 6 Gb/s, but it also uses an 8b/10b encoding scheme that turns the theoretical 6 Gb/s into an actual 4.8 Gb/s. Again, convert this to bytes and you get 600 MB/s, or 20% more than a PCI Express 2.0 lane can handle.

However, the problem lies in the fact that even the most fast SSD can't fully load today SATA connection 3 Gbps. Peripherals and does not come close to the load USB interface 3.0, the same can be said about the latest generation of SATA 6 Gb / s. At least, today the PCI Express 3.0 interface is not necessary for its active promotion on the platform market. But let's hope that as Intel transitions to 3G NAND flash, clock speeds will increase and we'll get devices that can go over 3 Gb/s on ports. SATA second generations.

Video cards

We conducted our own research on the impact of PCI Express bandwidth on graphics card performance - after entering the PCI Express 2.0 market , at the beginning of 2010, as well as recently. As we have found, it is very difficult to load the x16 bandwidth that is currently available on PCI Express 2.1 motherboards. You will need a multi-GPU configuration or an extreme high-end single-GPU graphics card to be able to tell the difference between x8 and x16 connections.

We asked AMD and Nvidia to comment on the need for PCI Express 3.0 - will this fast bus be needed to unlock the full performance potential of next generation graphics cards? An AMD representative told us that he can't comment yet.

An Nvidia spokesman was more accommodating: "Nvidia played a key role in the industry in the development of PCI Express 3.0, which should double the throughput of the current generation (2.0) standard. When these significant increases in throughput occur, there are applications that can Consumers and professionals alike will benefit from the new standard with increased graphics and computing performance in laptops, desktops, workstations and GPU-enabled servers."

Perhaps the key phrase can be called "there will be applications that can use them." Nothing seems to be shrinking in the world of graphics. Displays are getting bigger a high resolution comes to replace standard definition, textures in games are becoming more detailed and intriguing. Today, we do not believe that even the latest high-end video cards have a need to use the PCI Express 3.0 interface with 16 lanes. But enthusiasts have seen history repeating itself year after year: advances in technology are paving the way for new ways to use "thicker pipes". Perhaps we will see an explosion of applications that will make GPU computing more mainstream. Or perhaps the performance hit that occurs when the video card memory is out of bounds when paging from system memory, will no longer be so noticeable in mass and low-end products. In any case, we'll have to see the innovations that PCI Express 3.0 will allow AMD and Nvidia to implement.

Motherboard Component Connections

AMD and Intel are always very reluctant to share information about the interfaces they use to connect chipset components or logical "bricks" in the north/south bridges. We know the speed at which these interfaces work, and also that they are designed to be as non-bottlenecking as possible. Sometimes we know who made certain part system logic, for example, AMD used a SATA controller in the SB600 based on the development of Silicon Logic. But the technology used to build bridges between components is often a blind spot. PCI Express 3.0 certainly seems like a very attractive solution, like A-Link interface, which is used by AMD.

The recent introduction of USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s controllers on a large number of motherboards also gives us an idea. Because the Intel X58 chipset doesn't natively support either of the two technologies, companies like Gigabyte have to integrate controllers onto motherboards using available lanes to connect them.

At the maternal Gigabyte boards EX58-UD5 does not support either USB 3.0 or SATA 6 Gb/s. However, it does have a x4 PCI Express slot.

Gigabyte has replaced the EX58-UD5 motherboard new model X58A-UD5 which supports two USB 3.0 ports and two SATA 6Gb/s ports. Where did Gigabyte find the bandwidth to support these two technologies? The company took a single PCI Express 2.0 line for each controller, cutting down on the ability to install expansion cards, but at the same time enriching the functionality of the motherboard.

Aside from the addition of USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s, the only notable difference between the two motherboards concerns the removal of the x4 slot.

Will the PCI Express 3.0 interface, like the standards before it, allow future technologies and controllers to be added to motherboards that will not be present in the current generation of chipsets in an integrated form? It seems to us that it will.

CUDA and Parallel Computing

We are entering the era of desktop supercomputing. Our systems work GPUs with intensive parallel data processing, as well as power supplies and motherboards that can support up to four video cards simultaneously. Technology NVIDIA CUDA allows you to convert a video card into a tool for programmers to calculate not only in games, but also in scientific fields and in engineering applications. The programming interface has already proven itself development of various solutions for the corporate sector, including medical imaging, mathematics, oil and gas exploration work.

We asked for the opinion of OpenGL programmer Terry Welsh from the company Really Slick Screensavers about PCI Express 3.0 and GPU computing. Terry told us that "PCI Express has taken a big hit and I love that developers are doubling bandwidth whenever they want - like with version 3.0. However, in the projects I get to work on, I don't expect to see any difference. Most my work is related to flight simulators, but they tend to be limited by memory and I / O performance hard drive; the graphics bus is not a "bottleneck" at all. But I can easily foresee that the PCI Express 3.0 bus will lead to significant advances in GPU computing; for people who do scientific work with large data sets.

The ability to double data transfer rates for math-intensive workloads certainly motivates the development of CUDA and Fusion. And therein lies one of the most promising areas for the upcoming PCI Express 3.0 interface.

Any gamer with Intel chipset P55 can talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the Intel P55 compared to the Intel X58 chipset. Advantage: Most motherboards based on the P55 chipset cost more reasonably than models based on the Intel X58 (in general, of course). Disadvantage: P55 has minimal PCI Express connectivity, the main task is assigned to Intel Clarkdale and Lynnfield processors, which have 16 second generation PCIe lanes in the CPU itself. Meanwhile, the X58 boasts 36 PCI Express 2.0 lanes.

For P55 buyers who wish to use two graphics cards, they will need to be connected via x8 lanes each. If you would like to add to Intel platform P55 third video card, you will have to use the chipset lines - but they are, unfortunately, limited by the speed of the first generation, and the chipset can allocate a maximum of four lines for the expansion slot.

When we asked PCI-SIG's Al Yance how many lanes can be expected in PCI Express 3.0-enabled chipsets from AMD and Intel, he replied that it was "private information" that he "couldn't disclose". Of course, we did not expect to receive an answer, but the question was worth asking anyway. However, it is unlikely that AMD and Intel, which are part of the PCI-SIG Board of Directors, would invest time and money in PCI Express 3.0 if they planned to use new standard PCI Express is just a means of reducing the number of lanes. It seems to us that in the future, AMD and Intel chipsets will continue to be segmented as we see today, high-end platforms will have enough opportunities to connect a couple of video cards with a full x16 interface, and mass-market chipsets will have fewer lanes.

Imagine a chipset like the Intel P55 but with 16 PCI Express 3.0 lanes available. Since these 16 lanes are twice as fast as PCI Express 2.0, we get the equivalent of 32 lanes of the old standard. In such a situation, it will be up to Intel if it wants to make the chipset compatible with 3-way and 4-way GPU configurations. Unfortunately, as we already know, the chipsets of the next Generations of Intel P67 and X68 will be limited to PCIe 2.0 support (and Sandy Bridge processors will be similarly limited to support 16 lanes on a chip).

In addition to CUDA/Fusion parallel computing, we are also seeing an increase in mainstream market capabilities thanks to the increased communication speed of PCI Express 3.0 components, which we also think has a lot of potential. Without a doubt, PCI Express 3.0 will improve the capabilities of low-cost motherboards, which in the previous generation were only available on high-end platforms. And high-end platforms with PCI Express 3.0 at their disposal will allow us to set new performance records with innovations in graphics, storage and networking technologies that can use the available bus bandwidth.

The PCI Express standard is one of the foundations of modern computers. PCI Express slots have long taken a firm place on any desktop computer motherboard, supplanting other standards such as PCI. But even the PCI Express standard has its own varieties and connection patterns that differ from each other. On new motherboards, starting around 2010, you can see a whole bunch of ports on one motherboard, labeled as PCIe or PCI-E, which may differ in the number of lines: one x1 or several x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 and x32.

So, let's find out why there is such confusion among the seemingly simple PCI Express peripheral port. And what is the purpose of each PCI Express x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 and x32 standard?

What is a PCI Express bus?

In the distant 2000s, when the transition from the aging PCI (extension - the interconnection of peripheral components) standard to PCI Express took place, the latter had one huge advantage: instead of a serial bus, which was PCI, a point-to-point access bus was used. This meant that each separate port PCI and the cards installed in it could make full use of the maximum bandwidth without interfering with each other, as happened when connected to PCI. In those days, the number of peripherals inserted into expansion cards was plentiful. Network cards, audio cards, TV tuners and so on - all required a sufficient amount of PC resources. But unlike the PCI standard, which used a common bus for data transfer with several devices connected in parallel, PCI Express, if considered in general, is a packet network with a star-type topology.

PCI Express x16, PCI Express x1 and PCI on one board

In layman's terms, imagine your desktop PC as a small store with one or two salespeople. The old PCI standard was like a grocery store: everyone was waiting in line to be served, having problems with the speed of service, limited to one seller behind the counter. PCI-E is more like a hypermarket: each customer moves for groceries along their own individual route, and several cashiers take orders at the checkout at once.

It is obvious that the hypermarket in terms of speed of service outperforms a regular store several times, due to the fact that the store cannot afford the throughput of more than one seller with one checkout.

Also with dedicated data lanes for each expansion card or built-in motherboard components.

The impact of the number of lines on throughput

Now, to expand on our store and hypermarket metaphor, imagine that each department of the hypermarket has its own cashiers reserved just for them. This is where the idea of ​​multiple data lanes comes in.

PCI-E has gone through many changes since its inception. Currently, new motherboards usually use version 3 of the standard, with the faster version 4 becoming more common, with version 5 expected in 2019. But different versions use the same physical connections and these connections can be made in four basic sizes: x1, x4, x8 and x16. (x32 ports exist, but are extremely rare on regular computer motherboards).

Different physical sizes of PCI-Express ports make it possible to clearly separate them by the number of simultaneous connections to the motherboard: the larger the port physically, the more maximum connections it can transfer to or from the card. These compounds are also called lines. One line can be thought of as a track consisting of two signal pairs: one for sending data and the other for receiving.

Various versions of the PCI-E standard allow you to use different speeds on every lane. But generally speaking, the more lanes there are on a single PCI-E port, the faster data can flow between the peripheral and the rest of the computer.

Returning to our metaphor: if we are talking about one seller in the store, then the x1 lane will be this only seller serving one client. A store with 4 cashiers already has 4 lines x4. And so on, you can paint cashiers by the number of lines, multiplying by 2.

Various PCI cards Express

Device types using PCI Express x2, x4, x8, x12, x16, and x32

For the PCI Express 3.0 version, the total maximum data transfer rate is 8 GT / s. In reality, the speed for the PCI-E 3 version is slightly less than one gigabyte per second per lane.

Therefore, a device using a PCI-E x1 port, such as a low-power sound card or Wi-Fi antenna will be able to transmit data from maximum speed at 1 Gbps.

A card that physically fits into a larger slot - x4 or x8, for example, a USB 3.0 expansion card will be able to transfer data four or eight times faster, respectively.

The transfer rate of PCI-E x16 ports is theoretically limited to a maximum bandwidth of about 15 Gbps. This is more than enough in 2017 for all modern graphics cards developed by NVIDIA and AMD.

Most discrete graphics cards use a PCI-E x16 slot

The PCI Express 4.0 protocol allows you to use already 16 GT / s, and PCI Express 5.0 will use 32 GT / s.

But currently there are no components that can use this amount of bandwidth with maximum bandwidth. Modern high-end graphics cards typically use the x16 PCI Express 3.0 standard. It makes no sense to use the same bandwidths for a network card that will use only one lane on an x16 port, since the Ethernet port is only capable of transmitting data up to one gigabit per second (which, about one-eighth of the bandwidth of a single PCI-E lane - remember: eight bits in one byte).

It is possible to find PCI-E SSDs on the market that support the x4 port, but they look like they will soon be superseded by the rapidly evolving new M.2 standard. for SSDs that can also use the PCI-E bus. High-end network cards and enthusiast hardware such as RAID controllers use a mix of x4 and x8 formats.

Port sizes and PCI-E lanes may vary

This is one of the more confusing tasks of PCI-E: a port can be made in the x16 form factor, but not have enough lanes to pass data, for example, only x4. This is because even though PCI-E can carry an unlimited number of individual connections, there is still a practical limit to the bandwidth of the chipset. Cheaper motherboards with more budget chipsets can only have one x8 slot, even if that slot can physically accommodate an x16 form factor card.

In addition, gamer-focused motherboards include up to four full x16 PCI-E slots and as many lanes for maximum throughput.

Obviously this can cause problems. If the motherboard has two x16 slots, but one of them has only x4 strips, then connecting a new graphic card will reduce the performance of the first one by as much as 75%. This, of course, is only a theoretical result. The architecture of the motherboards is such that you will not see a sharp drop in performance.

The correct configuration of two graphics cards must use exactly two x16 slots if you want the maximum comfort from a tandem of two video cards. The manual at the office will help you find out how many lines on your motherboard this or that slot has. manufacturer's website.

Sometimes manufacturers even mark the number of lines on the textolite of the motherboard next to the slot.

One thing to be aware of is that a shorter x1 or x4 card can physically fit into a longer x8 or x16 slot. Contact configuration electrical contacts makes it possible. Naturally, if the card is physically larger than the slot, then it will not work to insert it.

So remember, when buying expansion cards or upgrading current ones, you must always remember both the size of the PCI Express slot and the number of required lanes.