My x16 PCI-e VIdeoCard is shown as x4!? I bought a new comp. few months ago and now i see that my graphic card which is x16 now is x4 pci-e? how can it be? pci-e x4 and x16 have different input size! i think the error is in the software but how can i fix it?

my comp.
Core 2 Duo 2.66ghz, 4mb cash
Asus P5K motherboard with 2 pci-e x16 for Crossfire mod
GeForce 8600GT Super 512mb 128bit SLI ready pci-e x16
WinXP Pro x64 SP2

if someone know about this problem of mine and how can i fix it, pls help!
thanks!

Hey..

I have the some MoBo. It has två Pci-E slots.
One is blue and the other is black. The blue one is x16 and the black is x4.
What slot do you have your card in. If you have it in Blue. Then maybe the bios has been changed.

Have you run GPUz? http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Run that and see what it says about your video card. Like novasoft said though, check to make sure the slot that you have your card in is a true x16 slot.

First, was the video card running at its rated speed earlier and then this suddenly happened? If so, have you made any changes to the computer to the computer, BIOS updates, other software updates recently? Sometimes a change in BIOS, or even a Microsoft update, can change how the hardware is being reported. If so, try "restore" to return the computer to its older state, when the card was functioning normally. Next, as you say you have a mobo with two 16x slots, try the card in the other slot, if you haven't done that already.

Now to the possible hardware problems. If you go through the above and the card still doesn't work to speed, try the card in a different computer. If the card still only runs at 4x speed in another computer, the card has a problem and you should RMA it. If the card does run to normal speed, then you may have a bad motherboard. Last, the PSU may be having a problem and not powering the card sufficiently. You didn't list the PSU make or power, so I can't really comment about it.

Just some thoughts.

Hold it before RMA'ing anything my friend -> 2 Words: P35 chipset.

The P35 chipset only supports crossfire Through 16x + 4x slots, it's a physical limitation of the chipset. All P35 are like that, if you wanted (2) 8x PCI-e slot you should have gone with a X38 chipset instead.

Don't worry I did the exact same thing, and by god was I mad when I found out, but you can't blame nobody but yourself. If you look at the manual, or the ASUS website, it's clearly shown that this board only supports 16x + 4x in crossfire.

BTW it's a limiting factor, but not by that much though, if you compare 3Dmarks, you are maybe losing around 20-25% compared to an X38 chipset running @ 2 X 8x in Crossfire.

Hope this solves your problem.

Edit: BTW, looking at the cards you're running I don't even think you can saturate the 4x slot with those, I mean they are low-mid range cards with pretty average bandwidth.

Here's the manufacturer's page for your Motherbaord showing the 16x + 4x PCI-e configuration:http://www.asus.com/products.aspx? [...] odelmenu=2

ok. my mistake! i have one x16 (blue) and one x4 (black) graphic slots! i have only one GC and it is in the blue x16 slot, i didn't change anything since i bought the comp, didn't update the bios, and i don't know if something changed since the begging because i saw the problem in the nvidia control panel last week where it says that the bus is pci-e x4! i played games like Crysis (medium), COD4 (high), NFS prostreet (high) etc but with low antialiasing, also i work some 3d programs! i searched the net about this problem and there are many like me with the same problem!

i down. and run the program that you said and here are the results:

Oh, ok, first off I didn't see that you were running an ->SLI Ready<- card(and not an SLI setup), and also I assumed you were using Crossfire cards (ATI), even though I commented on your cards performance, which BTW is still valid. (Sorry for that had a ruff night and no sleep).

So right now what you're saying is that you basically are running a 16x capable card in a 16x slot, which shows up running @ 4x.

This is more complicated then. Like Sailor said, BIOS update, then if no avail, RMA the sucker back.

i never have updated the bios! is it complicated? will the OS still run or will i have to reinstall it?

It's not very complicated, you should use the "floppy disk method" IMO since I've had serious problems on ASUS boards when using the EZ-Flash utlity. (I had 2 M2R32-MVP boards that corrupted themselves when I used the EZ-flash, only to find out that certain Bios revisions had bad versions of the Utility in them!!!)

I would also stay clear of the Windows based Bios flash utility also that comes woth the installation CD.

There's a guide on the ASUS site with a link for it when you get in the bios section.

do you have ASUSUpdate? That thing will update your BIOS with no problem.

It worked for me, and it should work for you to. You don't need to reinstall your OS.

I'm back for the moment. Updating the BIOS is usually fairly easy. There should be no need to reinstall the OS afterwards. Since you haven't changed anything since you bought the computer, its unlikely anything has changed on the software side that would cause the problems. But if possible, I would check the card in a different computer to verify whether or not the card is the problem. It would be frustrating to RMA the card only to get it back with a note saying there was nothing wrong with it and then have to start over in figuring out what's happening. Then you would be looking at the motherboard with suspicion if the card tested good.

@ sailer: But tbh, I'm not even sure that even if he enables the card to do 16x, that there will be any noticeable performance gain?!

@Crash: Have you tried the black PCi-e slot to see what that one would report using the GPU-Z Utility?