I noticed that my GPU is showing an x8 5.0 connection in GPU-Z even though it is installed in the first PCIe slot. I have a 5080 GPU and an MSI B850 Gaming Plus WiFi motherboard, which should support up to Gen 5 x16 according to the manual. I tried changing the BIOS settings to configure it for x16, but the only options I got were x8+x8, x8+x4+x4, and x4+x4+x4+x4, with no selection for x16. After restarting my computer, the GPU displayed as x16 again, but I'm uncertain about what's causing this issue. Initially, I had an NVMe boot drive with PCIE E1 set to auto, and that seemed to lead to the x8 connection. I altered the NVMe settings to Gen 4, which allowed the GPU to run at x16, and when I switched the NVMe back to Gen 5, the GPU continued to show x16. I'm puzzled by the inconsistency.
2 Answers
It’s not unusual for modern GPUs to run at lower PCIe lane speeds if they're not fully utilizing them. If you want to ensure it's running at full x16, I recommend using a benchmark that stresses the GPU, like the Cyberpunk benchmark. That might force it to utilize the full bandwidth and confirm whether it's really an issue or just how it operates under light load.
Hey, what CPU are you using? Sometimes the CPU affects how the PCIe lanes are allocated. Just curious if that might be part of the issue.
I'm using a Ryzen 9700x!