I'm trying to figure out why the PCI Express error counters in HWiNFO slowly increase while I'm gaming. The counters don't rise quickly, but they never stay completely still either. I haven't noticed crashes, graphical glitches, or other performance problems.
The system uses Windows 11 Pro, an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 64 GB of RAM, two 3.6 TB SSDs, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 running at PCIe 5.0 x16. The display is a Samsung Odyssey G95SD at 5120×1440 and 240 Hz with variable refresh rate. The NVIDIA Game Ready driver is version 616.92.
The PC is built in a HYTE Y70 case, so I wondered whether the PCIe riser cable could be affecting signal quality. I replaced the original cable with HYTE's PCIe 5.0 riser, but the counters still continue to increase slowly. Is this a sign of a hardware or cabling problem, and should I remove the riser and connect the graphics card directly to the motherboard?
2 Answers
Even a replacement Gen 5 riser can still have marginal signal quality depending on its length, bend radius, connectors, and motherboard slot. I’d temporarily remove it and run the card directly at PCIe Gen 5 if possible. If the system is stable and the errors are merely corrected counters, you can decide whether the riser is worth keeping, but persistent uncorrected errors or visible instability would need further investigation.
A riser cable can reduce PCIe signal margin and cause corrected transmission errors, even when the system appears to work normally. PCIe 5.0 is especially sensitive to cable quality and routing. Since the counters are only increasing slowly and you aren’t seeing crashes, artifacts, or performance problems, this may not be serious, but testing the RTX 5090 directly in the motherboard would be the best way to isolate the riser. If the counters stop increasing without the riser, the cable or its connection is probably the cause. If they continue, the issue may be elsewhere in the platform.
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