Windows 7: Vid card not running at full x16 speed.

So here's my dilemma:



After this problem with Bsods and such my video card only wants to run at x4 speeds. It was running at x16 speeds when I first installed windows. Now for some reason it only wants to stay at x4 sometimes it will go to x8 after a reboot.

What are you guys' thoughts? I have the latest 11.11 drivers from ati's site. Both power plugs from psu into the card are in place.

I feel like I'm taking a performance hit here. I ran a furmark and the scores have dropped since I installed windows and it was at full x16.

This is kind of tricky, if the hardware is seeing it that way it's not a windows problem, it's a hardware issue. If windows is somehow dumbing down the hardware. I could only blame chipset or graphics drivers for incorrectly interpreting things.

Do you have any other PCI-X cards installed in the other PCI-X 16 expansion slot?

Nope nothing is installed hardware wise except for what's necessary to run the system.

I'm thinking I have some sort of hardware issue, but I'm not sure what. Everything I test out seems to work ok. This card shows x16 on another windows 7 system as well, and it used to show x16 on this system too! I may have fixed my bsod problems, but now this!

I keep looking into this issue on google and can't come up with anything. The mobo is supposed to see it as what the hardware can handle but won't put it there now. Used to but now it won't

Thank you for the replies btw!

I'm pretty foggy on this, but I have been looking at motherboards similar to yours, and at least some of them state that if a single graphics card is used, it must be installed in the second x16 slot, with some kind of power card inserted in the first, for the graphics to run at x16. I have been looking at so many Asus motherboards lately, that I may well have mixed things up.

I'm running on one of the earlier model republic of gamer boards myself right now. Let me tell you ASUS loves to confuse things. The only reward is once you get it all right, they are damn good boards.

has anyone mentioned going into the bios and checking the pci-e speed to see if it is enabled for x16

I might be mistaken but i thought i saw on the pci -e settings or the southbridge where you can variate the port worth a try

What motherboard are you using? I could only find M4A79XTD EVO on the Asus site. Given that GPU-Z states that "Power saving features may affect the result displayed" what happens when you run GPU-Z along side with Furmark or something that will use the cards full potential?

What does it say in the Catalyst Control Center under Information - Hardware?

Are you using any other PCIE slots by chance? Also seekermeister has a point in that some motherboards like to have the first video card in certain positions. You might have a look at your manual to see what the board recommends.

Let us know.

Incidentally I have a 6950 as well....



So it should be a card issue.

BTW Are you overclocked? I briefly looked at you BSOD post and saw you had other issues.

Solar - I can't find anything in the bios stating that it needed to be switched.

society - I was curious of the same thing! So I had done that before posting here to see if I could weed out the possibility of that. I know Cool 'n Quiet keeps the processor underclocked at idle speeds or so. When checking it no it had not changed. I started gpu-z before *said x4* then closed the gpu-z after running furmark and reopened up gpu-z and same thing *said x4* I also looked at ccc when it was running at x12 and x4 ccc matched what ever gpu-z stated under the hardware section.

Before leaving for the evening I removed the card from the mobo and cleared the cmos the umtinth million time. We were gone probably 3 hours or so so I know everything was cleared. Just got home plugged everything back in and started up and what do ya know....


I'm happy that it's x12 again, but disappointed at the fact that I don't know why it would be switching. I just got this system off of newegg on thursday, and am afraid if everything is "fixed" now what might happen in the near future? Will I have problems again? I think I'm just going to go ahead and keep it the way it is now that the bsods are clear and everything else seems in order. What are your guys' thoughts on that?


Sygnus - I am not overclocked at all. Although I'd love to be I'm just unsure of the stability after the problems I've been having, albeit they seem to have vanished. Also the manual says absolutely nothing about which slot it's to be in.