Solved PCI-E slots of ASUS P8Z77-M Motherboard

[tephen04]

Hello to everyone!

I need help regarding my motherboard's graphics card slots. It does have two PCI-e x16 slots: one is "black" and one is "blue". At first, I am using the blue one because, according to the manual, it has better performance than the black one. But, something had occurred that I need to move the card to the black one, and after doing this, I noticed the large difference in performance, forcing me to reduce graphics quality settings of my 3D games (example, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim) from ULTRA to HIGH. It is not playable when I do not reduce the settings..

Question: Can someone advice me how to improve the performance of my graphics card back to normal (or better) without returning it to the blue slot? I read some articles about "overclocking" but I don't think it will be of any help to me because I doubt my cooling system is good enough to handle high temperatures that "it" does.

Thanks to all who will help.

 

[stormy13]

The reason for the reduced performance is because while the black slot may be x16 in size, it only operates at x4 speeds. And no neither overclocking nor anything else shot of putting it back in the blue slot will improve performance.

 

[tephen04]

Oh, that's too bad.. So, nothing I can do to increase performance unless I return it to blue slot.. What if I use two graphics card (I think it is what others called SLI(NVidia) and CrossFire(ATI)? Does it mean that I must put the faster one to the blue one and the less in the black one to get the best performance? I don't know about it so please, teach me, sir.

 

[Layback Bear]

To the best of my knowledge when using SLI or CF both video cards should be exactly the same. Mixing video cards does not work well.
Why did you move your video card?

 

[maxie]

Hi there .. Your Motherboard supports AMD you would need to get two cards

 

[tephen04]

@Layback Bear

Sir maxie knows the reason. I have a faulty onboard network port (deep sleep mode issue), and the only way to use my internet is to plug a network card. The slot for it is between the two PCI-e x16 slots. Since my current graphics card is a GTX 550 Ti which has a bulky fan, plugging it in the blue one which is at the upper part of the network card slot, I cannot plug the network card. In short, I cannot plug them together. So, the solution is moving the graphics card at the black slot, which is the the bottom of the network card slot, and that's it. Hope I clearly stated the reason. If you find it confusing, please check the layout of my motherboard and your help will be much appreciated. Thank you, sir!

@maxie

Yeah, I read it in the box. But, right now, I don't want to use it anyway because of financial problem. I just asking but your help is very much appreciated, sir!

 

[maxie]

No problem mate .. Not sure what else you can do

 

[maxie]

Here is all the Information you need on Crossfire ..

AMD CrossFire

Just to keep you up to date Jack ...


http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/304584-realtek-network-card-deep-sleep-mode.html

 

[stormy13]

If I am reading that correctly you bought a PCI-E 1x ethernet card. If that is the case then the solution is simple, put your video card back in the blue slot where it belongs and put the ethernet card in the black slot. That will give you the clearance you need for the video card fan, and the ethernet card will work just fine in the 4x slot (a 1x card of any kind will work in any PCI-E slot for that matter, it doesn't have to go in a 1x slot).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If I am reading that correctly you bought a PCI-E 1x ethernet card. If that is the case then the solution is simple, put your video card back in the blue slot where it belongs and put the ethernet card in the black slot. That will give you the clearance you need for the video card fan, and the ethernet card will work just fine in the 4x slot (a 1x card of any kind will work in any PCI-E slot for that matter, it doesn't have to go in a 1x slot).

Unless there is something we are missing. I have a PCI-e x1 sound card working just fine in a x16 long slot that is electrically only x4 and it chugs along dumb, fat and happy.

I don't know why Asus insists on putting PCI-e x1 slots right up against the blue x16 slot when most video cards nowadays take up two slot spaces.

 

[tephen04]

Oh, is it possible?! I'll try it right away! Thank you, guys!

Yes, you're right, Lady Fitzgerald. I think they're confident that there will be no problem in their onboard network port so that no one will ever use an additional network card. Or, they're just saving spaces along with the styles which is important to customer's eyes nowadays.

 

[tephen04]

OK, after trying it out for an hour, it doesn't have any problem. So, that's makes my worries go away.


Thanks to all of you, SevenForums guys!

MARKED AS SOLVED!

 

[madcratebuilder]

The OP's ASUS P8Z77-m does not support SLI or Crossfire. It does support ASUS gpu boost, but only for the integrated GPU. The board is designed to have the gpu "card" installed in the slot closest to the cpu.

OP, move the gpu back to the correct slot.

ASUS packs a lot of very nice features in these P8's. The usb and gpu boost works very well.

ETA:

I have a faulty onboard network port (deep sleep mode issue), and the only way to use my internet is to plug a network card.

I think your best solution and probably a cheaper one, is to buy a USB port dongle for your Ethernet cable. Why tie up a slot on the motherboard. I recently bought a Gigabyte Ethernet USB adapter to correct the bad RJ45 port on my laptop. Needed to be connected for linux to install the wireless drivers. The adapter works great, good drivers and as fast as any thing on the mother board.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...OP, move the gpu back to the correct slot...

The OP already did.