Inquiry about PCIe bandwidth.
Inquiry about PCIe bandwidth.
I’ve put together a strategy to tackle the PCIE slot setup for my capture PC. I’m unsure if it will completely solve the issue, so I’ll share my thoughts to check for potential problems.
1. I purchase a Thunderbolt 3/4 add-in card for my PCIE 16x Gen 5 slot on my AERO G DDR4 motherboard. The other two slots are X4 and PCIE 3.0. Since I don’t need a dedicated GPU, this shouldn’t be a big concern.
2. I’m considering the Echo Express SE3E from Sonnettech. It would work with a Thunderbolt dock that has three 8-pin slots for compatibility—needed because I require three capture cards.
3. Plug and play is my main worry. Many Thunderbolt add-in cards only support X4 slots, so I’m curious if pushing the limits to x8 captures would actually create a bandwidth bottleneck. This is the core issue I’m facing, and I’m looking for any alternative solutions besides switching to a platform with more PCIe lanes.
I’m not eager to make changes, especially since the current setup is already struggling. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thunderbolt 40Gbps isn't simply 40Gbps PCIe speed. It combines 31.504Gbps from PCIe lanes (four times PCIe 3.0) with Displayport bandwidth details (macperformanceguide.com). For accurate usage estimates, consider the video data entering your capture card: minimum requirements for multi-channel video capture.
Thanks for the response. I really appreciated the mage well video bandwidth video chart—it helped me understand what to look for. Unfortunately, I couldn't achieve my original goal and ended up with a more affordable option. Thanks!