No, the x16_2 slot isn't significantly worse than x16_1.
No, the x16_2 slot isn't significantly worse than x16_1.
I upgraded my setup to a micro-ATX board and considered switching to a PCI-e adapter. Currently, the x16_1 is using an RTX 4070 that takes over all other PCI-e ports, so I’d need to move the GPU to the x16_2 slot instead of the top one. You mentioned the top slot connects directly to the CPU while the second one goes through a slower motherboard path—does this difference really matter?
It runs via the chipset instead of directly connecting to the CPU, and it's only connected at x4 Gen 3 while the top slot supports Gen 4 x16. This chart applies to the 3080, not the 4070, though their performance is nearly identical so scaling should work well: the chipset matches the PCIe x16 1.1 standard. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidi...ng/27.html