X16 bus supports x8 connections.
X16 bus supports x8 connections.
I own an Asus X470 Strix with a Z-series CPU. The PCIe controller is showing I’m only using PCIe at speed X8. My NVMe drive is on one M.2 slot, two HDDs are connected via SATA cable, and the GPU is in the top position. I’m trying to understand why it’s operating at half the supported speed and whether upgrading to X16 is possible.
The GPU operates at x8 when any device connects to the second x16 or third x16 PCIe port. Connecting to slot 2 results in x8, while slot 3 may yield either 8-8-4 or 8-4-4 based on your chipset. According to the manual, you should use a Ryzen 2 or 1, not a model with built-in graphics that supports x16. If your CPU includes integrated graphics, it will run at x8. Ensure the GPU is placed only in its designated slot and not in another port.