In years previous, nearly all graphics playing cards got here with {an electrical} PCIe x16 connection. Low-end playing cards have been current exceptions. AMD’s Radeon RX 6400 XT really has an x4 electrical interface, however in 2023, x8 connections have gotten extra widespread. The newest examples embrace the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti.
The aforementioned playing cards have x8 electrical connections, however nonetheless have x16 bodily connections despite the fact that there is not any want for them. Twitter consumer @fpsojisan_yt (through Tom’s {Hardware}) noticed a Palit card that bucks this pattern. The Palit GeForce RTX 4060 Twin comes with an x8 bodily connection. And I feel it is a fairly good concept. Not that it’s going to make a lot of a distinction to most customers in some way, however there are some that can profit from it.
The AD107 GPU that powers the RTX 4060 solely has an x8 electrical interface. It is there to scale back manufacturing prices. An x8 hyperlink is okay for PCIe 4.0 programs, however it is going to value somewhat little bit of efficiency on a PCIe 3.0 system and much more on a PCIe 2.0 system, which is the place a bunch of RTX 4060s will find yourself. I do not like the thought of midrange graphics playing cards coming with x8 connections for that motive, however that is one other story. It’s what it’s.
This is why a card with a PCIe x8 bodily connection makes numerous sense. For starters, such a card will operate completely effectively in any x16 slot, however having an x8 bodily connector opens up some flexibility choices. Although it is going to rely on the PCIe lane allocation and bodily configuration of the host system.
PCIe slots are used for extra than simply graphics playing cards, although few require the bandwidth of an x16 slot. Some gadgets do, like a quad slot M.2 SSD add-in card. In that case you would run the SSD card within the x16 slot and the Palit RTX 4060 in a secondary x8 slot. You may have to surrender somewhat efficiency if the GPU has to run through chipset hyperlinks however it is going to nonetheless be able to gaming, and naturally it’s going to simply put out a picture to a number of screens.
Different potential functions embrace motherboards with a restricted variety of slots, or programs that want to separate x8/x8 connections, bodily or in any other case. Some pre-built programs may function odd configurations too. An x8 GPU may very well be helpful when utilized in sure HEDT programs the place gaming efficiency is not a precedence or a number of add-in playing cards are current.
It is value noting that x8 bodily slots are comparatively uncommon, but when bodily x8 graphics playing cards convey new use instances whereas dropping none, then why not? Quickly there can be thousands and thousands of x8 graphics playing cards. What does that imply for future motherboard designs and their PCIe lane configurations, each electrically and bodily? Fewer x16 slots
would depart more room for M.2 slots.
Some ahead considering by Palit maybe?
PCIe x8 graphics playing cards are right here to remain whether or not we like them or not. They may as effectively be x8 bodily too.
