PCI express 3.0 and graphics card question

[nub]

I have a RTX 3070. Do I get 100 percent out of using the PCI express 3.0 or do I need the 4.0.

[_I_]

yes 3.0 is ok for the gpus with 16 lanes
4.0 is only really needed for the gpus that have 8 lanes

[Omega]

Depends on the workload.

For gaming 3.0 will often hold it back and has some impact on performance.

[nub]

RTX 4000 series has 8 lanes?

[deadshooter]

Originally posted by nub:

RTX 4000 series has 8 lanes?

only 4060 models... which is pretty weird

[_I_]

4060/ti/s are 8 lanes, need pci-e 4.0 to run at their best performance
3070 has 16 lanes, its fine on pci-e 3.0

why the lower tier gpus are nerfed like that is beyond me
cant put a low end newer card with x8 4.0 on a pci-e 3.0 board without hurting its performance

[nub]

Thanks for the help.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by deadshooter:

Originally posted by nub:

RTX 4000 series has 8 lanes?

only 4060 models... which is pretty weird

It's not weird since it doesn't even need as much bandwidth as 3070 or 3080 so why would it need all 16 lanes on PCIE 4.0

[smokerob79]

your losing about 10% of what the card can do.....do not go higher on GPU's before you upgrade.....

[nub]

How much lanes do 4070 have then?

[r.linder]

Originally posted by smokerob79:

your losing about 10% of what the card can do.....do not go higher on GPU's before you upgrade.....

In terms of gaming performance, it's usually within a few frames at worst which is nothing, easily missed.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by nub:

How much lanes do 4070 have then?

4.0 x16, 16 lanes is standard, x8 is cut-down but usually fine, x4 is atrocious but does happen

[r.linder]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Originally posted by deadshooter:

only 4060 models... which is pretty weird

It's not weird since it doesn't even need as much bandwidth as 3070 or 3080 so why would it need all 16 lanes on PCIE 4.0

Even the 3080 doesn't need 16 4.0 lanes, 3.0 is enough

Even the 4090 is fine on 3.0 x16, there would be more performance loss in the form of a CPU bottleneck than from PCI Express

[smokerob79]

Originally posted by r.linder:

Originally posted by smokerob79:

your losing about 10% of what the card can do.....do not go higher on GPU's before you upgrade.....

In terms of gaming performance, it's usually within a few frames at worst which is nothing, easily missed.

so you dont understand what 10% is and the fact that going to a even newer GPU would make it a larger margin......got it.....

[Lixire]

going from 3.0 x16 to 4.0 x16 would pretty much give you 0 improvement. the only time it would somewhat matter is if you are running out of VRAM and the GPU would swap from system RAM so the extra bandwidth would reduce some of that performance hit

But in normal and most cases? You can just use PCIe 3.0 just fine

[_I_]

4.0 x16 on mobo and gpu only really help when its lanes are needed for other devices, and if the cpu cant give all 16 lanes to the gpu

if you have a pci-e 3.0 board/cpu
a 2060s/ti @ 3.0 x16, would be better than a 3060/4060 @ 3.0 x8

3060/4060 are stronger gpus, will have higher high fps, but the lows and stuttering will be really low compared to the 2060