# Stupid Question



## jdmorton (Jul 16, 2009)

I've been trying to figure out what PCI Express speed my laptop mobo supports from Acer, but to no avail as their tech support guys just refer me to the specs page which doesn't list it. My problem is I've got a Geforce 8400m in my laptop and GPU-z is showing that its running PCI-E 16x @ 4x. I know the card should support up to 16x. So is what I'm seeing in GPU-z interpreted as "the card supports 16x but its running at 4x" or "the computer supports 16x but card is running at 4x"? Thanks for the help.

Also if its the former, any programs that can tell me what speed my mobo supports? And if its the latter, how can I go about bumping the card speed up cause I don't see any options in my bios?


----------



## Mussels (Jul 16, 2009)

GPU-Z can read it. post a screenshot.








This is mine, says my cards can do 16x 2.0, and are running at 16x 2.0


----------



## qubit (Jul 16, 2009)

I would say that one way or another, the card is running with a 4x link. However, I doubt that increasing it (if possible) would make any difference, because the 8400 GPU is so weak.

And welcome to TPU!


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Jul 16, 2009)

I agree with Qubit, it won't make much of a difference since it's a low end chip.


----------



## Mussels (Jul 16, 2009)

oh yeah, no performance loss whatsoever with a weak GPU like that.

Still we can at least find out if its the motherboard or GPU limiting it, if he posts a screenshot.


----------



## jdmorton (Jul 16, 2009)

Here's the screenshot. Thanks for the replies.


----------



## Mussels (Jul 16, 2009)

that screenshot is saying the card supports 16x 1.0, and is running at 4x 1.0

Its interesting that the motherboard would hold it back - while it wont affect performance, its unusual nonetheless.

I see ALI mentioned, which makes me wonder of its a ULI chipset motherboard (it could well be something to do with acer, since its right after their name). If so, you can get motherboard drivers from here
I havent heard of drivers fixing wrong speeds since the AGP days, but it cant hurt to try.


----------

