NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 PCI-Express Scaling

[W1zzard]

In this article, we investigate how performance of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 is affected when running on constrained PCI-Express bus widths such as x8 or x4. We also test all PCIe speed settings, 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0. One additional test checks on how much performance is lost when using the chipset's PCIe x4 slot.

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[Grings]

Thanks for running these again

Every time new cards come out i wonder if we will finally see some form of drop off, what with pci-e 3.0 releasing 5 or so years ago now, nope, still good

Out of interest, have you run any comparisons of regular and hb sli bridges on 1070/80? i was thinking of picking up another 1070, but Asus dont have their own Bridge out yet, so was going to try the 1 connector one that came with my board until asus releases one (or find an nvidia one in a clearance section, damn thing is £10 more than msi and evga ones)

 

[Gasaraki]

Thanks for letting me know that my x58 platform is still good.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

I'd like to see a 2 way sli in here too.

@Grings there was an article when it first came out that wizzard ran i think.

 

[RejZoR]

Isn't it strange how x8 3.0 at many occasions performs better than x16 3.0 ? I find that strangely peculiar.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Isn't it strange how x8 3.0 at many occasions performs better than x16 3.0 ? I find that strangely peculiar.

Up to putting some scotch to your card?

 

[arbiter]

Isn't it strange how x8 3.0 at many occasions performs better than x16 3.0 ? I find that strangely peculiar.

when kinda think about it since you are using less lanes to move same data though not gonna say its correct but in theory its like SLI/CF scaling, less lanes to scale over. Doubt that is completely correct but the idea i think is pretty close.

 

[Octopuss]

Anyone else puzzled by the graphs bar colours? What do they mean?

 

[nickbaldwin86]

but then how can I justify spending money on a new system every time a new chipset and PCIe version comes out. Also how am I supposed to cry that there isn't enough lanes in for PCIe and my SLi setup only runs at 8x per card. LOL

I am going to link this every time I see those comments or forum posts. Thanks for this ammo

 

[erixx]

Don't you all feel like being cheated by the industry?

They sell each "next step" as revolutionary. Well, 5 fps difference between PCI 2 or 3, x8 or x16 at 4K is not revolutionary at all!!!

 

[nickbaldwin86]

Don't you all feel like being cheated by the industry?

They sell each "next step" as revolutionary. Well, 5 fps difference between PCI 2 or 3, x8 or x16 at 4K is not revolutionary at all!!!

no, only because I have never built a system based on a 5FPS gain. LOL only a sucker would do that

I am sure a lot of people read into the marketing hype and see "next revolution in technology" and proceed to open their wallet

 

[Fx]

but then how can I justify spending money on a new system every time a new chipset and PCIe version comes out. Also how am I supposed to cry that there isn't enough lanes in for PCIe and my SLi setup only runs at 8x per card. LOL

I am going to link this every time I see those comments or forum posts. Thanks for this ammo

It has become hard to justify. I used to update my rig every year, then that moved to 2 years. These days, I am running a rig with parts varying up to 3-4 years old. The graphics card usually only gets paced out as far as 2 years before an upgrade.

 

[erixx]

^ I have a 4K monitor with G-sync since 2 weeks and I have a 980ti card. I am getting 60 fps in all games except monstrous Arma3 at ultra (can be tweaked in "5 fps seconds" hahaha) which is fine, yet the press and the hype force me to go "next gen" hahaha. Will I be strong enough? haha

 

[Player]

Thank you for another great article W1zzard!

Anyone else puzzled by the graphs bar colors? What do they mean?

With the exception of the bar for the x4 3.0 via Chipset, which has it's own color, all the others are colored by available bandwidth. PCI-E x1 3.0 has almost twice the bandwidth of PCI-E x1 2.0, which in turn has twice the bandwidth of PCI-E x1 1.1\1.0.

 

[btarunr]

Anyone else puzzled by the graphs bar colours? What do they mean?

Same color = similar bandwidth.

 

[buggalugs]

interesting.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

If people would only show a little self restraint and only build themselves a new PC every 3,4 or 5 years, they would actually appreciate the performance gains from new standards and architecture.

I came to my current PC in 2014 from a near 5yr old AMD Phenom II 550, Radeon 4850 & slow mechanical OS Hard drive.

The first week, getting used to the extra performance I suddenly had at my disposal, was mind blowing and it felt like it was actually worth the considerable outlay.

Piecemeal upgrades that may get you an extra 5 or 10% here and there are just a waste of money IMO.

I really don't see any reason now or in the next 18mths to upgrade anything on my current rig.

 

[Nihilus]

A whopping 3% loss running 4k at 4x pcie.
It will be intreresting to see how many people get the enthusiast Kaby Lake X once the Cannon Lake mainstream is released with 6 cores.
With this article and the extra cores, it makes the enthusiast class a tough sell.

 

[Aquinus]

If people would only show a little self restraint and only build themselves a new PC every 3,4 or 5 years, they would actually appreciate the performance gains from new standards and architecture.

I came to my current PC in 2014 from a near 5yr old AMD Phenom II 550, Radeon 4850 & slow mechanical OS Hard drive.

The first week, getting used to the extra performance I suddenly had at my disposal, was mind blowing and it felt like it was actually worth the considerable outlay.

Piecemeal upgrades that may get you an extra 5 or 10% here and there are just a waste of money IMO.

I really don't see any reason now or in the next 18mths to upgrade anything on my current rig.

That's how I felt went I went from a Phenom II 940 based system to my current i7 3820 machine. I'm getting ready for an upgrade though now that my machine is starting to encroach upon 5 years of age. I'm probably going to wait for the next HEDT platform that impresses me.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Good to see my 8 year old X58/i7 920 combo holding up well.

 

[D1RTYD1Z619]

Anyone else puzzled by the graphs bar colours? What do they mean?

I agree they don't seem to have any relevance

 

[EarthDog]

There hasn't been a flame war about this in years... because of these articles.

Thanks again!

Would have been interesting to run it with the fastest card in your stable though, with the Titan XP.. not that it would have changed anything though, lol!

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

That's how I felt went I went from a Phenom II 940 based system to my current i7 3820 machine. I'm getting ready for an upgrade though now that my machine is starting to encroach upon 5 years of age. I'm probably going to wait for the next HEDT platform that impresses me.

I'm still rocking ivy bridge. Only reason I'm thinking of getting a zen rig is to have a watercooled 8 core for....reasons.

Other then that, I'm confident I could get another 5-6 years out of this thing, no problem. Just upgrade the GPU every 3-4 years (just moved from a 680 to a 480). 64 player battlefield is probably the only thing that would bottleneck this system CPU wise, unless I move to a 144hz panel.

There hasn't been a flame war about this in years... because of these articles.

Thanks again!

Would have been interesting to run it with the fastest card in your stable though, with the Titan XP.. not that it would have changed anything though, lol!

Titan XP SLI. Only way to be sure.

 

[EarthDog]

Titan XP SLI. Only way to be sure.

It would be the same thing... they each have their own bandwidth/lanes... if anything it would show more on the memory and CPU side being the limits there.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

It would be the same thing... they each have their own bandwidth/lanes... if anything it would show more on the memory and CPU side being the limits there.

10 core skylake with quad channel 4200 ddr4. Just to be sure.

Legitimately though, I believe the last SLI test showed that dual cards are more sensitive to bandwidth then single cards were, and showed some legitimate gains in PCIE 2. Something as fast as the TXP in SLI might show some benefit form PCIE3.