Can a gpu with a pcie 4.0 port suffer stuttering by being connected in a pcie 3.0?

[Yuanlee]

Hi folks!
I have been saving money during months to upgrade my pc and i have adquired the following:
- Psu: Cooler master v850 v2 gold
- Cpu: Ryzen 7 5800x3d
- Gpu: msi rx 6950 tx gaming x trio
- Samsung oddysey g7 4k
The only thing i didnt upgrade is the motherboard, an Asus prime b350 m-a. When the time to finally install the gpu arrived, the games suffered a lot of stuttering and the gpu was making a high coil whine noise.
Could it be that, since the pcie of the gpu is 4.0 and the pcie of the motherboard is 3.0, the motherboard is causing this?
I run the system, as well as the games, in a samsung evo m.2. disk btw, in case you are wondering.
Edit: I forgot to mention the motherboard is second hand, has 5 years and the pcie has no "security flap", i dont know the name in english, but is the part at the very end of the lot that secures the gpu in place.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Unless the bus is saturated, it will not cause stuttering. With the 6950 XT you should be safely able to max out your GPU's bandwidth with room to spare on a 3.0 x16 motherboard.

The security lock being missing will not affect performance, what may be occurring is poor seating due to its absence. Remove the card, clean the PCIe slot with some compressed air if possible and reseat the card, open GPU-Z and ensure that it says "PCIe x16 4.0 @ x16 3.0" in this box:

Good luck

 

[chrcoluk]

My 3080 seems fine.

 

[Space Lynx]

Unless the bus is saturated, it will not cause stuttering. With the 6950 XT you should be safely able to max out your GPU's bandwidth with room to spare on a 3.0 x16 motherboard.

The security lock being missing will not affect performance, what may be occurring is poor seating due to its absence. Remove the card, clean the PCIe slot with some compressed air if possible and reseat the card, open GPU-Z and ensure that it says "PCIe x16 4.0 @ x16 3.0" in this box:

View attachment 275016

Good luck

a bit off topic, but how do you actually check in-game to see if its being saturated or not? like how do you know for sure? does the red circle item answer my question, and in-game status doesn't matter?

im really sleepy right now. sorry if this is dumb question

 

[Dr. Dro]

a bit off topic, but how do you actually check in-game to see if its being saturated or not? like how do you know for sure? does the red circle item answer my question, and in-game status doesn't matter?

im really sleepy right now. sorry if this is dumb question

GPU-Z has this data in the sensors tab. Look for "Bus Interface Load".

 

[Space Lynx]

GPU-Z has this data in the sensors tab. Look for "Bus Interface Load".

ok this is cool, I never realized this. so basically, just play demanding games, see what percentage is "max" when double clicked on bus interface load in gpuz, and as long as its under like 90% you are not coming close to saturating?

did my brain interpret this right?

 

[phanbuey]

Any stuttering on the PCIE bus is usually due to errors or ASPM going badly etc. most of the time you can actually see these in event log. Also riser cables that arent fully compliant or faulty can cause pretty epic stuttering (this is pretty common in ITX builds) also shows up in windows event log under system, or in HWinfo.

On NV GPUs enabling resizable BAR will cause stutter in some DX12 ports (Borderlands, Witcher DX12, etc.).

 

[eidairaman1]

Any stuttering on the PCIE bus is usually due to errors or ASPM going badly etc. most of the time you can actually see these in event log. Also riser cables that arent fully compliant or faulty can cause pretty epic stuttering (this is pretty common in ITX builds) also shows up in windows event log under system, or in HWinfo.

On NV GPUs enabling resizable BAR will cause stutter in some DX12 ports (Borderlands, Witcher DX12, etc.).

Any stuttering on the PCIE bus is usually due to errors or ASPM going badly etc. most of the time you can actually see these in event log. Also riser cables that arent fully compliant or faulty can cause pretty epic stuttering (this is pretty common in ITX builds) also shows up in windows event log under system, or in HWinfo.

On NV GPUs enabling resizable BAR will cause stutter in some DX12 ports (Borderlands, Witcher DX12, etc.).

He has left way too many details out on his specs...

 

[Dr. Dro]

ok this is cool, I never realized this. so basically, just play demanding games, see what percentage is "max" when double clicked on bus interface load in gpuz, and as long as its under like 90% you are not coming close to saturating?

did my brain interpret this right?

As long as it's below 99-100% you haven't used all bandwidth the interface can provide and should be safe. Of course, the absolute safety margin is always some 5% give or take but even then, that depends on how much bandwidth you have available in general.

I have a PCIe 2.0 x1 (physical) GT 710 that is so badly bus bandwidth starved that it will hit 100% bus load by simply playing a YouTube video at 1080p. Ouch.

 

[Yuanlee]

GPU-Z has this data in the sensors tab. Look for "Bus Interface Load

I dont seem to find it ( see image attached). Now i seem to fix the stuttering, but the coil whine while gaming in 4k is quite annoying. Should I return the card? Because i see people all around talking about the coil whine not being a valid reason for a RMA and also being very frequent, to the point that even if you get a new one, it will also have coil whine.

 

[ir_cow]

Your missing quite a number of sensors. Maybe AMD cards show less?

 

[eidairaman1]

Your missing quite a number of sensors. Maybe AMD cards show less?

View attachment 275147

Switching to Hwinfo64 changes that, @AusWolf has a testimony on it.

 

[dont whant to set it"']

@Yuanlee Chipset drivers up to date? And then after a graphicscard driver.

 

[Hofnaerrchen]

With raising VRAM sizes PCIe will not become a bottleneck soon, increased cache sizes on last gen AMD and current gen GPUs overall are another factor that remove bandwidth bottlenecking. Cards that suffer from PCIe bandwidth issues are cards like RX 6400/6500 with the gen 4x4 interface. GPUs like the RX 6950 XT with their x16 interface though do even run quite well on PCIe gen 2x16. The more limiting factor - when not limiting bandwith manually - would be pairing them with a CPU that is not capable of feeding the beast - which is not the case on your new build.

The question is: You bought a new monitor, what did you do with your old one? If you are running a multiple monitor setup you should read the "known issues" section of the display drivers. The stuttering might come from watching a video on the second display while playing a game on the new one.

 

[Yuanlee]

@Yuanlee Chipset drivers up to date? And then after a graphicscard driver.

Yes, everything is up to date.

With raising VRAM sizes PCIe will not become a bottleneck soon, increased cache sizes on last gen AMD and current gen GPUs overall are another factor that remove bandwidth bottlenecking. Cards that suffer from PCIe bandwidth issues are cards like RX 6400/6500 with the gen 4x4 interface. GPUs like the RX 6950 XT with their x16 interface though do even run quite well on PCIe gen 2x16. The more limiting factor - when not limiting bandwith manually - would be pairing them with a CPU that is not capable of feeding the beast - which is not the case on your new build.

The question is: You bought a new monitor, what did you do with your old one? If you are running a multiple monitor setup you should read the "known issues" section of the display drivers. The stuttering might come from watching a video on the second display while playing a game on the new one.

I resolved the stuttering issue, it was some options on the amd software, but the coil whine still there and i dont know if i should return the card since a lot of people have coil whine in their high end gpus. Ill link a youtube video i myself recorded for the shop so you guys can listen the coil whine ( it is in spanish tho). Coil whine msi rx 6950 xt gaming x trio - YouTube
minute 0:40 onwards is showing the coil whine in fortnite 4k and heaven benchmark.

 

[Hofnaerrchen]

Yes, everything is up to date.

I resolved the stuttering issue, it was some options on the amd software, but the coil whine still there and i dont know if i should return the card since a lot of people have coil whine in their high end gpus. Ill link a youtube video i myself recorded for the shop so you guys can listen the coil whine ( it is in spanish tho). Coil whine msi rx 6950 xt gaming x trio - YouTube
minute 0:40 onwards is showing the coil whine in fortnite 4k and heaven benchmark.

Hey you already have one subscriber - not me though, wrong language . In your video there's a bit to much talking or I am just not susceptible to coil whine very much - did not hear anything that would bother me.

Btw. you should post the solution. If someone with comparable issues comes accross this thread there will be the solution present already.

 

[Yuanlee]

Hey you already have one subscriber - not me though, wrong language . In your video there's a bit to much talking or I am just not susceptible to coil whine very much - did not hear anything that would bother me.

Btw. you should post the solution. If someone with comparable issues comes accross this thread there will be the solution present already.

Yes, the solution was, in the AMD radeon software, activate AMD freesync (as well as in the monitor) and disable HDCP in radeon software as well.
Also in the video the coil whine isnt that high, but in reality is more annoying than that.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I dont seem to find it ( see image attached). Now i seem to fix the stuttering, but the coil whine while gaming in 4k is quite annoying. Should I return the card? Because i see people all around talking about the coil whine not being a valid reason for a RMA and also being very frequent, to the point that even if you get a new one, it will also have coil whine.

Check if it's not hidden (right click open GPU-Z settings and check the enabled sensors), if still not available try HWiNFO64?

No need to return the card imo, coil whine usually settles after some time. In my experience anyway...

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Yes, the solution was, in the AMD radeon software, activate AMD freesync (as well as in the monitor) and disable HDCP in radeon software as well.

If that's the case, it could very well be a bad driver installation. Or it could be a bad cable or monitor controller if the HDCP handshake is causing issues. Did you install your monitor's drivers?

Also in the video the coil whine isnt that high, but in reality is more annoying than that.

Coil whine is a fact of life with big powerful processors. Some cards are worse then others.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Have you thought about super gluing the chokes? Adding a little very runny super glue under the edges of the components making the noise can fix it.

 

[AusWolf]

GPU-Z has this data in the sensors tab. Look for "Bus Interface Load".

Only Nvidia cards have that info.

To OP: coil whine has nothing to do with pci-e speeds. Don't worry about it.

 

[Ruru]

Your missing quite a number of sensors. Maybe AMD cards show less?

View attachment 275147

It seems so. Here's my 6700 XT:

 

[AleXXX666]

In short:
If x16 lanes - no bottleneck
If x8 lanes - a little bottleneck
If x4 lanes - cr@p, get a card with x8/x16 lanes or put this card into a combo of pcie 4 capable cpu and mobo.

 

[pf100]

I'm running an rtx 3080 which is a pcie4 card on a motherboard with a pcie3 slot and the performance is excellent.

 

[eidairaman1]

It seems so. Here's my 6700 XT:

View attachment 275212

Grab hwinfo64