PCI-E x4 and x16

I know that pci-express x16 cards can be place in an x1 slot, but can you do the same in an x4 slot?

No you cant. Not unless you saw the back of the slot out. An x1 slot is inches shorter than an x16 slot. But yes an x16 card will fit in a x4 slot.
 
No you cant. Not unless you saw the back of the slot out. An x1 slot is inches shorter than an x16 slot. But yes an x16 card will fit in a x4 slot.

If the rim of the slot can fit between the gap in the card, it will work. They are all cross-compatible, they just work at different speeds
 
I know that they are all intercompatibale but my card wont fit in my 1x slot so I assumed you would have t saw it out. I have heard that elsewhere too. Does anybody know how much a x16 card would bottleneck in a x1 slot?
 
Depends on the card, and is the x1 and 2.0 or 1.0 slot?


With a 5870, a 1x 2.0 slot still gives 75% of the performance of 16x.
 
Yeah thats why I laugh when I hear that P55 boards are no good for gaming because they only do 8x/8x SLI/Xfire, there's no performance difference with current cards at 8x and only 5-10% difference at 4x.
 
There is a lot of confusion in this thread. To recap, you can NOT use a PCI-E x16 card in a 1x or 4x slot, HOWEVER you can use a PCI-E x1 card in an x4 or x16 slot.
 
Thought I cleared that up in post #4....except the part about using a 1x card in 4x or 16x. You can also use a 4x card in a 16x slot too haha.
 
Well taht is interesting. I have never seen that before, and thus I stand corrected. (I am actually sitting... Under a leopard print snuggie...)
 
Well taht is interesting. I have never seen that before, and thus I stand corrected. (I am actually sitting... Under a leopard print snuggie...)

but there is no way i could ever get a card in there, the NB heatsink is right behind it
 
Depends on the card, and is the x1 and 2.0 or 1.0 slot?


With a 5870, a 1x 2.0 slot still gives 75% of the performance of 16x.

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Oh yeah?

I should have also clarified that you will need to physically alter the back of the slot if you wish to have a full-sized GPU in there, but it's perfectly easy, and do-able. Some newer boards even have slots with no backs on them, just for this purpose.

Performance doesn't take much of a hit, even with a HD5870 at x4.
 
Okay, so by that benchmark on the 5870, I'm going to go with the "it will work, but with some slot modifying" opinion. Also, what exactly do you mean by "sawing the back of the slot"? How do you do it?
 
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