ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 PCI-E Lanes

[Snqk3]

Hello,

I have this motherboard and on the 16x PCI-E 5.0 (CPU) port, a GPU. Actually I don't have any other cards. I've got a Samsung 980 Pro on the M.2 2242-22110 port (PCIe 4.0 x4 from CPU)

I wanted to add a sound card at 1x form but with this huge GPU the port is too near of it. Can I use the lowest port (16 PCI-E 3.0, chipset) without causing bandwitth problems to the GPU ? I don't want the sound card to make a bottleneck on the GPU.

Thanks,
Regards

[Nate152]

Hello Snqk3

Using the chipset pcie lanes won't affect the cpu pcie lanes, it's perfectly fine to put the sound card in the lowest pcie slot.

[Snqk3]

So, the GPU PCI-Express will not be used in 8x instead of 16x ?

[Nate152]

Because you're using the chipset pcie lanes, your gpu will stay at x16.

Checking the tech specs of the ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4, the first pcie x16 5.0 slot is the only slot connected to the cpu.

The pcie x1 slot and bottom pcie x16 slot connect to the chipset lanes.

[Snqk3]

Ok, thanks a lot, I hesitated between an external DAC/AMP and an internal sound card because of that, I'm now reassured 🙂