PCI-e 1.0 slot bottleneck?

[AndonSage]

I have a friend who's been caught up in the Dell XPS 630 false advertising problem. Basically, Dell sold systems advertised as having a PCI-e x16 slot, and it's actually only x8. Dell tried to explain it away by saying the slot accepts x16 cards. Here's his question:

"Could you make a post asking how much bandwidth the latest round of video cards use? Specifically, will an 8x PCIe 1.0 slot be a real bottleneck for them? [H]ard Forums don't accept Hotmail for registration purposes, so, I can't register. I've asked the question in a couple other forums, but haven't gotten an answer, yet. Thanks!"

 

[Mega666]

Well I'm not going to do all that but have your friend demand a refund or a replacement with 16x pci-e. He was promised a 16x pci-e and didn't get it. That's unlawful, disingenuous and illegal. Know your rights as a consumer. Make Dell eat it.

 

[AndonSage]

Well I'm not going to do all that but have your friend demand a refund or a replacement with 16x pci-e. He was promised a 16x pci-e and didn't get it. That's unlawful, disingenuous and illegal. Know your rights as a consumer. Make Dell eat it.

I didn't ask him, but I think he's considering that. I think it comes down to if the bottleneck is present or not, and that's why he's asking about it.

 

[Mega666]

A 16x is medium term future-proof the way graphics cards are going. If I was buying a new MB, It better be 16x. No one can provide a single gpu bottlenecked by 8x right now. With sli or xfire, which is not the case here - it's definately a bottleneck.

 

[Arcygenical]

Yep, I think there's a few limited tests between 8x and 16x where the difference was around 1-4% fps...

So, no worries

 

[UrielDagda]

This is why nobody should ever buy Dell.. I rememeber when a friend of mine bought a machine way back in the AGP days and it had the built-in video. He asked if it had an AGP slot so he could upgrade it and they said it did. He got the machine, opened it up, no AGP slot. Then they tried to tell him the on board video used the AGP slot or some shit.

 

[AndonSage]

This is why nobody should ever buy Dell..

Oh, I agree. My friend bought it because he had a LOT of discounts from various things, and ended up with like a 30% reduction in price. I tried to tell him price isn't everything...

I think this will be the last Dell he ever gets, though.

 

[bigdogchris]

4x is a significant bottleneck. 8x->16x is not noticeable yet. Maybe the 4870x2 or GTX280 can put enough pure throughput to show improvement to 16x but I doubt it.

 

[kllrnohj]

I have a friend who's been caught up in the Dell XPS 630 false advertising problem. Basically, Dell sold systems advertised as having a PCI-e x16 slot, and it's actually only x8. Dell tried to explain it away by saying the slot accepts x16 cards. Here's his question:

Well, technically they are correct. You do state that Dell only said it has an x16 slot, not necessarily that it has 16 lanes. It is shady and deceptive, but its not false advertising or illegal.