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Can i enable pcie 3.0 on my motherboard
Hi, So i own an alienware area 51 R2 from late 2014 and i recently went and bought an OCUK GTX 1060 to upgrade from the AMD R9 370. However i noticed that my system has PCIE 2.0 enabled by default, and was wondering if there is any way to change it to 3.0. I'm pretty sure it can be done on other systems however that would require a unlocked bios which i do not have. All these videos online that claim to "Upgrade to pcie 3.0" really done work and it kind of annoys me as im missing out on another 30-35% performance of my GPU'S Full potential.
Tesla1856
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November 27th, 2017 10:00
1. How? Why do you say that?
Do you have the single video card in the top slot?
2. No, not usually. It's on unless there is a BIOS option to turn it down.
3. No, it's not that much. With a single video card at 1080p or 2K, more like less than 3%.
Shotgn16
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November 27th, 2017 11:00
1.When i bought this machine it came with an AMD card installed and in CPU-Z it stated PCIE 2.0. I wanted to change it because my 1060 is 3.0 and its limited on performance.
-Yes i do have my GTX 1060 In my top PCIE Slot 1
3. On benchmarks of this card the 1060 is able to reach 4k 60fps easily on Forza specifically, which is what im using to try and get an accurate reading. Also after doing a benchmark on http://www.userbenchmark.com and it said my GPU was under performing by compared to 64 others, which in my eyes is a big concern since its not Evan 2 months old. My gpu will reach about 30 fps when in full 4k when it should hit 60 so my only guess is the limitation of the pcie hens why i'm asking the question.
Cass-Ole
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November 27th, 2017 12:00
Bios > Advanced > Int. Devices > 3.0 is default setting, check yours
Shotgn16
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November 27th, 2017 13:00
That setting isn't available in my bios, I'm using A12 bios version.
Cass-Ole
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November 27th, 2017 19:00
My mthrbrd is without a CPU at the moment so I can't look at mine. So you have the surrounding options shown in the list like USB Audio LAN PXE, but PCIGen3 is missing? My screen grab is from the PDF SrvcManual have you looked at that?, it shows 'Bios Options' under the System Setup heading at very bottom of manual. If your Grfx card is PCI-Express 3.0 capable & you've lost any type of Gen3 option in your Bios, I'd be on the phone or inside a chat with the Aliens about that
Were I at my wits end I might flash back to Bios A11 & / or A10 ... before doing so, I might like to confirm with someone if their A12 does or doesn't have the Gen3 setting easily visible (& changeable) in their Bios. If theirs is gone, well, it might have disappeared from A12, lol
To answer your question, yes you can enable pcie 3.0 on your motherboard when the option to do it is there - if it is not there, then no would have to be the answer unless someone else has ideas
edit @Tesla: even if it was greyed out (hidden) it should still be set to 'enabled' (or auto) by default, regardless u can't see it
@Shotgun: "yes you can enable pcie 3.0", but there is no need since it is on / enabled by default ... even if the option to enable / disable is now gone or never was even there & is an error in the service manual by seeing it listed there as we did, at the 'hidden' level (those options that the Bios designer has programmed with values but does not want u to access) it can still be on / enabled but hidden so that the user can not disable it. What I meant is that if it isn't an option to be found in any menu screen, then no you have no way at the Bios level to flip it on, by definition, though technically this is a non-starter, your board is 3.0 capable, by default, it is too new not to be otherwise, it's X99 & meant for SLI 980 1080 TitanX etc
MSI Bios tends to be the same across platforms, check yours, Settings Advanced PCI SubSys
Tesla1856
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November 27th, 2017 21:00
See what GPU-Z says.
Tesla1856
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November 27th, 2017 21:00
Would it be possible that they forced it ON, when/if the option was removed? That would be my guess since who would want to turn it off?
Shotgn16
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November 27th, 2017 23:00
Here's the GPU-Z Results. It says that its PCIe 3.0 however i still seem to get way under what my cards targeted at in performance. I don't think there is any bottlenecks considering its an I7-5820K With DDR4 memory running at 2133Mhz.
Tesla1856
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December 6th, 2017 14:00
Right, it says it is capable of that, but doesn't it say the GTX-1060 it's actually running at x8-v3.0 ? I thought an Area51-R2 could do x16-v3.0?
Are the other PCIe slots empty?
Shotgn16
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December 7th, 2017 04:00
Yes, the other PCIE slots are empty. I thought the same i have no clue why its running at x8 not x16.