Unfortunately, the x16 PCI express slot from my motherboard got damaged. I decided to stick the card in the 8x slot instead so I could use my computer while I gather the money to upgrade my system.
My question is, Is there any significant difference between using a 16x capable card in the 8x slot instead of the proper one (16x, which in my case is damaged)?
My card is a XFX GTX 260 Black Edition and my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-EP45C-DS3R, which has a x16 PCI Express slot.
Best Answer
Well, graphics cards are routinely run on 8x speed when SLI is in use - there will likely be a small performance penalty, but I wouldn't think its huge - else SLI wouldn't be worth it.
Its a bit apples and oranges but with a different (and I believe newer) graphics card - The AMD Radion HD 7970, Anandtech showed very little practical difference between x4, x8 and x16 in PCIe 3.0 (Yes, its a newer version of PCIe as well. Finding these benchmarks is hard)- since PCI-e 2.0 is half the speed look at the x4 graph for x8, and x8 for x16 . While yours is nvidia, Its a lot older and would need less bandwidth.
I'd also suggest doing a benchmark with some tool that compares it against other similar systems and getting a definitive answer. I'm guessing it should work acceptably under most workloads. Considering the scenario, it does seem worth doing.