GA-P55A-UD4 PCIE questions

[Dingus]

Hi,

New here just recently bought a GA-P55A-UD4 and have an i7 870 2 5850's and 4 gig of G.Skil mem in dual channel. On the website it states that the 2 PCIEx16 slots run 16x and 8x. However CPU-z reports both running at 8x. I have disabled usb3 and sata3 but still cant get the primary to run at 16x.

I have also read somewhere that if you enable to boh sata3 and usb3 the 2nd pcie slot is disabled is this true?? Its says ont he site that if you habve 2 slots occupied both sata 3 and usb3 will run in normal mode can some one explain what that means?

[Peteruk]

Regardless if Gigabyte made it clear on there site or not IT is listed in the Manual as:

“(Note 3) The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.”

You have 2 5850 so this applies to you but its not that bad as its PCI-e 2.0 so bandwidth at x8 is still  enough for one card so two at x8 is fine you don't lose much FPS for it till you start using a HD 5970.    

[Dingus]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Im happy ot have 8x8x but im worried about using usb3/sata3 and loosing the 2nd pciex16 slot can anyone confirm this?? Its also states if the 2nd slot is ocupied they run at normal mode does that mean they revert to sata2 and usb2??

[Peteruk]

Im happy ot have 8x8x but im worried about using usb3/sata3 and loosing the 2nd pciex16 slot can anyone confirm this??

You list as having “an i7 870 2 5850's and 4 gig of G.Skil mem in dual channel.” so you can't lose the second slot as your using it...

Its also states if the 2nd slot is ocupied they run at normal mode does that mean they revert to sata2 and usb2??

USB 3 / SATA 3 is a 3rd party chip they don't work that well and in normal mode which means they run off the P55 chip by a x1(PCI-e 1.x) link each they will work still be USB 3 / SATA 3 but not have the bandwidth to run at full USB 3 / SATA 3 speeds. 

[Lsdmeasap]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Im happy ot have 8x8x but im worried about using usb3/sata3 and loosing the 2nd pciex16 slot can anyone confirm this?? Its also states if the 2nd slot is ocupied they run at normal mode does that mean they revert to sata2 and usb2??

Both cards will run at x8/x8 as you mentioned, and the USB 3 and SATA 6Gb/s will run as USB 2.0 and SATAII with 2 graphics cards installed, so yes as you mentioned for the controllers and you will not loose the second PCIE slot.

[Dingus]

Really wish they would make it clearer, at the moment i wont be using usb3 but in the furture if i wanted to i would have to loose a GFX card to run it .

Has anyone had any issue with running the onboard sound with Bad Cpompnay 2 or any other resource hungry game?? I have had a few sound crashes and the system locks up. Some times it happens after a few minutes or after a few hours.

[Lsdmeasap]

Try the latest Realtek driver and see if that helps with the sound issues
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

[Dingus]

Got the latest one on, theres no set pattern to it though it can go for hours with no isue then some times 3 minutes into a game it just locks up and freezes....cant ctrl-alt-del have to press and hold the pwr button.

[Lsdmeasap]

Hmm, very odd.

Are you sure your memory and overall system is 100% Stable?

[Dingus]

Well, played Microsoft FSX which is well know to push cpu's for 12 hours straight, played crysis for 6 hours straight and primed it for four hours and was stable through that.

Switched on the other night 3 mins into BC2 sound crash, tried again and the same thing hapened turned on board sound off in device manager and ran for an hour no issue. Turned on lastnight after making no modifications in bios or os (except turning sound back on) and played 3 hours straight with no issue.

I'm tempted to whack in a sound card but thats £70, i was hoping that some on here might have had somthing similar and have some kind of work around as the sound on these is pretty good.

[Dark Mantis]

I would advise you to check on the game's website and see if it is a known issue or if there is a patch for it.

[Peteruk]

Well, played Microsoft FSX which is well know to push cpu's for 12 hours straight, played crysis for 6 hours straight and primed it for four hours and was stable through that.

And 2 hours of sleep...the life of a gamer .

[Dark Mantis]

We only wish we could Peter

[Dingus]

Well, played Microsoft FSX which is well know to push cpu's for 12 hours straight, played crysis for 6 hours straight and primed it for four hours and was stable through that.

And 2 hours of sleep...the life of a gamer .

Amen

As for checking for game specific it turns out that there does seem to be issue with the onboard sound and BC2, but it seems to be aflicting asus boards especially the via chips. Just had a good few hours on BC2 and not a single hiccup....this is weird

[Dark Mantis]

It may be that it is affecting more than just the VIA chipset but hasn't come to light yet. Is the patch only for the VIA chipset or can anyone apply it?