WEBVTT

00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:08.120
so many of us only ever end up using one slot on our motherboard usually for a

00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:11.200
GPU but what would happen if you filled

00:00:08.120 --> 00:00:13.120
all of them it's not that unrealistic

00:00:11.200 --> 00:00:17.439
let's say you're a gamer you got to have your GPU but you also need to connect

00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:21.920
your desktop to Wi-Fi so you throw in a wireless card You Stream So you need a

00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:26.720
capture card and you've got a pretty big game Library so you're out of m.2 slots

00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:30.920
so you add some more storage with one of these babies then there's the fact that

00:00:28.880 --> 00:00:36.440
you've got this natural attraction to PCS with lots of USB ports so you throw

00:00:33.680 --> 00:00:41.239
in one of these and that's five cards which happens to be the same or more

00:00:38.800 --> 00:00:47.079
than most modern motherboards can accept will this overload your system in some

00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:50.079
way well as is the case with so many

00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:51.840
things in PC land the answer depends on

00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:56.920
what kind of CPU and motherboard you have what cards you're using and exactly

00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:02.199
what it is you're trying to do further complicating matters is that even PCI

00:00:59.440 --> 00:01:08.040
Express slots that look identical can operate at very different speeds let's

00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:13.080
break it down some slots connect directly to your CPU While others

00:01:10.600 --> 00:01:17.680
connect to your motherboard's chipset the CPU direct ones are generally going

00:01:15.320 --> 00:01:22.640
to provide the smoothest experience since they're not going to be shared

00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:25.759
with any other devices the issue is that

00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:28.560
the PCIe lanes the data paths that feed

00:01:25.759 --> 00:01:34.399
these slots add a lot of cost and complexity to the CPU U that's where

00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:37.479
chipset Lanes come in in PC terms the

00:01:34.399 --> 00:01:39.560
chipset is a chip or well set of them if

00:01:37.479 --> 00:01:44.520
you will that lives on your motherboard and handles a great deal of your

00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:47.079
computer's input and output or IO SATA

00:01:44.520 --> 00:01:52.920
ports USB ports and network ports are commonly connected to the chipset and on

00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:56.719
Modern platforms that requires a lot of

00:01:52.920 --> 00:02:00.079
PCIe lanes Intel z790 chipset for

00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:03.520
example supports up to 28 additional

00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:04.960
PCIe Lanes but this presents a problem

00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:10.319
which we'll tell you about right after we thank our sponsor Shopify Shopify is

00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:14.840
a powerful Commerce platform that will help you start grow and manage your

00:02:12.720 --> 00:02:20.920
business actually our merch store over at LTD store.com is powered by Shopify

00:02:18.160 --> 00:02:24.879
and since 2019 we've processed hundreds of thousands of orders thanks to their

00:02:22.519 --> 00:02:28.640
amazing tools and features like a simple drag and drop store Editor to build a

00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:32.959
fully functional website from scratch and Integrations with our favorite

00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:37.400
social media platforms they also provide simple but effective marketing tools and

00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:43.280
realtime insights into customer shopping behaviors with Shopify live view so

00:02:39.959 --> 00:02:45.239
don't wait go to shopify.com tequ and

00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:49.560
join the millions of people from all around the world that use Shopify as the

00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:54.560
foundation for their business the problem is that the chipset itself has

00:02:51.760 --> 00:03:00.640
to have some kind of link to your CPU and this link usually takes the form of

00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:02.480
you guessed it PCI El Lanes now as you

00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:07.400
can imagine there wouldn't be much cost savings if this link had the same number

00:03:04.640 --> 00:03:12.760
of lanes as the downstream chipset so typical desktop systems cut that link

00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:18.680
all the way down to just eight or even four lanes now in most cases that's not

00:03:16.200 --> 00:03:23.159
a huge deal and to illustrate why let's think of our system kind of like a

00:03:20.239 --> 00:03:27.959
restaurant the CPU can be the kitchen and the connected devices can be our

00:03:25.239 --> 00:03:33.360
customers our GPU is going to sit at the 16-seater VIP table over here every

00:03:31.239 --> 00:03:37.599
guest gets a dedicated Chef so no one ever goes hungry and the same goes for

00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:42.959
the four-seater family and friends table where our boot SSD hangs out as for the

00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:46.920
rest of the dining room well hey as long as their orders are staggered Nobody

00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:51.640
ends up waiting too long for their meal and in the real world that's usually how

00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:57.560
things go down expansion cards like Wi-Fi sound or USB and SATA cards even

00:03:54.799 --> 00:04:02.280
capture cards are very unlikely to all be operating at Peak capacity at the

00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:06.640
same time and even if they did they wouldn't come close to saturating that

00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:11.360
link back to your CPU because of their relatively low data

00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:13.319
rates however where you can run into

00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:18.239
problems is if you're using your chipset lanes for high-speed storage let's say

00:04:16.479 --> 00:04:22.680
for example you work with large amounts of highresolution video footage you

00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:27.759
could overwhelm the link between the chipset and the CPU in multiple ways for

00:04:25.280 --> 00:04:32.560
example by transferring footage from an external drive that uses the fastest

00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:37.199
versions of USB or Thunderbolt to a high-speed PCIe drive that's also

00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:42.120
running off the chipset this could result in lower than expected speeds and

00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:46.280
even slow down anything else that is connected to the chipset imagine for

00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:50.919
instance a capture card that starts dropping frames whenever you do a file

00:04:48.400 --> 00:04:57.400
transfer another thing to watch out for especially you Gamers is that many CPUs

00:04:53.800 --> 00:05:00.560
allow the 16 Lane GPU slot to be split

00:04:57.400 --> 00:05:02.400
into two eight Lane slots this is good

00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:07.840
because it gives users the flexibility to install two gpus for machine learning

00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:14.199
or a GPU and another high performance accelerator but it comes at the cost of

00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:16.360
reducing the bandwidth to your main GPU

00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:20.479
making matters worse the way the lanes are split up is not always easy to

00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:25.919
control you might consult your motherboard manual good idea by the way

00:05:22.919 --> 00:05:28.759
and think oh okay these two slots can

00:05:25.919 --> 00:05:34.880
share 16 Lanes but I only really need one lane for this Wi-Fi card that leaves

00:05:31.479 --> 00:05:37.240
15 lanes for my GPU but it doesn't work

00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:42.240
like that the mere Act of installing another card any card in that slot will

00:05:39.840 --> 00:05:47.560
more than likely cut your GPU bandwidth in half fortunately your gaming

00:05:45.160 --> 00:05:52.720
performance won't drop that much but there are cases where these fine details

00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:58.680
can make a big difference this high-speed network card for example uses

00:05:55.240 --> 00:06:01.199
16 lanes that run at Gen 4 speeds if we

00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:06.560
put it into a gen three motherboard that's okay it'll work but it will run

00:06:03.479 --> 00:06:08.639
at half the bandwidth but then if the

00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:13.680
slot on that motherboard were to only get eight Lanes now we've cut the

00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:19.880
overall bandwidth in half again to just one quarter of what the card expected

00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:23.599
oops don't get too freaked out though you don't have a network card like that

00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:27.599
at home and unless you're moving around large amounts of data regularly you

00:06:25.440 --> 00:06:31.240
likely won't notice slowdowns just from having all of your slots filled if you

00:06:29.599 --> 00:06:36.000
you do need more Lanes though the good news is there are solutions workstation

00:06:33.960 --> 00:06:41.560
and Enterprise platforms like AMD's Threadripper and epic or Intel Xeon are

00:06:38.960 --> 00:06:45.919
built with a huge number of PCIe lanes connected directly to the CPU the only

00:06:44.479 --> 00:06:50.240
problem is that if you need one of those you're going to have to figure out how to get one of your kidneys out as

00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:53.840
painlessly as possible thanks for watching if you guys

00:06:52.280 --> 00:06:59.080
liked this video check out our other video on PCI Express gen 7