7900gt running at 1x instead of 16x??

hello, i have a XFX 7900gt (256mb) pci-e card, everytime i try and play a game, it get lower FPS's then i did when i ran my 6600gt.

i have updated the drivers, and tried a few more drivers as well.

if i go into my nvidia graphics settings, where it shows my card, and what not, it says "Bus: PCI Express 1x" does this mean it's running at 1x instead of 16x pci-e?

is there a setting i have to change or something to get it to run a 16x?

my mobo is: Biostar, N4SLI-A9

 

If you haven't already DL EVEREST Home (free):

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

Install > Run > Display (+) > GPU, from here look at Bus Type, look at pic!

Now I'm no expert here but from what I have read many mobos come out with 3-4 PCI slots but these can run at diff multipliers, eg. 2@16X (PCIe), 2@ 1X. Generally speaking the top PCI slots are for the PCIe Vid Cards while the lower ones are for Dial Modem, Sound Card, etc,etc. If EVE shows that indeed your Vid Card is running @1X consult your mobo manual and move your vid card to the appropiate slot.

Let me know how you get on. The other option maybe in BIOS but lets look at this firstly.

 

well i have a SLI mobo, and i moved it to the other PCI-E slot (the instruction man. doesn't say which to put it in, so i didn't know) for a while it said it was running at 16x. but every game is super buggy, Frames per second seem alright, but there is lots of what i think are called screen tearing. Whenever i try turning on V sync on any game, it freezes right after.

I download/installed EVEREST, and i can see all my computer's info, EXCEPT my GPU (Graphics card).... it just doesn't show any info under it, or the one above it "PCI / AGP Video" i tried to do a report or quick report, and it just says something about debug, i can post a screenshot if you would like.

another thing, is that i think the card i got (Brand new BTW) is Overclocked at the factory, maybe this is causing the problem, is there a way i can maybe underclock it to working?

thanks for your help

 

This is what I found on your mobo:

Slots: 2 x PCI Express 16x, 2 x PCI Express 1x, 3 x PCI, Normal Mode and SLI Mode are set by manipulating the SLI Selector card.

http://www.directron.com/mbn4slia9.html

From the pic I would certainly put the card in the top one (closest to CPU)!

As far as drivers go I would try the latest from this site and are you using Drive Cleaner Pro to properly uninstall previous drivers?:

http://www.guru3d.com/

Try this firstly.