PCI E16 vrs PCI E4

I just picked up an Asrock motherboard (4CoreDual-VSTA) and come to find out it only supports PCI E x4 and not PCI E x16. My benchmarks have gone up a little and the system is stable. I'm just curious how this will affect my gaming on a Nvidia 6800gs. Is my vid card being severly crippled because of this? I play stuff like s.t.a.l.k.e.r. far cry, painkiller, etc.
Thankx....

 

You won't like the answer - your 6800GS will eat the 4x for breakfast. It's a shame, because that mobo seems pretty good otherwise. Take heart though. You can run both AGP and PCI-E video cards at the same time, for dual or even quad monitors.

 

from wikipedia:

Short answer: yes, it is slowing your performance but the longer answer is, not by too much. Modern video cards could still run on 8xbut PCI-E 16x has become popular due to the future possibilities and upgrade ability it provides.

this guy did a little benchmark with a 6800: http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19596

its a negligible difference, and you seem to be getting OK performance as it is, correct?

 

@Viper_boy403 - LOL - You've quoted AGP stats. Are the PCE-E stats the same?

 

AHAHAHA! wow im a retard lol

well, here are a few articles: http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/22/sli_is_coming/index.html

specifically the last page: http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/22/sli_is_coming/page11.html

and then this: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/27/pci_express_scaling_analysis/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/27/pci_express_scaling_analysis/page8.html#3dmark06

not much of a difference and this is with high end cards; im sure its much less noticeable with a 6800gs which would be a little below the x1900

wow, i need to learn to read ahaha i still cant get over that....

 

Thanks for the replies people. I'm considering removing this motherboard and replacing it with something that does support PCI E x16. I AM a gamer after all!! Knowing I'm held back, even a little, will eat at me.