Update. Yes it can!!

An overclocked GTX 690 is slightly limited by PCIe 2.0 x16 or PCIe 3.0 x8
-- and it varies from game to game.

At least there is a performance degradation between testing an overclocked GTX 690 in the ECS' primary MB X16 slot and testing in the secondary X16_S slots

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We need PCIe 3.0 for the most extreme video cards.
. . . Don't believe what you read on tech forums. . . . . 'cept here




Same question would be, does it need more bandwidth than PCIe 3.0 8x can provide?
- The GTX 690 is overclocked to +132%/+150MHz core/+500MHz memory


What do you think? i am testing it now in my Z77 ECS mb that i just evaluated. i *thought* the 2nd PCIe slot is 8x as it is labeled 16x_S (the primary one is labeled 16x)
-- the MB manual shows both are 8x when used together; however, GPU-Z now identifies it as 16x (where i was pretty sure it identified it as 8x earlier when i tried the GTX 690 in the second slot).

Your slots will be 8x when used together in PCI-e 3.0 mode, which is still the equivelant of 16x PCI-e 2.0 mode for each slot.

PCIe 2.0 16x is sufficient for a OC'd GTX 690

Here is my question:

If i use the second slot, the one labeled 16X_S, is that a X8 slot?

- i know when the X16_S slot when used with the first slot labeled 16X, both are X8.

But is a 16X_S slot, 8X if it is used without a card in the first slot?


What is the bandwidth of a PCIe 2.0 X16 slot?

Do we have any reviews up that substantiate this? Or is it taken for granted?

Only the motherboard manual can really answer that for you.

Ivy bridge has 16 PCI-e 3.0 lanes integrated into it available for graphics use. How the motherboard maker implements that on a specific board will vary, but, in theory if nothing is in the first slot, then the second slot *should* be able to use all 16 lanes.

Calculate the bandwidth of a OC'd GTX 690 and then check the bandwidth of a PCIe 2.0 16x slot,u will see that it is very difficult to saturate it yet.

Do you honestly believe that there are so many users of PCI-e 3.0 out there that nvidia can afford to turn their backs on PCI-e 2.0 users?

The difference is not much

At least i am finding a difference - there is lower performance of a highly overclocked GTX 690 in the 2nd PCIe X16_S slot than there is in the primary PCI3 X16 slot.

What do you come up with? And the bandwidth of a PCIe 2.0 16x Slot may be theoretically plenty, but what about in practice?

i got the GTX 690 screaming along at +150MHz core/+550MHz memory .. that is way faster than GTX 680 SLI - on a single card