Is PCI-E just for graphic cards? Or can they be used with other PCI slot cards like a sound card?
I ask this because, i seen the ASUS dual PCI-E.

YEp, many newbiews would be stumbled by that motherboard if its the first theyve seens of PCI-E in the flesh. PCI express aims to completly wipe out the other standards before it. While we currently still have PCI slots on the new boards, give it 2 years or so and they'll be all gone.

PCI E will cover every expansiuon card, from graphics to NICs, soundcards, usb expansion, SATA controllers you name it. There are some lil areas you should be aware of:

PCI-E can be used for dual video cards, like the ASUS SLI board pictures. There are no other PCI slots on the board because there isnt either the room, or the resources. The speed is split down to 1 16x and 1 8x slot , and the graphics cards slpit the screen down, so the top 60-70% is done by one card, and the rest by the second. I would have htought the larger portion would go to the card with 16x....this however I am not sure on.

PCI-E can be used to gain resources form other areas on the board, for example, the recently released 6200 from nVidia. This can use system memory for graphics etc, including the memory it has on the video card itself. This also shows that PCIE is very diverse in what in can do.

PCIE expansion cards are not really in the flesh and blood. Prototypes are more than likly flying about. The first releases Id expect to see will be form Network card manufacturers like Netgear. There is a Texas Instruments bridge chips in circulation, helping companies convert to PCIE quickly, without having to create brand new chips for the expansion cards. However, this hasnt really been seen to work as yet.

Hope this helps, and gives you a plantifull overkills worth of information.

Nev,.

Quote: Originally Posted by nev_payne PCI-E can be used for dual video cards, like the ASUS SLI board pictures. There are no other PCI slots on the board because there isnt either the room, or the resources. The speed is split down to 1 16x and 1 8x slot , and the graphics cards slpit the screen down, so the top 60-70% is done by one card, and the rest by the second. I would have htought the larger portion would go to the card with 16x....this however I am not sure on. .

So, i know that you could do the dual video cards.. and hit it up to 32x.. correct?
If so.. what would happen if you used the 2nd pci-e on the ASUS SLI with a soundcard instead of a video card?

no, you cant do 32x, each board currently has 20 PCIE channels, 16 go to vid card (ie: 16x), 4 left for other stuff (if my sources are correct).if you run SLI, the two cards share the bandwidth of the 16x. And you need to enable SLI with a bridge between graphics cards, so if you had a 16X graphics card and a 16X sound card, you wouldnt have SLI...

hope that helps.

Quote: Originally Posted by Demon Made no, you cant do 32x, each board currently has 20 PCIE channels, 16 go to vid card (ie: 16x), 4 left for other stuff (if my sources are correct).if you run SLI, the two cards share the bandwidth of the 16x. And you need to enable SLI with a bridge between graphics cards, so if you had a 16X graphics card and a 16X sound card, you wouldnt have SLI... hope that helps.

That is correct for all the current chipsets of which I am aware. Future chipsets--tentatively--should suport 28, 32, and 40 lanes (I haven't heard anything beyond that as of yet). With PCI-E SLI, the allocation of lanes between the two cards is dependent upon which is transferring more data (one of the many advantages of hub-based bandwidth switching).