PT HD PCIe card speed

[gigpiglet]

does anyone know the card speed (4x, 8x etc) of the pcie cards for PT HD?

i know that avid says to put your video card in slot 1, then your tools cards, then anything else.

BUT what if i have reason not to?
im on 3.1 build early 2008 macs therefore:
slot 1 and 2 are 16x and slot 3 and 4 are 4x

i need to run
1 - mutha trucking big video card (so obviously slot 1)
then, PT core, PT accel, and finally another video card.

IF the PT cards are 4x (which i believe they are) is there any reason not to run the second video card in the second 16x slot, and then PT cards in the 4x slots?

thoughts?
feelings?

[Drumstruck]

Hi Gareth,

If you will need the 16x slot for anything in the future it's better to leave it unpopulated now rather than to move cards around later (yes, IRQ conflicts still exist).

It shouldn't hurt the card running in a faster slot - just a waste of good buss speed - I've run slow cards in fast slots with no issue (that's no guarantee btw).

[gigpiglet]

thanks ian...
so PT cards are only 4x then? is that what you mean?

so i should run the 2 video cards in the two 16x slots
and the two PT cards in the 4x slots

right?

[Drumstruck]

sorry, I don't know the speed of the PT cards - just going with your assumptions.

But I'd match the PCI buss speeds to the cards that need it.

Also, (not sure about your O/S) on some older systems we used to hard set the PCI slots to the card (via s/w switch in the BIOS and ctrl panel) - if a card fails (common with vid cards) the autodetect can scramble things.

[gigpiglet]

right
gotcha.

so the question remains - does anyone know the speed of PT HD PCIe cards?

hmmmmm

[smash]

What are the video cards you are running, and what software is using them?
You may be able to drop one of the cards in slot 4.

Simon "Smash" Ashby

[gigpiglet]

hi smash.
i may - and i have considered/ will test that (there is also a chance i will get away with one vid card)

the machine is being built to run avid media composer AND PT (not simultaniously, just that this new room is "multifunctional" it will be used as a studio B, and a video editing room for when we do those jobs)

one card is a crazy fast, double wide, big heat sink mutha for doing multi view in HD etc for the avid kids.
the other is ATI radion dual DVI card to run a couple of lowly PT monitors.
it "should" be able to go in slot four... but im thinking so "should" a PTHD card.

i am slightly bemused that no one on the internet nows (ive posted a few places) or any avid manual seems to actually state how fast the cards are. they just say to place in the "first available" but back in a G5 that is a 4x slot (or possibly configurable to 8x if you knew how) where as then it became and 8x, and now its a 16x.

slot 3 on a current mac, is faster then slot 1 on an old one... know what i mean?

[Kurt]

Pretty sure they are backwards compatible, if it's a 1x board (I suspect it is) the motherboard will run the slot at 1X.

hi smash.
i may - and i have considered/ will test that (there is also a chance i will get away with one vid card)

the machine is being built to run avid media composer AND PT (not simultaniously, just that this new room is "multifunctional" it will be used as a studio B, and a video editing room for when we do those jobs)

one card is a crazy fast, double wide, big heat sink mutha for doing multi view in HD etc for the avid kids.
the other is ATI radion dual DVI card to run a couple of lowly PT monitors.
it "should" be able to go in slot four... but im thinking so "should" a PTHD card.

i am slightly bemused that no one on the internet nows (ive posted a few places) or any avid manual seems to actually state how fast the cards are. they just say to place in the "first available" but back in a G5 that is a 4x slot (or possibly configurable to 8x if you knew how) where as then it became and 8x, and now its a 16x.

slot 3 on a current mac, is faster then slot 1 on an old one... know what i mean?

[gigpiglet]

you think they are only 1x kurt??
then why on earth would AVID recommend (insist?) that you put them in a 16x slot (the ONLY one avail on lots of macs up to only the very newest builds) when there are 4x slots avail?

well - im putting my HD cards in slots 3 and 4 (both 4x speed on a 3.1 build) and will report back.

[Kurt]

I don't know why they would do that Gareth. From what I have seen it appears the connector on the card is X1.

This page that shows the different sized PCIe connectors and information to help identify them. (Things are not always as they seem, a big slot can still be a slow bus, though a little slot cannot be a fast bus)

you think they are only 1x kurt??
then why on earth would AVID recommend (insist?) that you put them in a 16x slot (the ONLY one avail on lots of macs up to only the very newest builds) when there are 4x slots avail?

well - im putting my HD cards in slots 3 and 4 (both 4x speed on a 3.1 build) and will report back.

[Drumstruck]

"first available" - generally to stop conflicts from autopromotion of cards (windows special feature). I've had PC's with multiple cards get really scrambled when a card fails (quite a few years ago in older O/S flavours).

[gigpiglet]

oh interesting!
so the first available isnt about speed but something else.
well.
since im on a fairly new mac (not PC)
im going to go ahead with them in slots 3 and 4 and see what happens!

thanks for all the input

[Ben M]

I reckon you're on the right track Gareth.
Putting the PT HD cards in slots higher than 3,4 wouldn't necessarily make them run faster/better...much like the UA Quad 2 card.. it's x1 and doesn't have particular preference to slots. UA say in their manual - putting UAD 2 pcie (x1) into x4, x8 or x16 slots won't make it perform better/faster.

As reference (and from memory) my PT HD pcie's are located in slots 3 and 4, with a UAD quad 2 card in slot 2 and graphics card in slot 1 on the 8 core 3.1 mac pro 2008.

So having said that...If it were my dilemma I would stack them like so;
Slot 1 - ATI radion dual DVI card
Slot 2 - Mutha of all video cards
Slot 3 - PT HD core pcie
Slot 4 - PT HD accel pcie

[Sammas]

I always thought the "core card in the slot next to the graphics card" advice is to make sure people connect cards correctly together via flexi cables.

On a lot of PC's with PCI cards, you often don't have a choice. PCI slots 1 & 2 are often separated by a PCIe slot... and the flex cables don't reach that far.

[gigpiglet]

thanks again all
im actually reversing the audio of the vid cards suggested, as the big card is a double wide one (some serious HD video)
but going with what i was hoping, and what is suggested above.

ill see how we go!