Peripheral Component Interconnect Express

A faster and more efficient remodel of PCI, PCI-X and AGP buses. It utilizes Serial Communication to transfer data between peripherals.

Specs

Lanes

The PCIE uses one wire for sending and another for recieving data. This pair of these wires is called a lane. PCIE can have 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16 or 32 lanes. The max amount of lanes PCIE can have is 32, reaching a theoretical bandwidth of up to $512_{\frac{GT}{s}}$or $64_{\frac{GB}{s}}$

PCIE Transfer Speeds

Lane speed for each model is as follows:

• PCIE 1.x: $2.5_{\frac{GT}{s}}$
• PCIE 2.x: $5_{\frac{GT}{s}}$
• PCIE 3.x: $8_{\frac{GT}{s}}$
• PCIE 4.x: $16_{\frac{GT}{s}}$

Spec Ambiguity

Certain times, PCIE lanes and models will not accurately represent its potential. Manufacturers may:

• Wire up a x16 slot to only work with 4 or 8 lanes
• Motherboard may artifically throttle data transfer because it was not made to handle the maximum data transfer.
• Older PCIe is worse
• PCIe speed can be affected by other slots in use

’Backwards’ Compatability

Oftentimes on 8-pin PCIe power connections, you can detach 2 pins off and make it 6-pin