PCIe x16 SLI card in x16 (x8 electrical) slot runs at x1

[tcordes]

I just setup a server/workstation board that has a PCIe x16 slot that is clearly documented as "x8 electrical". The BIOS and Xorg report its running as only x1. I would like to get it running at x8. I've done a lot of reading, but most scenarios like this are documented vaguely or not at all. In fact, I assumed a 50/50 chance the card would not work at all!

board: Tyan S5160A Intel E7230 chipset with x16 ("x8 electrical")
card: MSI NX7600GS "SLI ready"
OS: FC5 linux 2.6.17-1.2174_FC5smp
Xorg: 7.0.0
driver: nvidia binary 8762

I thought my chances of x8 success would have been improved by using a video chipset approved by Tyan for that board and one that supports SLI which as I understand it often runs 1 or 2 cards in x8 mode in a x16 slot.

Thanks.

[JaXXoN]

Originally Posted by tcordes

I thought my chances of x8 success would have been improved by using a video chipset approved by Tyan for that board and one that supports SLI which as I understand it often runs 1 or 2 cards in x8 mode in a x16 slot.

In deed, per PCIe spec, a x16 card should operate flawlessly in
an electrical x8 slot. Sounds like a BIOS problem. What happens
when you put the card into the electrical x4 slot of the S5160?

Frow hat i know, there might be only issues with electrical x2 slots,
because this is basically not defined in the PCIe spec. i.e. i have
an Areca 1210 SATA PCIe x8 raid controller that i inserted into
a physical x4 slot (end of the slot cut off) which is electrical x2
but only operates at x1, because the intel OP331 can only do
x8, x4 or x1 (but not x2).

It would be very helpfull if you could attach a full nvidia-bug-report.log
(compressed as zip file).

regards

Bernhard