How to tell PCIe from PCIx

[Yves De muyter]

Length of the part of the card that fits into the slot. PCIe is something like 1 inch, PCIx is approx 5 times longer.

-Yves

[Jay Lee]

Thank you Yves,
I was under the impression that the physical difference which much more subtle than that?

J

[Yves De muyter]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PCIExpress.jpg

This is an illustration of the different connectors. The bottom one is a “regular” 32-bit PCI slot. A PCIx is not shown, but it is an extension of the 32-bit PCI slot (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Intelpromtserverpcixadapter1000mta342.jpg for a real 64-bit PCIx connector). Please note that not all Decklink cards feature a full-size PCIx connector, somethimes they’ve shortened it to a regular PCI connector like shown here:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afbeelding:Audigy2zs.jpg

That does not mean it will work correctly in a 32-bit PCI slot though! It will sort-of-work with a lot of black flashes on the decklink output and recording only for a couple of seconds until it stops with far too many framedrops.

-Yves

[Jay Lee]

Thank you Yves,
Are situation is this: We have an existing BM Decklink Pro that is about 1 year old that does not fit in the Mac Pro (thank you apple) so we are looking for a replacment card. There are a couple of used cards available locally but the sellers cannot acertain whether they are PCIx or PCIe.
Our understanding is the one we posses is ‘x’ but mac pro requires ‘e’. The physical difference can not be very different since the card we have now very nearly fits but not quite.

Cheers,

J

[Bob Zelin]

bring your computer to the reseller, and have them install it for you, and prove to you that it works. This will answer your issue.
PCI-X cards don’t “almost” fit into PCI-E slots (not unless you use a big hammer).

Don’t worry, your new PCI-E card will be outdated soon anyway, as everything else you own will. We are all in the same boat. Welcome to the video business.

Bob Zelin