Motherboard PCIe x1 vs x16 - performance difference?

[alexep7]

So I keep coming back to external GPUs, and recently I found out about this:

It's a USB 3.0 PCIe extender, and it's used mainly for bitcoin mining and other such use cases where you need another PCIe device. But I was wondering, what would the performance hit be if I put a graphics card on it? I'm thinking a low-power GPU like a 1050 Ti, which draws all it's power from the motherboard. It would look much cleaner than having a regular x16 extender sticking out of the case since this connects via USB 3.0. Is this even possible?

 

[AleksandarK]

So I keep coming back to external GPUs, and recently I found out about this:

It's a USB 3.0 PCIe extender, and it's used mainly for bitcoin mining and other such use cases where you need another PCIe device. But I was wondering, what would the performance hit be if I put a graphics card on it? I'm thinking a low-power GPU like a 1050 Ti, which draws all it's power from the motherboard. It would look much cleaner than having a regular x16 extender sticking out of the case since this connects via USB 3.0. Is this even possible?

It is possible and you would get artound 15% of performance drop.

 

[kogepathic]

So I keep coming back to external GPUs, and recently I found out about this:

It's a USB 3.0 PCIe extender, and it's used mainly for bitcoin mining and other such use cases where you need another PCIe device. But I was wondering, what would the performance hit be if I put a graphics card on it? I'm thinking a low-power GPU like a 1050 Ti, which draws all it's power from the motherboard. It would look much cleaner than having a regular x16 extender sticking out of the case since this connects via USB 3.0. Is this even possible?

A few things which are unclear from your post which should be clarified:

• As AleksandarK said, the performance drop in gaming would be around 15%
• You need to provide 12V to the board with the x16 slot. The USB cable provides no power itself, it's only for the PCIe signalling.
• It does not connect via USB 3.0, that's simply the cable they're using to connect the x1 slot to the x16 board. I've seen other designs which utilise an HDMI cable. You need to have an x1 slot available on the motherboard to use this. If you plug it into a normal USB 3.0 port, at a minimum the PCIe device won't work, and at worst you'll cause physical damage because 5V is present on pins which aren't expecting to receive 5V.