T430/T530 ExpressCard Link Speed

[Omicron]

Does anyone know if the T530 or T430 run a 1x Pci-e 3.0 link when an ExpressCard eGPU solution is used (like the PE4C V3.0 is used?) Or does it still run at 2.0 speeds?

 

There should be 16x 3.0 lanes available on the CPU dies of Ivy Bridge mobile processors as they are just the desktop processors, but I am not sure if Lenovo wired the ExpressCard slot to this or the slower 2.0 lanes provided by the chipset.

[Another Tech Inferno Fan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard#ExpressCard_2.0

 

There was never an "ExpressCard 3.0" standard which allowed connection to PCIe 3.0.

 

I hope I am wrong, however.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

12 hours ago, Omicron said:

Does anyone know if the T530 or T430 run a 1x Pci-e 3.0 link when an ExpressCard eGPU solution is used (like the PE4C V3.0 is used?) Or does it still run at 2.0 speeds?

 

There should be 16x 3.0 lanes available on the CPU dies of Ivy Bridge mobile processors as they are just the desktop processors, but I am not sure if Lenovo wired the ExpressCard slot to this or the slower 2.0 lanes provided by the chipset.

 

Lenovo wired the T430/T530 expresscard to the southbridge, which has pcie 2.0 ports. Afaik, no manufacturer ever wired their expresscard to the north bridge pcie 3.0 port (3rd gen icore or newer).

 

If you need more bandwidth then consider a Thunderbolt egpu solution.

[Omicron]

30 minutes ago, Tech Inferno Fan said:

 

Lenovo wired the T430/T530 expresscard to the southbridge, which has pcie 2.0 ports. Afaik, no manufacturer ever wired their expresscard to the north bridge pcie 3.0 port (3rd gen icore or newer).

 

If you need more bandwidth then consider a Thunderbolt egpu solution.

 

Thank you, this is what I expected reading through some of the other threads (I just wasn't able to really get a confirmation.) That's fairly unfortunate.

 

Some of the T430s'es have Thunderbolt 1 on them (which has 2 x 10Gbps lines from what I am reading, but you can only use 1 of those per "device.") Therefore, the Thunderbolt 10Gbps link should be similar to a PCI-e 2.0 2x link (and would then no longer have the Nvidia compression enabled.)

 

Not sure if the newer Thunderbolt enclosures (made for Thunderbolt 3.0) are really comparable with this first generation though, and there are only a few subpar solutions available that work with the Thunderbolt 1.0 link.

[degrees]

Sorry to revive an old thread. To clarify, there is no way of connecting a PCIe 3.0 card to a T430 without suffering a bus speed bottleneck? Or at least, would the bottleneck be noticeable?

Edited April 24, 2017 by degrees