▷ Riser pci express: what is it and what is it for?

It has been a long time that we can find PC cases on the market like the Thermaltake P3. It is a model that has the option of mounting the graphics card vertically with the help of a PCI Express riser.

Mounting the graphics card vertically has many advantages, such as relieving the weight that the slot on the motherboard supports, and greatly improving the aesthetics of the equipment. In this article we talk about the PCI Express risers, the essential element to mount a graphics card vertically.

Index of contents

What are PCI Express risers and what is their use?

The PCI Express risers became popular a few years ago, when the bitcoin mining craze began. At the time, there were many different risers available, but only the popularity of mining created a new market segment with 1x width extenders. Those elevators have a completely different purpose than the conventional one. This article focuses on 16x risers for gaming gear, but we'll also cover 1x risers used for mining. The purpose of a riser is to mount the graphics card vertically in the PC chassis, not horizontally, which corresponds to the design of the motherboards and chassis.

Gaming riser

Mining riser

Example of a mining rig with multiple graphics cards connected using risers:

The motherboard and PCI-SIG manufacturers have provided no alternative to installing graphics cards other than the PCI-Express slot on their motherboard. All extenders must meet all PCI-Express standards, but there is no official standard for the cable itself.

This article presents a good opportunity to explain the difference between GT / s and Gbps. GT / s also known as gigatranfers per second are not the same as gigabits per second (Gbps). PCI Express is a serial based standard with the clock built into the data. The data is encoded in 8b / 10b format, which means that every 8 bits are encoded in 10 bits. The encoding overhead is used to align the data stream at the receiver allowing the clock to recover.

When we look at the PCIe 2.0 specifications detailed in GT / s, we assume that this raw data transfer represents 80% of the encrypted data transfer rate. Since PCIe 3.0, the encoding has been changed to standard 128 / 130b, which means that the overhead is smaller (1.54% vs. 20%), making it a much more effective data transfer over GT / s raw from the previous encoding standard.

Some features to consider in a good PCI Express riser

The first and most important feature of a riser is the separation of the PCIe lanes. These cables are more flexible and provide much more freedom with the installation of the graphics card. Some cables are separated by 5 or 6 lanes, others have separate power and data lines. Since gamers are more likely to use premium cables, those cables do not have external power connectors. Only additional power is required for multiple GPU (4+) installation where it is necessary to provide enough power for each graphics card directly from the power supply.

Premium Riser DESERVE PENALTY

Premium risers have higher quality PCIe slots. Before buying any riser, it is important to consider which direction of the slot you need. The Lian-Li risers are 90 degree slots, while the Thermaltake risers are straight with the slot directly on the other side of the cable. There are few types of premium PCIe risers. In general, it is better to have separate power and data lanes. The more cables the risers have, the more flexibility you will get during installation, but also the greater risk of damage.

All the PCI Express gaming risers we find on the market are advertised as PCI Express x16, what this means is that each of them should theoretically offer the same bandwidth, but in practice it is not always the case. Sometimes graphics cards change PCIe specifications to narrower standards. This means that some lanes can be affected by interference and the GPU data transport is reduced to x8. In order to comply with the x16 standard we need the 142 pins to be connected at both ends. Manufacturers take this into account and do a good job with their products, so if you buy a quality riser you shouldn't worry about this.

This is how spectacular a Thermaltake P3 chassis is with the vertically mounted graphics card using a riser:

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So far our special article on PCI Express riser: what they are and what they are for, we hope it has helped you solve all your doubts about this important element in today's gaming PCs.

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