PCIe
Also called: PCI Express, PCI-E
The standard interface that connects expansion cards, such as GPUs and NVMe SSDs, to the motherboard. Its generation and lane count set the bandwidth.
PCIe, short for PCI Express, is the interface that connects fast components to a computer's motherboard: graphics cards, NVMe SSDs, network cards or controllers. Data travels over lanes. An x16 slot has sixteen of them, an x1 slot just one. The more lanes, the higher the available bandwidth.
Each generation roughly doubles the per-lane bandwidth of the previous one: PCIe 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, with generation 6.0 arriving on the latest servers. The versions are compatible with each other, with the link running at the speed of the slowest component. For mining, bandwidth hardly matters: the computing happens inside the graphics card, and a simple x1 link is enough. For artificial intelligence it is different: loading a model, exchanging data between several GPUs or training a network all benefit from a latest-generation x16 link.
On a motherboard product page, look at the number of PCIe slots, their generation and the actual number of lanes wired to each, because a full-size x16 slot may only run at x4. On a graphics card, the product page states the interface generation and width. For a multi-GPU AI workstation, also check that the processor provides enough lanes for all the cards.
Our motherboards collection helps you choose the right base for GPU mining or an AI machine.