Can I find out if PCI-e slot is 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 in linux terminal?

Question

I'm going to purchase a GPU which is for PCI-e 3.0. But since I don't know what PCI-e slot it is in my computer I need to find it out somehow. Is it possible to find it from the terminal in linux?

Not asked, but nice to know: A PCI-e v3 card will run fine on an PCI-e v2 slot. — Hennes, Apr 23 '14 at 18:41

quazgar · Answer 1 · 2021-09-28T07:59:56.960

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Using lspci -vv as root, you can get the transfer rate and compare it with the transfer rate specified for the revisions. A sample output would read:

# lspci -vv | grep -E 'PCI bridge|LnkCap'
00:02.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
                LnkCap: Port #2, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <512ns, L1 <4us
00:03.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
                LnkCap: Port #1, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <512ns, L1 <4us
00:04.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <512ns, L1 <4us
00:10.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])

Which shows that the speed here is 2.5GT/s, corresponding to PCIe 1.x.

edited Sep 28 '21 at 07:59

answered Jun 21 '15 at 23:38

quazgar

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This needs to run as root; without it, `lspci` silently prints `Capabilities: `, which is removed by the `grep`. – FauxFaux Jul 05 '17 at 19:29
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That's what the `#` means. – goetz Aug 13 '17 at 23:12
That shows the CURRENT transfer speed. An idle system will all show the lowest speed it is allowed to run at. You can't use this at all. – Ken Sharp Sep 27 '21 at 04:05
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@KenSharp My understanding is that `LnkCap` is the link capability, not the current throughput rate. Do you have a source for your claim? – quazgar Sep 28 '21 at 07:59
@quazgar Are you for real? – Ken Sharp Jul 23 '23 at 22:08

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 28 '13 at 02:03

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You can use the "dmidecode" command to give an in depth list of all the hardware on the system and then view that. I did a "quick and dirty" command to show the pertinent bit as follows:

dmidecode | grep "PCI"

Which returned

PCI is supported
Type: x16 PCI Express 2 x8
Type: x8 PCI Express 2 x4
Type: x8 PCI Express 2 x4
Type: x8 PCI Express 2 x4
Type: 32-bit PCI

answered Dec 28 '13 at 02:03

davidgo

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`dmidecode --type 9` can also be used to filter while keeping the rest of the information. – BenC Jan 19 '16 at 02:24
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only shows "Type: x16 PCI Express" for me. So no PCIe version... – Matt Jul 04 '21 at 16:42
I think this lists the slot native speed but if the BIOS has a slot set to previous generation or an older card is dropping the slot generation I don't think this reflects it. – BoeroBoy Jan 24 '23 at 14:13

Can I find out if PCI-e slot is 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 in linux terminal?

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