Warning about RealTek adapters - again!

[Bob.Dig]

they will prefer PCIe 4.0 x1 over PCIe 3.0 x2 (they can do both)

Don't think so, I bet the x4-card will only do PCIe3. But if you had no luck till now, it will not change with these.

[Stormscape]

I've seen the 8127ATF SFP+ NICs and I wonder if they work any better than the 4.0 1x BaseT cards. I've also noticed they're all 4x, so they're presumably PCIe 3.0 only. If they are, putting them in a 1x slot wouldn't get a full 10 gigabits, but it would still be 7.5 gigabits which ehhh... close enough.

[meyergru]

I think that is a misconception. Realtek advertises those AT variants as being either PCIe 4.0 x1 or PCIe 3.0 x2, but that is only to show its capability to support the full needed bandwitdh with PCIe 3.0 mainboards (provided that they have at least 2 free lanes).

Matter-of-fact, the cards will train at the highest speed they can find. That is just how PCIe works.

So, if you put them into a PCIe 4.0-capable system, they will use PCIe 4.0 x1, regardless. he only only you have on a PCIe 4.0-capable system is to limit the slot to PCIe 3.0 only. Givingg the card more lanes is not gonna cut it.

As it turns out, these Realtek adapters are on the edge of the PCIe 4.0 specification and the X570 chipset is known to be finicky as well. You may have better luck with other mainboard chipsets.

[Seimus]

Well,

maybe already obvious but why not to switch OS on the PC? Is there a reason you need to run Windows instead of Linux?

I know its OS independent, but if there is solution to be found or stability to be gained its far more prompt to be on Linux distributions than on Windows these days.

Regards,
S.

[meyergru]

I use apps and games that are only available on Windows. Besides, this is a hardware issue.

[Seimus]

True to that,

What I can tell you from point of Linux and Realtek.

I have a X870 tomahawk Mobo, its a 5G realtek NIC basically its the RTL8126 and I run it on r8126 driver.

Code Select Expand

 
Device-2: Realtek RTL8126 5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8126
    v: 10.016.00 modules: r8169 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000
    bus-ID: 0a:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8126 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp10s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Info: services: NetworkManager,systemd-timesyncd

I run it only at 1G, reason is I do not have currently a better switch. But at least on this speed its rock solid, didn't had yet any issues.

Regards,
S.

[meyergru]

Interesting, actually, the RTL8126 is a PCIe 3.0 card - and it runs like that on your board:

    v: 10.016.00 modules: r8169 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000

So it seems the instability is with PCIe 3.0 as well with my X570 board.

[Stormscape]

Makes me wonder how it would fare on my B550 board on a chipset 3.0 slot.

[Seimus]

Yes,

This NIC is embed on the MOBO, and runs at a single PCIe 3.0 lane, as its enough for the capacity. Also I didn't set the gen or speed on the PCIe, this is the only thing I didnt play with on the MOBO. It was set by the system itself/MOBO. For OS if you are interested I run GarudaOS, which is an Arch based distro. Primary usecase of my beefed PC is gaming.

I would suggest to search for BIOS updates. As these usually improve the compatibility and functionality.
The X570 MOBOs were/are not a low end MOBOs, so I would assume they should have proper BIOS support and feature advancement thru the years.

Regards,
S.

[meyergru]

See #14. I have contacted Asrock tech support about this, but for what I am reading about both B550 and X570, PCIe problems are reported all over the internet. Those chipsets are themselves problematic, as it seems.

Maybe it is time for a better system - this would involve buying DDR5, though. So, at current prices, I will make do with the new NIC first.

[OPNenthu]

this would involve buying DDR5, though. So, at current prices, I will make do with the new NIC first.

There are hopeful signs already that the memory shortage might resolve itself sooner rather than later. ;-)

If nothing else, Chinese makers (CXMT) are ramping up...

As for AM4, they did have early teething issues with PCIe 4.0.  I recall lots of gamers then were complaining about USB interference and mouse stutters that AMD only resolved after several AGESA iterations.  But, I thought that the issues were mostly in the rear view mirror now.  Maybe not entirely.

[Seimus]

See #14. I have contacted Asrock tech support about this, but for what I am reading about both B550 and X570, PCIe problems are reported all over the internet. Those chipsets are themselves problematic, as it seems.

Maybe it is time for a better system - this would involve buying DDR5, though. So, at current prices, I will make do with the new NIC first.

Yea, I understand you have some good reasons not to do it but that's the only way to move with this.
Also I am 99% sure their support will give you just half-based answer and tell you to upgrade BIOS.

You are generally right the X570 the first that came out had funky problems.
Same was with 1st gen of DDR5 MOBOs X670 & B650 that was just painful. But for a fact I know with time and BIOS updates a lot of problems of the x670 & B650  were solved, but not all. The x870 is just a rebranded B650E. But a lot of nonsense was fixed from previous generations. I have this MOBO since release and I was kinda 1st adopter of it on Linux, here and there some funny business, but MSI pushed BIOS updates very fast. Now its rock solid, and I have even the mems OCed at 8000Mhz.

I would wait with upgrading to a new system. The prices of all components are like a water slide.
Cheapest or best option currently usually is to buy a prebuild system and gut it into a custom one. (depends on country, tho DE is a bigger marked than CZ)

Regards,
S.

[Bob.Dig]

I have an Aquantia here, as well. Never worked right.

No problem here with the realtek or aquantia, although I am only using them with PCIe3 and as direct connections to each other, in Windows. 

For completeness, I have four NICs of the RTL8126, two PCIe and two m.2, all work/ed fine in conjunction with intel X550 and AQC107 and also with this switch: Zyxel XGS1250 Desktop Gigabit Smart Switch. I don't think that any problem would be chipset-related.

If you cross-flashed a marvel-firmware on an asus-card, there is a possibility for driver problems with windows, which is resolvable.

[meyergru]

Yes, I tried. But it actually is a catch-22: Without the driver (which does not load because of the PCI ID) you cannot use the flash tool. And you need the flash tool to change the PCI ID. The only way to make it work it to use the standalone UEFI flat tool aqflash.efi.

Aquantia themselves once had these tools, but they discontinued it. The only way to get them is from Asus, because they had these chips on some motherboards. But their site was down over the weekend.

After all, the AQC107 uses much more power than the newer AQC113C and I will get one this week...

[nero355]

The X570 MOBOs were/are not a low end MOBOs

Depends how you look at it...

Somewhere around the time of the X470/X570 motherboards their prices went up, up and up again to levels that would make you think they are High End models, but none of them come even close to what was previously offered such as something like the beautiful AsRock Z87/Z97 Extreme11 for pretty much the same price : Somewhere around € 300 IIRC :)

And that was just a Mainstream model and not even a HEDT model like it's big sister the AsRock X79 Extreme11 that was somewhere around € 500 when I bought it which is/was an actual High End motherboard because of the fact it's in the HEDT category instead of the Mainstream category ;)

_{(I have always bought HEDT components in the past before everything went out of control starting with the Intel 7000 Series HEDT CPU's because it doesn't give you any of the annoying PCIe lanes limitations like the Mainstream models still do up to this day...)}

You are generally right the X570 the first that came out had funky proble ms.
Same was with 1st gen of DDR5 MOBOs X670 & B650 that was just painful. But for a fact I know with time and BIOS updates a lot of problems of the x670 & B650  were solved, but not all. The x870 is just a rebranded B650E. But a lot of nonsense was fixed from previous generations. I have this MOBO since release and I was kinda 1st adopter of it on Linux, here and there some funny business, but MSI pushed BIOS updates very fast. Now its rock solid, and I have even the mems OCed at 8000Mhz.

The above is why the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ was my last AMD CPU and the AMD Radeon 290X 8 GB my last AMD GPU : Too much "Ohh... yeah... that did not work out as we expected/wanted it to... Oops!" nonsense all the time !! :(

I would wait with upgrading to a new system. The prices of all components are like a water slide.
Cheapest or best option currently usually is to buy a prebuild system and gut it into a custom one. (depends on country, tho DE is a bigger marked than CZ)

^^ That + combine it with looking for some nice discounted offer too!

Especially Gaming Laptops and PCs can be very interesting that way :)

Another option is to gather multiple components during a longer period and collect them from multiple discounted offers, but that involves taking a bigger risk and you never now what you are going to get, however if you want to save a lot of money and avoid certain prebuild brands it could be your best option...