x16liitäntä

The x16liitäntä, more commonly known as the PCI Express x16 slot, is a physical connector and electrical interface found on most modern computer motherboards. It is a high-speed serial expansion bus designed to connect peripheral devices, such as graphics cards, to the rest of the computer system. The "x16" designation refers to the number of data lanes allocated to the slot, with each lane carrying data in both directions. A full x16 slot provides sixteen lanes, offering the highest bandwidth available within the PCI Express standard.

This significantly greater bandwidth compared to older expansion slots like PCI or AGP allows for much faster data transfer rates between the expansion card and the CPU. This is particularly crucial for graphics processing units (GPUs), which require substantial amounts of data to be moved quickly to render complex 3D graphics, high-resolution displays, and perform parallel computations. While a graphics card might physically occupy an x16 slot, it can sometimes operate with fewer lanes (e.g., x8 or x4) if the motherboard or the card's design dictates, though this would result in reduced performance. The x16 slot is a cornerstone of modern PC architecture, enabling powerful graphics capabilities and supporting other high-bandwidth peripherals.