Tech Tip: What are PCIe Lanes?

First we discuss what is PCI and then PCIe Lanes

PCI Express

PCI Express is a serial point - to - point interconnect between two devices.

Following diagram (Source: PCI Express - Wikipedia) makes the terminology clear.

A “link” defines the connectivity between two devices. It consists of multiple “lanes”. A lane carries one bit of information. A link normally could be 1,4,8 or 16 lanes (also known as x1 , x4, x8, x16)

A lane is again a differential pair of wires that carries signal level information

PCI is rarely used these days because of its low speed. In today’s high speed hungry society PCIe which is high speed is better and also it has very low pin count and other advantages compared to the PCI parallel bus

PCIe Lanes

PCIe paths are inward, fast, highlight point, bidirectional associations. Not at all like their antecedent PCI, they don't utilize a transport topology (with numerous hubs all tuning in and talking over shared a medium). Various PCIe express lanes paths can be consolidated into a solitary high-transmission capacity channel. This is what's implied by x4, x8, x16, and once in a while different qualities. 

PCIe  paths are utilized in a couple of spots inside your PC. Your CPU has a specific number of them, in any event 16, associated among it and at any rate one 16x space on the motherboard. These are generally utilized for video cards, either with one card utilizing the entire channel or with various cards, each utilizing piece of the channel (two cards each utilizing 8 paths, if the motherboard has two spaces, for instance, or once in a while three cards, with one utilizing 8 paths and the other two utilizing 4 paths each). Some CPU's have more video card paths, a portion of Intel's X arrangement CPU's have up to 40 (some portion of the explanation that these chips utilize the gigantic LGA 2011 attachment). 

A few paths interface your CPU to your Platform Controller Hub (PCH). Intel really calls these DMI paths, yet they're in truth equivalent to PCIe. From the PCH, PCIe paths go to your SATA controller, your NVMe-perfect M.2 space, USB controllers, and a few PCIe openings on your motherboard for things like system connectors, TV tuner cards, and other lower-speed (contrasted with video cards) peripherals; these would be 1x or potentially 4x. The PCH fills in as a multiplexer, and at last these gadgets need to share the accessible DMI paths when speaking with the CPU or principle memory (by means of DMA, direct memory get to). 

A PCIe path doesn't influence CPU execution, it's only a method for interfacing parts inside your PC.