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220-1201 Practice Question: A customer wants to add a dedicated graphics card…
A customer wants to add a dedicated graphics card to their PC for gaming. The motherboard has one PCIe x16 slot, but it is currently occupied by a Wi-Fi card. The customer asks if they can use the PCIe x1 slot for the graphics card. What should the technician advise?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
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No, the graphics card requires a PCIe x16 slot
PCIe x1 slots are physically shorter and provide only one lane of bandwidth, which is insufficient for a modern graphics card's performance needs. A graphics card requires a PCIe x16 slot (electrically x8 or x16) for adequate data transfer. The Wi-Fi card can be moved to the x1 slot, but the graphics card must go in the x16 slot.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Yes, but the graphics card will run at reduced performance
Why it's wrong here
A standard dedicated graphics card is physically designed for a PCI Express (PCIe) x16 slot, which is significantly longer and provides 16 data lanes. A PCIe x1 slot is physically too short to accommodate an x16 card. Even if a card were somehow modified to fit, the drastically reduced bandwidth of a single lane (x1) compared to sixteen lanes (x16) would create an insurmountable bottleneck, rendering the graphics card effectively unusable rather than just "reduced performance."
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Yes, but only if the motherboard supports SLI
Why it's wrong here
SLI (Scalable Link Interface) is an NVIDIA-specific technology that enables two or more compatible graphics cards to work in tandem to enhance rendering performance. It is a multi-GPU configuration feature and has no relevance to whether a single dedicated graphics card can be installed into a specific PCIe slot type. The primary concern for installing a single graphics card is the physical slot compatibility and the available bandwidth, not the motherboard's ability to support multiple GPUs.
- ✓
No, the graphics card requires a PCIe x16 slot
Why this is correct
Dedicated graphics cards are universally engineered to utilize a PCI Express (PCIe) x16 slot. This slot provides the necessary physical dimensions, electrical power delivery, and 16 data lanes for optimal bandwidth, which is crucial for high-performance graphics processing. Attempting to install a graphics card into a smaller slot, such as a PCIe x1, is physically impossible without destructive modification and would severely bottleneck performance even if it could be forced.
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No, because the Wi-Fi card must stay in the x16 slot
Why it's wrong here
While a Wi-Fi card might be placed in a PCIe x16 slot, it typically only requires and utilizes a single PCIe lane (x1) for its operation. Therefore, a Wi-Fi card can be easily moved to a smaller, more appropriate PCIe x1 slot, if available, without any loss of functionality. The PCIe x16 slot is specifically designed and reserved for high-bandwidth devices like dedicated graphics cards, making it unnecessary for the Wi-Fi card to occupy it.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1201 exam.