PCIe Riser & Extender Cable Assemblies
A PCIe riser or extender cable moves a card away from its slot: a card-edge plug that goes into the motherboard slot at one end, a slot for the card at the other, and a flat twinax cable between them. It is how GPUs are mounted vertically, how cards reach a separate cage in a chassis, and how industrial PCs fit full-height cards into low enclosures. The higher the PCIe generation, the tighter the limits on length and construction, so each riser line is quoted as built to your drawing or sourced as a finished part.
Where PCIe riser assemblies are used
Vertical and offset GPU mounting
Moving a card to a vertical bracket or a second row in servers, workstations and test benches.
Card cages and remote slots
Reaching a card cage, or a slot on another board, elsewhere in the chassis.
Industrial and embedded PCs
Right-angle and folded risers that fit cards into low enclosures.
What you can specify
Each point is confirmed with our manufacturing partner before the quotation. Connectors are the genuine parts your drawing names, and an alternative is used only with your written approval.
- Slot width at each end and the lanes actually wired
- Length and fold points
- Plug and slot orientation, including right-angle and reversed versions
- Slot power carried through, or an auxiliary power input at the slot end
- Shielding, and the mounting holes on the slot board
Testing and records
Assemblies built to your drawing are continuity tested unit by unit and ship with a test report; sourced cables ship as supplied by their maker. Signal-integrity data such as insertion loss or impedance is never assumed: if your link needs it, say so in the RFQ, and whether and how it can be measured is confirmed before the quotation.
Every lane, the slot's power and ground contacts and the presence-detect pins are continuity tested against the drawing.
How testing and records work →How long can the cable be?
Sum the PCIe channel the way the specifications budget it, host package to device, and read the margin a given length, wire gauge and host trace leave at Gen4, Gen5 or Gen6. Every figure is sourced on the page and can be replaced with your own.
Open the MCIO / SlimSAS insertion loss calculator →Common questions
Does a riser cable work at PCIe Gen4 or Gen5?
It can, if the cable is built for that generation and kept short. Generation, length and construction go together, so name the generation in the RFQ; the quotation states which generation the quoted riser is intended for.
Can a riser run an x16 card on fewer lanes?
Yes. A slot wired with eight or four lanes works with cards that train at the narrower width, which most cards do. The drawing should state the lanes wired at each end.
What should a PCIe riser RFQ include?
The card and the motherboard or chassis, slot widths and lanes wired, length, plug and slot orientation, the PCIe generation, power needs and quantities.
Related connectors
Industries
Connector and series names on these pages — JST, Molex, Micro-Fit, Mini-Fit, PicoBlade, Pico-Lock, CLIK-Mate, PCIe, MCIO, SlimSAS, OCuLink, HSD, HFM and DEUTSCH among them — may be trademarks of their respective owners. They are used only to identify the connectors an assembly is built with or mates with. Interconnix is not affiliated with, sponsored by or an authorized distributor of any connector maker.