There’s generally one or two slots connected directly to the CPU running in x16 or x8 if there’s two and both are connected, 4 lanes linking the CPU to the chipset, and the rest of the slots connect to the chipset and share that same x4 link. If your cpu has 24 lanes (Ryzen do/did a few years ago, Intel might but didn’t a few years ago), the remaining 4 lanes usually go to an NVMe slot
A month ago as of tomorrow I got fed up with Windows and googled “gaming Linux”, picked Garuda because it was near the top result and I like the FFXIV Garuda, was wiping my Windows drive within fifteen minutes of deciding I was done, and have been gaming with my 3080 since. Haven’t touched X11 because Garuda defaults to Wayland and I don’t even know the difference between them, and so far everything has just worked