Bifurcation when x4 then NIC degrades to x2

Hi guys.

I have several MT27710 (ConnectX-4 Lx EN) NICs and these are width x8 sitting in full x16 PCIe slot but! when I bifurcate such PCIe to x4x4x4x4 then one & only one single NIC degrades to x2 - other NICs report (lspci) x4 as expected - and.. when no bifurcation at all then that one NIC says… x8, same as other NICs, same good.

NICs have the same firmware, tested in the same hardware-host with the same OS, Centos 10.

I’m thinking this must be some detailed internal setting of that particular NIC - right?

Any & all suggestion on how to troubleshoot & fix this I’d much appreciate.

many thanks, L.