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crossfire & pci sound card ?

CSA

CSA

CSA

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Im not 100% sure i know what im talking about here but here goes lol

I believe if i crossfire on my motherboard (MSI p55 GD80) the "lanes" ? will be split to 16x & 8x ? i think a lot of ppl suggest this wont impact too much on performance in a xfire set up but im sure i read if you add a pci sound card that further reduces the lanes for the xfire to about 16x 4x which "could" effect performance

did i misinterpret what i was reading regarding adding a sound card reduces lanes or is this true ?
 
Your motherboard.

x16 1card, x8x8 2cards, x8x8x4 3cards.

But your soundcard will go in the x1 slot wont it ? so you will get x8x8 still on the gfx cards.

The 16 width PCI_E5 x4 slot steals from the x1 slots but your not using the last PCI_E5 slot so it will not matter.
 
Final8y said:
Your motherboard.

x16 1card, x8x8 2cards, x8x8x4 3cards.

But your soundcard will go in the x1 slot wont it ? so you will get x8x8 still on the gfx cards.

The 16 width PCI_E5 x4 slot steals from the x1 slots but your not using the last PCI_E5 slot so it will not matter.
Click to expand...

Interesting,i wasnt aware that this mobo would only do 8x 8x as i had no interest in crossfire when i bought it,is 8x 8x going to bottle neck 2x6950's by much ?
 
CSA said:
Interesting,i wasnt aware that this mobo would only do 8x 8x as i had no interest in crossfire when i bought it,is 8x 8x going to bottle neck 2x6950's by much ?
Click to expand...
Generally you lose about 2-3% speed on each card, but it only tiny lose in performance, as you still get 94% extra speed with the CF.
 
Thanks for the info :)

reading this review of the board:

Intel's new P55 Express 'Ibex Peak' chipset is a true break from their traditional chipset design. Unlike all previous Intel chipsets which featured both a northbridge and a southbridge (eg. X58 Express + ICH10R), the P55 is a one-chip solution. As such, it has been given the new designation of Platform Controller Hub (PCH). When it comes to PCI-Express 2.0 connectivity things get a little complicated with this chipset since in the past, the northbridge supplied the graphics-related PCI-E lanes. However, Lynnfield processors feature an industry-first: an integrated PCI-E controller that supports 16 PCI-E 2.0 lanes supplying two mechanical PCI-E x16 slots. If only one graphics card is installed, it will operate at the full electrical x16 speed and if two graphics cards are installed, the PCI-E lanes are divided between both PCI-E x16 slots and they will operate at x8 each. On motherboards with three mechanical PCI-E x16 slots such as the P55-GD80, the first two slots will each operate at x8 while the third slot will operate at x4. How is this possible if we have already established that the integrated PCI-E controller only supports 16 PCI-E lanes? The additional 4 PCI-E lanes come from the P55 PCH itself, which can supply up to 8 PCI-E 1.0 lanes in total.
Click to expand...

I take it adding a pci or pcie sound card wont effect the 8x 8x lanes ?



EDIT: oops i see Final8y has already answered my question,thanks :)
 
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