Motherboard, CPU recommendations

[embalse]

I currently have a Intel Core i9 10980XE Cascade Lake-X with a ASUS Pro WS X299 SAGE II (LGA 2066 R4) Motherboard and GeForce RTX 3080 GPUs.

What would be the cheapest upgrade of the MB and CPU that would be better than what I have with PCIe 5.0 slots? I would need a Max of 4 PCIe slots as opposed too the 7 I currently have.
No gaming. Just used for CGI rendering and Video editing.


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[Tetras]

To match the fully multithreaded performance you'd need an i5-13500 or a Ryzen 7700.

If you need 4x PCI-E which are physically 16 lanes, with a reasonable amount of space between them, I can't think of any suitable motherboards. The main problem is that both AM5 and 1700 CPUs can only split the primary lanes by 8 and 8, which means your last two slots have to get those lanes from somewhere and since they mainly prioritise M.2 slots nowadays, you tend to get a maximum of 4 lanes on third and fourth slots, even when it is physically 16.

You could take a look at upcoming boards for Epyc 4004 as they're likely to be more workstation oriented, though I don't think these will have more lanes available than the Ryzen equivalent.

 

[theforce]

If you want to run 4 GPU for CGI and rendering you would need a Threadripper system if you are going with an AMD system. For the CPU, l would get an AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ 7960X which would be a nice increase in CPU performance over your current CPU. You must go for a DDR5 solution if you want PCIe5 slots. This processor supports 48 PCIe5 lanes from the CPU and 40 PCIe4 lanes. You will have a bigger problem finding a motherboard that will support 4 GPU with sufficient spacing between them, depending on what cards you are planning to go for.

 

[embalse]

If you want to run 4 GPU for CGI and rendering you would need a Threadripper system if you are going with an AMD system. For the CPU, l would get an AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ 7960X which would be a nice increase in CPU performance over your current CPU. You must go for a DDR5 solution if you want PCIe5 slots. This processor supports 48 PCIe5 lanes from the CPU and 40 PCIe4 lanes. You will have a bigger problem finding a motherboard that will support 4 GPU with sufficient spacing between them, depending on what cards you are planning to go for.

Ya I've rethought the components and want to go for just 3 GPUs. Hopefully, this makes a difference as I only want to go the Intel route.


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[Quartz]

No gaming. Just used for CGI rendering and Video editing.

Ya I've rethought the components and want to go for just 3 GPUs. Hopefully, this makes a difference as I only want to go the Intel route.

Then you want Intel Xeon W processors, but I strongly suggest you look at Threadripper and Epyc. I'm sure OCUK's business side will be delighted to help you.

 

[Tetras]

Ya I've rethought the components and want to go for just 3 GPUs. Hopefully, this makes a difference as I only want to go the Intel route.

What speed do you want the PCI-E slots to be? Do you want PCI-E 5.0 SSDs?

If you want to stick with consumer hardware (i.e. not a Xeon) then Z790 is technically inferior to X670E because it can't support both PCI-E 5.0 graphics (across 2x full-length slots) and PCI-E 5.0 M.2 slots.

The Z790 Creator (one of the more workstation oriented boards) has 2x PCI-E 5.0 full-length slots, which can run with 8 lanes, but the third full-length slot is only PCI-E 4.0 with 4 lanes.

 

[JollyJamma]

Yeah if you populate consumer motherboards with 3 GPUs, it’ll drop the last pci-e slot to slower speeds and fewer lanes (if not, disable it entirely)

Often, the 3rd slot will run via a “south bridge” chipset and add complexity.

Best option is going enterprise like Threadripper or Epyc.

Threadripper pro is probably the best option here.
Edit: non pro will also work, as below

• 2 x M.2, 22-42/60/80, PCIe Gen5 x4
• 1 x M.2, 22-80, PCIe Gen4x4
• 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16
• 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4 Bandwidth)
• 2 x PCIe 5.0 x16
• 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 (x8 Bandwidth)
• 4 x SATA 6GB/s