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SLI 8X 8X????

P4Clock

P4Clock

P4Clock

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Joined
6 Feb 2010
Posts
6,138
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Barnsley
is there any point in running sli in Pci-e(3) 8x 8x.

Lets say 18months from now i have a GTX 670, and it struggleing with games with there be any point in dropping a second card in an running 8x 8x?.
 
Aye if you want to run x16 / x16, on Z87 motherboards you will need one with the PEX 8747 PLX Chip - expensive.
 
Nelly said:
Aye if you want to run x16 / x16, on Z87 motherboards you will need one with the PEX 8747 PLX Chip - expensive.
Click to expand...

Correct,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Force Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £464.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £369.95
1 x Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI EXTREME Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £329.99
Total : £1,176.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).




These three have PLX chips and give you 16X/16X or 8X/8X/8X/8X by doubling the 16pci-e lanes from the CPU.
 
stulid said:
Correct,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Force Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £464.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £369.95
1 x Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI EXTREME Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £329.99
Total : £1,176.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).




These three have PLX chips and give you 16X/16X or 8X/8X/8X/8X by doubling the 16pci-e lanes from the CPU.
Click to expand...
I think their was latency issues if you was just using one graphics card, but the Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 had ability to bypass the PLX chip when using a single GPU.

So am guessing the Gigabyte Z87 boards will be the same. Not checked the Gigabyte Z87's, but I'm guessing will most likely have the same ability, not sure about Asus Maximus, Asrock Extreme 9, or the MSI Z87 XPower.
 
Nelly said:
If you was just using one graphics card I think their was latency issues, but the Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 had ability to bypass the PLX chip when using a single GPU.

So am guessing the Gigabyte Z87 boards will be the same. Not checked the Gigabyte Z87's, but I'm guessing will most likely have the same ability, not sure about Asus Maximus, Asrock Extreme 9, or the MSI Z87 XPower.
Click to expand...

The Sniper5 doesn't have a bypass slot, the OC force does:)

Ive not looked deep enough at the others either.
 
Not sure which board you have, as your sig says AMD, but if you're using 990FX, you can run 16x16x PCI-E 2.0 (which is equivalent to 8x8x PCI-E 3.0). Asus has a board that does 16x16x PCI-E 3.0, but I think there's only one.
 
stulid said:
The Sniper5 doesn't have a bypass slot, the OC force does:)

Ive not looked deep enough at the others either.
Click to expand...
Haha I thought you would be clued up with them. :cool:

I was tempted with the Gigabyte OC boards even the Force, but the GTX 780 was virtually an arm and a leg, plus I am in the hunt for a new screen, and a SSD with 5 year warranty - wish I was loaded. :(

Still haven't switched over to Z87 yet, gonna grab a SSD with a 5 year warranty, might do a Saturday delivery and get this damn thing built. :)
shankly1985 said:
Running my two cards 8x 8x just fine.
Click to expand...
I can't remember the difference it's about 1-2 fps if that aint it, between x8/x8, and x16/x16 ?
 
Nelly said:
Haha I thought you would be clued up with them. :cool:

I was tempted with the Gigabyte OC boards even the Force, but the GTX 780 was virtually an arm and a leg, plus I am in the hunt for a new screen, and a SSD with 5 year warranty - wish I was loaded. :(

Still haven't switched over to Z87 yet, gonna grab a SSD with a 5 year warranty, might do a Saturday delivery and get this damn thing built. :)I can't remember the difference it's about 1-2 fps if that aint it, between x8/x8, and x16/x16 ?
Click to expand...

Not sure tbh
 
Previously when I had my 3x GTX 670 I tried running them in PCI-E 2.0 vs 3.0 (running x16/x8/x8) at 1920x1200 and I really couldn't measure af clear difference. Only when I got my 2560x1440 screen and re-ran the tests I started to see small 1-2FPS differences in general.
 
thanks ppl, that some real food for thought, i am in the middle of building a second system and its time to buy a motherboard, i was going AMD but am wavering over an 1155 system. but when i seen the only 16x 16x board was £300 i had a poo lol. but now i see you can get a good 8x 8x for around £100 its not too bad.

i think am going to have to put board names into an hat and see when comes out. and that will choice whether i go amd or intel at same time
 
You mention you plan to run a single GTX 670 card and in the future may add a second one. In that situation I really wouldn't worry about the difference between a PCIE 3.0 x8/x8 board vs a x16/x16 one. For that usage (two GTX 670 cards in SLI) there really isn't any meaningful performance difference.

As has been mentioned earlier - the Haswell chips (just like ivy bridge and sandy bridge) have the PCIE controller on the CPU. Haswell can support a maximum of 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the CPU - hence why most ~£100 boards "only" offer crossfire/SLI at x8/x8. Special bridge chips are needed to create more lanes from the existing ones (these boards tend to be much more expensive) - but in the reviews I've seen this only provides benefits if you are running three of four graphics cards - for two cards there is simply no benefit.

Therefore, I would suggest going for a Haswell Z87 setup if you are buying new right now. The Ivy Bridge-E X79 platform is only worthwhile if you plan to run a lot of graphics cards or really need a modern intel hex core CPU. As for AMD - they are getting better - but for games an Intel quad core is still the better choice.
 
P4Clock said:
thanks ppl, that some real food for thought, i am in the middle of building a second system and its time to buy a motherboard, i was going AMD but am wavering over an 1155 system. but when i seen the only 16x 16x board was £300 i had a poo lol. but now i see you can get a good 8x 8x for around £100 its not too bad.

i think am going to have to put board names into an hat and see when comes out. and that will choice whether i go amd or intel at same time
Click to expand...

cmndr_andi said:
You mention you plan to run a single GTX 670 card and in the future may add a second one. In that situation I really wouldn't worry about the difference between a PCIE 3.0 x8/x8 board vs a x16/x16 one. For that usage (two GTX 670 cards in SLI) there really isn't any meaningful performance difference.

As has been mentioned earlier - the Haswell chips (just like ivy bridge and sandy bridge) have the PCIE controller on the CPU. Haswell can support a maximum of 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the CPU - hence why most ~£100 boards "only" offer crossfire/SLI at x8/x8. Special bridge chips are needed to create more lanes from the existing ones (these boards tend to be much more expensive) - but in the reviews I've seen this only provides benefits if you are running three of four graphics cards - for two cards there is simply no benefit.

Therefore, I would suggest going for a Haswell Z87 setup if you are buying new right now. The Ivy Bridge-E X79 platform is only worthwhile if you plan to run a lot of graphics cards or really need a modern intel hex core CPU. As for AMD - they are getting better - but for games an Intel quad core is still the better choice.
Click to expand...

+1

Haswell is the way to go with a single or two graphics cards.
 
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