What you think?

Nevakonaza

Nevakonaza

Nevakonaza

Soldato
Joined
7 Jan 2009
Posts
6,992
Hey guys,

So im planning on upgrading my Cpu & Motherboard to Ivy when its released.

Now do you think it would be a good idea to get a Z77 board that supports
(2x pci-e x16 full speed slots in crossfire) and get another 6950 2gb?

I plan to re-use my current G.skill ram (4x2gb sticks) of course il need a new PSU though...

Of course id love a GTX 680 But they are too expensive so what ya reckon with the crossfire idea?

tks
 
There's a big price premium for the boards with additional PCIe lanes. You'd need to decide if it was worth it. This might help, although you might want to look for a more up to date article, just to be sure. The last I saw though x8/x8 vs x16/x16 wasn't of any consequence... the problem was with tri-SLi where some boards went to 8/8/4 or 8/4/4/ and performance took a hit.

You sure you'll need a new PSU? You'll be using a bit less power, especially as you're overclocking a 95W TDP part and switching to a 77W part. With a big overclock then you're perhaps looking at 50+W difference between them.

I had a look at the Z77 boards that OcUK is selling and it's only the Gigabyte Sniper (and not the mATX one) that does x16/x16. The ASRock Extreme6 doesn't (I checked the manual, the marketing blurb reads as if it does). It's £100 more than the high end mainstream, and the high end mainstream aren't always value for money (although if you want the power phases.....). So you'd be dropping an extra 150 to 200 more just to get that few percent difference.

I went and looked at the 2 ASRock boards that aren't here yet, the two Fatal1ty ones and read their manuals to see if ASRock have put extra PCIe lanes in those. It's staggering but they're even worse. In Crossfire mode they'll work at x16 and x4.

Asus and MSI don't have any boards that do x16/x16 for it...

That leaves you the option of going for a Z68 board... but even still it's highly expensive.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!
 
Just spent the last couple of hours viewing Z77 boards and did`nt come across any with 16x16.
Actually, quite like the new Sabretooth, but not at £182. So it looks like it will be a while before i upgrade. Looks like my £46 board will have to last a bit longer.
 
Idleman said:
Just spent the last couple of hours viewing Z77 boards and did`nt come across any with 16x16.
Actually, quite like the new Sabretooth, but not at £182. So it looks like it will be a while before i upgrade. Looks like my £46 board will have to last a bit longer.
Click to expand...

The Z77 chipset only has enough PCI-E lanes for x8/x8.

You'll need to wait for motherboards with bridge chip(s) to offer more than that.

They tend to be the higher end boards and will be more expensive.

PCI-E 3.0 x8/x8 is hardly a bottleneck though.
 
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