PCI 4 x PCIe x16/x8/x4, ?? Im lost

[Cesar R]

I am compaing two board and in terms of PCI slots.

EVGA X58 SLI LE versus X58 SLI3

 

the SLI LE has:

4 x PCIe x16/x8/x4

 

While the SLI3 has:

1 x PCIe x16,

1 x PCIe x8/x16,

1 x PCIe x8,

1 x PCIe x1,

2 x PCI

 

 

Which one has more PCI slots or better yet, how do you interpret these number?

I am looking for a board that will let me run several GPU's. Alos, is UBS 3.0 importat to have?

Edited September 19, 2010 by Cesar R

[branskyj]

According to EVGA web-site the first mobo EVGA X58 SLI LE has 4x PCIe x16/x8/x4, 1 x PCIe x1, 1 x PCI

1 x 32-bit PCI, support for PCI 2.1

The second mobo has 1 x PCIe x16, 2 x PCIe x8, 2 x PCIe x1, 1 x PCI

Same number of PCI slots but different speeds.

Are you aiming at gaming or GPU rendering? If you'll be gaming- I can not help with advice. If the multi GPU will be used for GPU rendering- the speed of the PCI slot only determines how fast you will load a scene on the GPU. It has nothing to do with rendering speed which only depends on the GPU.

P.S. If you will be gaming with multiple graphics cards the PCI slot speed also matters but keep in mind- pick the mobo which also allows better arrangement of the cards in terms of air flow.

USB 3.0 is just as important as it was USB 2.0 before. More and more devices keep popping with USB 3.0 support. Go for it.

 

Good lick.

[Cesar R]

Thanks for the info. I found out that both motherboards only have 1 PCIe X16 and 2 PCIe X8. What a shame.

I am building this computer for GPU rendering and I was maybe planning to install a graphics card on the X16 slot to drive my graphics and then install two Nvidia GTX470 on the X8 slots for GPU rendering. I wonder, if maybe I should look into another motherboard the "X58 SLI MICRO" (MATX)

This particular motherboard has 2 PCI X16 - only and not other expansion slots because of it size. In this case I would just use two cards GTX470's for both rendering and to drive my display.

[AJLynn]

Now you've got me procrastinating by looking at motherboard specs. Two things:

 

-This crap is confusing as all hell. MB manufacturers say things like:

 

2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode)

1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (at x4 mode, 2.5GT/s)

 

So how many PCIE slots can you actually use in x16 on the MB described here? One.

 

-If you can get past this crap, Asus seems to have more legible descriptions than EVGA. (MSI is so complicated I disn't even understand how one would arrange their PCIE cards on their flagship board after reading an article about the subject.) Some notable Asus boards:

 

-Maximus III Extreme for Socket 1156 can do two x16 and one x8 at the same time or five x8. (Four, really, because five double height video cards won't fit, but it's a nice effort.) No 6-core CPUs but the i7-870 has a lot of upside.

 

-P6T7 for 1366. This is a bit confusing but it looks like it should actually handle 4 x16 at a time. The Gigabyte X58A-UD9 also does this but it costs $650 - seriously.

 

-P6T6 for 1366. 3 x16's.

 

-The old standby P6T takes 2 x16. At $190 after rebates I think this would still be my choice (the others are expensive).

 

The boards that seem to violate the X58 and P55 PCIE capabilities do so by adding an additional nVidia PCIE bridge chip. There's an article on the effects of this on game performance.

 

I also learned one other interesting thing. Apparently there is such a thing as "competitive overclockers". I'm picturing two hardware geeks in a setting much like Kitchen Stadium. "Today's theme ingredient is... Corsair RAM!"

 

Maybe I should make a 3DATSTech article out of this.