Question about GPU's

building a new pc

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some motherboards are able to have dual gpu right..
if i'm going to go with a dual motherboard, can it limit the potential of my gpu if im only using one gpu, for example can a gpu not run at its best due to the dual SLOT in the motherboard? if you get what i mean..here's a comment i got from another poster on these forums..

"The motherboard does SUPPORT IT but it is not a good motherboard to use for crossfire as the first gpu runs at x16 mode and the second runs at x4 mode. Ideally x8 and x8 mode is better."

he was refering to the mobo: ASRock Z97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
 
They didnt explain it the best to you.
The first slot is running in X16 mode. Meaning any card you put there will be fine.
The second slot is running at X4 mode, which is obviously 1/4 the bandwidth.

So the SECOND card would be bottlenecked severely in an Xfire setup (Its not true xfire)
 

building a new pc

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ohhh so the first card in the x16 mode isnt bottlenecked right?

 
First, technically you mean "graphics card" not GPU. The GPU is just the main processor on the graphics card.

1) The motherboard, as said above, should support x8 mode on both graphics card slots.

2) Make sure the board supports Crossfire, SLI, or BOTH depending on what cards you intend to buy.

3) I generally recommend the best SINGLE card you can buy over multiple graphics cards, though things are improving.

4) Crossfire is not as good as SLI yet. For example there are still issues with DX9 though they may be fixed before 2015.

5) Crossfire vs SLI is a tough decision. It looks like AMD is getting some good upcoming MANTLE support for quite a few games. NVidia has advantages as well such as Shadowplay for game recording efficiently, PhysX, TXAA, and G-Sync (G-Sync needs a new monitor).
 

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but how do you know if the motherboard has x8 in each dual, is it in the name?

 

Memhorder

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I'm sorry for the hasty answer. I did however find a couple articles you may be interested in reading. If you don't read them. It basically tells you there is not much difference between x16 x8 x4 the gap in performance loss between them is small. There is little to none between x16 x8. That board supports quad SLI/CF. I just don't understand why the 4x. Anyway here.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/

http://www.behardware.com/art/imprimer/836/