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I7 4790k x16 lanes

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  • PCI Express
  • Intel i7
  • CPUs
  • Intel
Last response: in CPUs
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October 15, 2014 10:00:54 PM

I just ordered the i7 4790k, and will have it paired with an ASRock Z97 OC Formula LGA 1150 ( http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E168131... ). I just read on Intel's page that the 4790k only supports one card in x16 mode. Even though the main board shows support for 3 x16 lanes, will the cpu still limit me to one x16 lane? It won't hinder my use for now (just a single evga gtx 970 ssc acx 2.0), but I'm still not sure whether my next card will be a second 970, or if I'll switch to 980's (gpu is not what's being debated here atm).

More about : 4790k x16 lanes

a b à CPUs
October 15, 2014 10:11:27 PM

The board does not support more than one card in x16, it does not have a PLX PCI-E switch chip that would enable it to use two in x16 or all 4 in x8. You have nothing to worry about though, x8 PCI-E 3.0 is still enough for even the highest end single GPUs. You have to realize though that these models such as the OC Formula, are meant for just that, overclocking. They aren't meant to be high-end gaming boards, so expansion capabilities for GPU setups are limited.
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17 minutes ago

Thank you. Could it handle two 980's and still push out at least 80% - 90% performance? No other pci-e lanes would be used, so they'd for sure both be in x8 mode.
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a b å Intel
15 minutes ago

ASRock - on that model board, does not have a separate PLX chip to add additional PCIw lanes, so they allocate the lanes as follows, depending on how many of the PCIe slots you use.

- 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE2/PCIE4:
-- single at x16 (PCIE1);
-- dual at x8 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2);
-- triple at x8 (PCIE1) / x4 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE4))

Up to dual, the lanes will have little impact on graphics cards. Triple, not a good idea. I see the Specification says it will support quad SLI - I don't see how.
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13 minutes ago

Maybe if its running four cards in x4 pci-e 2.0, since the fourth slot is rated at pci-e 2.0, but that's irrelevant, as I'll have two cards at most for quite a while.
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a b à CPUs
11 minutes ago

Quote:
Thank you. Could it handle two 980's and still push out at least 80% - 90% performance? No other pci-e lanes would be used, so they'd for sure both be in x8 mode.


Yes. Nvidia cards don't rely on as much inter-PCI-E communication as AMD R9 cards (that's what the bridge connectors are for), so they aren't affected much by having only x8 bandwidth. They wouldn't certify boards for SLI compatibility (and include the connectors) if they were no good, and 99% of all z-series boards only come with two x8 speed slots.

It specifies quad-SLI because that means it can support two dual-GPU cards like the 690 or Titan-Z. 4-way SLI is when you can use 4 individual GPUs. If you want a z97 board capable of 3-4 way setups, you need to look at something like the Asus Maximus Extreme, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming GT/1/1 Black, ASRock z97 Extreme 9, etc. Those boards feature the PLX chips that can enable more than two cards.
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a b à CPUs
7 minutes ago

Karsten75 said:
ASRock - on that model board, does not have a separate PLX chip to add additional PCIw lanes, so they allocate the lanes as follows, depending on how many of the PCIe slots you use.

- 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE2/PCIE4:
-- single at x16 (PCIE1);
-- dual at x8 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2);
-- triple at x8 (PCIE1) / x4 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE4))

Up to dual, the lanes will have little impact on graphics cards. Triple, not a good idea. I see the Specification says it will support quad SLI - I don't see how.


Their idea of Quad sli is to put 2 GTX 690 there (for example), marketing at its finest.
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less than a minute ago

Your answers have been really helpful guys. I'm coming from an FX 8350 and two R9 280X setup, so I'm really excited to start jumping on the Intel + Nvidia bandwagon here. And especially for the RAM, I'm sick of finding out the sticks I have or want aren't compatible with my CPU's beyond 1333 MHz without expert overclocking, even though it's one of the best (in its brand, of course).

Thank you guys!
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