Which MB and intel CPU for a tri sli GTX 980 gaming machine?

PC in Australia · Apr 22, 2015

I am running

3 x GTX 980s (reference design cooler - blower type)
3 x Qnix 1440P monitors in surround

Corsair 900D
ASUS Maximus Extreme MB
LGA i7-3770k @ 4.6Ghz LGA 1155 CPU
Noctua CPU cooler
6 HDD
1 Blu Ray player
1500 W PSU
16GB RAM

Looking for a worthwhile upgrade on
New CPU - intel
New MB - MUST be TRI SLI and good on board sound via optical to amplifier
New RAM

jimmysmitty · Apr 22, 2015

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132260

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117402

That is what you would want if you want to do a proper Tri SLI GTX 980 setup.

I prefer Corsair for RAM and they have some pretty nice DDR4 kits (X99 is DDR 4) but that is up to you based on size and what you want to spend (they range from $200 to $1K depending on the speed and size).

Also, that CPU does not come with a cooler and you might need a better one if your Noctua doesn't support LGA2011.

PC in Australia · Apr 22, 2015

Not all GFX card lanes run at 16x16x16 though.

Does that really matter?

jimmysmitty · Apr 22, 2015

PC in Australia :

There is no motherboard in the X99 chipset series that does three full X16 lanes. The X99 chipset supports up to 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes and so it will go x16/x16/x8. It is better than your current setup which is X16/X8/X8 and as well the CPU will present much less of a bottleneck for three high powered GPUs.

PC in Australia · Apr 22, 2015

http://www.asus.com/au/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/X99E_WS/

Genuine 4-way x16 graphic power

Would the above work?

Or am I just wasting money for a very small performance gain?

Was thinking a 5820K CPU too

giantbucket · Apr 22, 2015

if you want TRIPLE 16x (instead of 16-16-8), you'll have to move up to a dual-CPU board, so that each CPU does 16-16. hey, with one CPU you're lucky to get 16-16-8 anyways - most consumer stuff only does 16 or 8-8. a PLX chip can help, but not really.

UPDATE / EDIT

and yeah, that board does use PLX chips to do the 16-16-16-16. an LGA2011 only has 40 lanes to work with, so it physically can't do quad-16 without any tricks. if you look at the manual, the mobo schematic & layout (Sect.1.2.2) shows two PLX chips.

PC in Australia · Apr 22, 2015

So would I notice any improvement for gaming?

FROM

3 x GTX 980s (reference design cooler - blower type)
3 x Qnix 1440P monitors in surround

ASUS Maximus V Z77 Extreme MB ONE PLX chip http://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_V_EXTREME/
LGA i7-3770k @ 4.6Ghz LGA 1155 CPU

giantbucket · Apr 22, 2015

i don't have audio now, but try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McVC5Px5BcY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rctaLgK5stA

PC in Australia · Apr 22, 2015

Looked at the videos, but it didn't really clarify it enough for me.

giantbucket · Apr 22, 2015

last time i saw the 2nd vid, the takeaway was "3-way is the point of diminishing returns". you don't gain ALL the power of each new card as you add it, you only gain some of it, and the more you go, the more irrelevant the extra card is.

PC in Australia · Apr 22, 2015

Oh yes saw that.

BUT I already own -

3 x GTX 980s (reference design cooler - blower type)
3 x Qnix 1440P monitors in surround

ASUS Maximus V Z77 Extreme MB
LGA i7-3770k @ 4.6Ghz LGA 1155 CPU

My Q is should I upgrade the MB, CPU and RAM for gaming? eg GTA V

giantbucket · Apr 22, 2015

well, 2nd video at 5:13 says "pfft! tiny improvement" assuming you're staying with 3 cards. if you REALLY want to burn money and add a 4th card, then yeah maybe you want to swap EVERYTHING over to LGA2011.

i dunno... more computer crap, or a downpayment on a 911?

PC in Australia · Apr 22, 2015

LOL

I like the way you think Sir.

giantbucket · Apr 22, 2015

downpayment on a 911, or a three new 1911s?

jimmysmitty · Apr 23, 2015

PC in Australia :

Ahhh I didn't think to go with a commercial board as you are a consumer.

Overall, you wont see enough of a gain to justify the extra money on a WS class motherboard:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_980_PCI-Express_Scaling/

That is a good article as it shows how a GTX 980 reacts to different lane speeds. At 1440p there is no difference between a PCIe 2.0 x16, PCIe 3.0x16 or even a PCIe 3.0 x8 setup.

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

That shows that even in SLI at 4K the difference is minimal.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_980_sli_review,1.html

This shows scaling of Tri-SLI. The higher resolution you go, the less benefit you get. Mostly it is due to VRAM needs but it is also because multi-GPU scaling tapers off pretty vastly after the second GPU.

I thing the board/CPU and say 32GB of decent DDR4 would be the best bet. Plus the setup would be good enough to last and fulfill even say nVidias next gen of GPUs bandwidth wise.

For a game like GTA V, this setup will probably be fine. I have it maxed out, minus MSAA at 1080p on a HD7970GHz and 4670K. The one thing for it though is it is a VRAM hungry game.

PC in Australia · Apr 23, 2015

CPU - http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=28759&cPath=1678

Intel Core i7 5820K

MB - Debating between Asus models due to pricing (already have a USB 3 wifi Asus)

X99 Deluxe Motherboard $599 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1679&products_id=28780

X99-PRO Motherboard $459 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1679&products_id=29390

X99-A Motherboard $399 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1679&products_id=29000

RAM - still no idea

PC in Australia · Apr 23, 2015

Or if I look at

GIGABYTE - what would you recommend?

http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/main.aspx?s=42

jimmysmitty · Apr 23, 2015

I have always stuck with Asus as I have never had a Asus board go bad on me and I have been using them for about 12 years. That said, Gigabytes are also decent. It is up to you.

The difference in the versions are this:

Deluxe is the top of the line

Pro is the same board but you lose the second NIC, a couple of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports but gain a PS/2 port (not normally useful)

A is the same board as the Pro minus the better heatsinks (it loses the one on the VRMs on the bottom of the CPU) and as well no SATA Express port or WiFi/Bluetooth

I would probably go for the middle of the line board, the Bluetooth is handy sometimes (I use it to connect my phone to my PC).

If you decide to go with a Gigabyte they do have an upgradeable Op-AMP for the sound, not sure if that floats your boat or not. I would probably go for one in the G1 series or priced near the Asus X99 Pro.

For memory, it will depend. That site doesn't have a ton of choice. It only has 16GB kits for Corsair and if you are going this far you might as well get enough to keep this system viable for a couple of years so 32GB would be what I would, and am planning to do, for a build. G.Skill is decent. One downside is that since DDR4 is currently only on the X99 platform it is expensive so you might want to stick to 16GB unless money is no problem.

DubbleClick · Apr 24, 2015

Seems like a pretty pointless upgrade to me, as you'll spend tons of money for marginal, if even noticeable, improvements.

I'd rather wait until you start noticing that something isn't performing as expected, which might take a while to happen.

PC in Australia · Apr 24, 2015

DubbleClick :

You mean moving from this -

ASUS Maximus V Z77 Extreme MB
LGA i7-3770k @ 4.6Ghz LGA 1155 CPU

Is in essence wasted money for no real improvement?

I would upgrade for a 20% jump in gaming and work

BUT

Would stay as is and save the cash if the upgrade is just wasting money.

DubbleClick · Apr 24, 2015

PC in Australia :

More like a 1% improvement in games, 0% improvement in general tasks but 40% improvement in continuous, heavy workloads such as video rendering, encoding, building. If you aren't a server host, professional video maker, engineer of large software or such, you won't encounter those circumstances often, though.

For some gaming reference:
http://www.techspot.com/review/875-intel-core-i7-5960x-haswell-e/page8.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/875-intel-core-i7-5960x-haswell-e/page7.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8426/the-intel-haswell-e-cpu-review-core-i7-5960x-i7-5930k-i7-5820k-tested/6

jimmysmitty · Apr 24, 2015

PC in Australia :

Depending on your work it can be a pretty big boost. Gaming doesn't benefit much currently from an upgrade like this.

However, the one benefit is this system will last longer than the current one.

Personally I would wait till at least Skylake for an upgrade as that is a new uArch and should provide a pretty decent increase in overall system performance.

Games mainly benefit from GPUs more than from CPUs though.

I was just helping with the information you asked for.

PC in Australia · Apr 24, 2015

This helps heaps, thank you.

So even gaming at 7680 x 1440 with 3 GTX 980s I am better off NOT upgrading

DubbleClick · Apr 25, 2015

The higher the resolution, the less important the cpu becomes.

Which MB and intel CPU for a tri sli GTX 980 gaming machine?

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