how many slots do i need for sli
- Thread starter skrublord
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stavrosmast
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- Apr 7, 2015
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For SLI you need MOTHERBOARD slots and a motherboard which SUPPORTS* SLI for the 960 you need 2 motherboard slots which are pci 3.0 x16
*(Has pci3.0 slots)
But I always say its better a singlemore powerful gpu than 2 less powerful cause new games dont perform the Same cause they aint well optimized for SLI. in nvidia drivers they make sli profiles all the times. You could sell your 960 (if u have one) and with the money you get and with some more get a gtx 980/ti/290x/390X but you must have a good enough psu
*(Has pci3.0 slots)
But I always say its better a singlemore powerful gpu than 2 less powerful cause new games dont perform the Same cause they aint well optimized for SLI. in nvidia drivers they make sli profiles all the times. You could sell your 960 (if u have one) and with the money you get and with some more get a gtx 980/ti/290x/390X but you must have a good enough psu
Well that is a good idea but the two 960's are enough to take on any 980 and its brand new with 4Gb of ddr5 even though people say its a waist because of the 128 bit bus i find is useful when play the witcher. My only concern is, is that the bottom one will be in the way of the torx fans because of the back plates MSI put on them. And yes i know about the slots the mobo i want is the vii gene for Asus with two x16 3.0 slots and an SLI bridge as well as adding a neutro gtx ssd and a 2TB hdd from segate
stavrosmast
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one thing there not pointing out is you need 2 slots that support x8 min as where x-fire needs one at x16 and one at x4
so your boards slots has to be 2 pci-e x16 at 8x8 if it got 2 pci-e slots at 16x4 it will not support sli
PCI Express 3.0 x162 (single at x16 ; dual at x8/x8 ) --sli supported
no NVidia sli support but will support amd x-fire
1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slot (PCIE2: x16 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE4: x4 mode)
so your boards slots has to be 2 pci-e x16 at 8x8 if it got 2 pci-e slots at 16x4 it will not support sli
PCI Express 3.0 x162 (single at x16 ; dual at x8/x8 ) --sli supported
no NVidia sli support but will support amd x-fire
1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slot (PCIE2: x16 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE4: x4 mode)
Yes i understand all this, this is not new and this is not at all relevant to what i asked. I understand that i need a x16 3.0 slots and two of them. This was purely a case question in which i dont have the ability to keep them one slot apart since i only have 4 slots for gpu's and the gpu i'm getting is a two slot as well as the one i have now.
- Nov 11, 2013
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then it is relevant cause only 2 slots will be supporting the sli only 2 set slots will be for that best thing to show is what board your using most times its slot 2 and 4 that gives 8x8 on intel [if wired to support sli]
all that should be clearly stated in your boards manual in the first few pages describing the boards layout
just because it got 5 slots don't mean it will support sli
all that should be clearly stated in your boards manual in the first few pages describing the boards layout
just because it got 5 slots don't mean it will support sli
- Nov 11, 2013
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with intel one slot runs off the cpu at 16x 2ed runs off cpu and shared with the chipset to achieve 8x8 to make NVidia sli requirmens . with a z97 you have to look at how the slots are ''wired''
haswell 16 pcie lanes 16/0/0, 8/8/0, and 8/4/4
now like with z170 - PCIe layout needs a bit of explaining. The top full length slot is x16, which is then followed by a PCIe 3.0 x4 from the chipset. Then we get a PCIe 3.0 x8 from the CPU, and then a PCIe 3.0 x4 from the CPU as well. This technically gives an x8/x4/x4 arrangement from the processor, but with that chipset based slot in the middle between the main x8/x8, we can get a two-card SLI configuration plus another full length single slot device between them without breaking SLI
so if not carful on how they got things worked out on this with the board you can add a 3ed card and loose that 8x on the 2ed card slot for sli
as with this board
The three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots are controlled by the CPU, with the first slot working at x16 when only one video card is installed, the first two working at x8 when two video cards are installed, and the first working at x8 and the other two working at x4 when three video cards are installed.
so when using multi cards in any slots you got to look at all this so you don't get short changed
with intel the cpu has 16 lanes to work with and the chipset has like 20 ?? so it like a rob peter to pay paul ..
amd runs all off the chipset and don't have this limitation all pcie if run through the chipset until all chipset lanes are used up [I think up to 40 [??] '' chipset provides a total of 38 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 2.0 for A-Link Express III solely in the Northbridge''
haswell 16 pcie lanes 16/0/0, 8/8/0, and 8/4/4
now like with z170 - PCIe layout needs a bit of explaining. The top full length slot is x16, which is then followed by a PCIe 3.0 x4 from the chipset. Then we get a PCIe 3.0 x8 from the CPU, and then a PCIe 3.0 x4 from the CPU as well. This technically gives an x8/x4/x4 arrangement from the processor, but with that chipset based slot in the middle between the main x8/x8, we can get a two-card SLI configuration plus another full length single slot device between them without breaking SLI
so if not carful on how they got things worked out on this with the board you can add a 3ed card and loose that 8x on the 2ed card slot for sli
as with this board
The three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots are controlled by the CPU, with the first slot working at x16 when only one video card is installed, the first two working at x8 when two video cards are installed, and the first working at x8 and the other two working at x4 when three video cards are installed.
so when using multi cards in any slots you got to look at all this so you don't get short changed
with intel the cpu has 16 lanes to work with and the chipset has like 20 ?? so it like a rob peter to pay paul ..
amd runs all off the chipset and don't have this limitation all pcie if run through the chipset until all chipset lanes are used up [I think up to 40 [??] '' chipset provides a total of 38 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 2.0 for A-Link Express III solely in the Northbridge''
Mousemonkey
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