can any x99 motherboard do x16/x16 for 2 gpu's and still run (2) x4 nvme drives?

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carlosriosness

carlosriosness

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for my next upgrade i want to run 1080 in sli and i am hoping to run 2 nvme drives.

i was hoping to run it all without dropping the 2nd card to 8x.

i was originally hoping to go with the asus deluxe or rampage v edition 10.
 
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Usually the M.2 slot does NOT use CPU lanes, because unless you have a 40 lane CPU the slot would always cause issues with the GPU.

The lanes in the boards PCH are more than enough speed and will do the job.
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Rogue Leader

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Either of those motherboards will do it, BUT it depends on your CPU, for example the i7-6800k only has 28 lanes so that won't work. You need a 40 lane CPU such as the i7-6900k.

Now mind you the NVME drives can run off the motherboard's PCIe lanes and really have very minimal if any performance loss.
 
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carlosriosness

carlosriosness

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thats where my confusion is. i know the cpu has 40 lanes. but it sounds like you are saying the motherboard gives you more pcie lanes? i know some boards have plx chips which artificially can add lanes (with minimal latency). but i guess what does "you can run them off the motherboards pcie lanes" really mean? isnt the CPU really what counts when it comes to lanes?

my thought process. i have 40 lanes. 16 for gpu 1, 16 for gpu 2, 4 for nvme 1 and 4 for nvme 2 = 40.

im not sure if anything else eats up lanes (like built in wifi, audio, nic, etc)

i believe many mobos, when you have a 3rd card inserted into a pcie slot, will drop the 2nd card into 8x. even if you havent reached 40 lanes (im i wrong? i hope i am).

i ask that because 1 nvme would be in the on board slot, but the 2nd would need to be in a pcie adapter.


btw, i was thinking of picking up a 5830k (if i could find one used). or a 6850k if i find it on sale.

 
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Rogue Leader

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With a 40 lane CPU 3 cards would work as x16/x16/x8 so you have nothing to worry about there, now since your drive would only work at x4 as long as the M.2 slot is configured to use CPU PCIe lanes the other 4 will go there, otherwise the boards PCIe lanes will take over.
 
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Dragos Manea

Dragos Manea

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Usually add-ons cards are using motehrboard pcie lanes, wi-fi card or nvme and so on are using motherboard lanes by default, and GPUs are using cpu lanes by default and i dont think you can change that because i tried to set my videocard on 8x but i never got the options to switch my other pcie devices to cpu lanes. Long story short any peripheral or storage card is using motherbaord lanes, cpu lanes are used only by important hardware like videocards, or videoprocessing cards or anything that needs a fast data transfer and low latency (storage isnt one of it).
 
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Rogue Leader

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It depends on the slot you use. The motherboard's manual will tell you. In his board's case there are 4 GPU slots and all 4 connect to the CPU, so if you put ANY card in those slots they will use lanes connected to the CPU. the slots are hard wired, there is no way for it to decide what lanes to use depending on device.

Its most likely his M.2 slot uses the chipset's PCIe lanes, not the CPU. Also he should just put his PCIe SSD into one of the non GPU slots, because it will run at x4 anyway and he doesn't need to worry about this issue, theres no difference in performance of the drives.
 
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carlosriosness

carlosriosness

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ok, i was under the impression any pcie connection was a cpu one. so i assumed the m.2 x4 slot was 4 of the 40 cpu lanes. but your saying, some motherboards' m.2 x4 slots are not cpu lanes.

thank you both for the tips. still a bit confused. but im getting there. haha.
 
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