I am in the planning phases of building my next gaming machine and I want it to be a power house.
My question is regarding the purchase of a motherboard with at least two or three slots for the PCI-E x 16 because I am buying one ATI video care with the Radeon HD 5970 GPU, 2 GB. At a later time, I may buy another identical card and run both cards in crossfire.
What I don’t under stand, are the descriptions and here are 3 examples from my search on Newegg.
• 3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (at x16/x8/x8 or x16/x16/x1 mode)
• 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8 / x8 mode)
• 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2)
2 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2)
Note: The PCIEX8_1 and PCIEX8_2 slots share bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots respectively. When PCIEX8_1 is populated with an expansion card, the PCIEX16_1 slot will operate at up to x8 mode; when PCIEX8_2 is populated with an expansion card, the PC IEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
I am not clear what to look for in PCI Express x 16 slots so that I have the best performance with the high-graphics card that I mentioned above.
Can two slots run at x16/x16? Is this the optimal configuration for future upgrades with a 2nd video card in crossfire?
Thanks,
Jim
My question is regarding the purchase of a motherboard with at least two or three slots for the PCI-E x 16 because I am buying one ATI video care with the Radeon HD 5970 GPU, 2 GB. At a later time, I may buy another identical card and run both cards in crossfire.
What I don’t under stand, are the descriptions and here are 3 examples from my search on Newegg.
• 3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (at x16/x8/x8 or x16/x16/x1 mode)
• 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8 / x8 mode)
• 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2)
2 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2)
Note: The PCIEX8_1 and PCIEX8_2 slots share bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots respectively. When PCIEX8_1 is populated with an expansion card, the PCIEX16_1 slot will operate at up to x8 mode; when PCIEX8_2 is populated with an expansion card, the PC IEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
I am not clear what to look for in PCI Express x 16 slots so that I have the best performance with the high-graphics card that I mentioned above.
Can two slots run at x16/x16? Is this the optimal configuration for future upgrades with a 2nd video card in crossfire?
Thanks,
Jim