MSI Z68A-GD80-G3, Dual x16?

LastVampyer

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Hey guys,

I have an Asus P8Z68-V PRO board and want to get another GTX 580 but if I do, the board will only run in x8 mode. So I saw the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 which says it has next gen PCIe slots but doesn't really say if it will run two cards in x16 or x8 :heink:

Does anyone have this board or know if it will run dual x16?

Thanks
 
The PCIe 3.0 won't help, the GTX 580 is PCIe 2.1. Also the difference between x8/x8 on a GTX 580 is negligible and the NF200 adds latency so the gains are coupled with losses.

The Gigabyte UD7 series use the NF200 and are x16/x16 but funneled into the 16 lanes of the Sandy Bridge. It will be a L-o-n-g-t-i-m-e before a GPU saturates the x16 PCIe 2.x and many years before the PCIe 3.0 x16 is filled.

BTW - you'll need an Ivy Bridge CPU to use PCIe 3.0 and a compliant PCIe 3.0 GPU. The forthcoming SB-E/LGA 2011 will offer 32 lanes or x16/x6. Also, the 'GEN3' referes to the Switch, ANY LGA 1155 can and will run the first GPU {primary} at PCIe 2.0 speeds with Sandy Bridge and PCIe 3.0 with Ivy Bridge. The 'switch' will allow the 2nd or 3rd or etc GPU to run at the PCIe 3.0 speeds.

Z68A-GD80 (G3) is x16 or x8/x8 SLI/CF and the PCIe 3.0 'switch' with run the GTX 580 in PCIe 2.0 speeds.
 

LastVampyer

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Well if there's no (or very little) difference between the two then I will just stick with what I have and run in dual x8.

Thanks for the reply :)