athanassiosmakriniotis
Dear EVGA Fans,
On my 4SLI configuration and using PCI Ex Lanes  only for Graphics, I am Running x8 - x8 - x16 - x8  for each respective
PCI Ex 3 Lane, Is the Card No3 Running x16 not the one sitting on the No.1 slot, should I remove monitor HDMI Cable to the
No3 Card? 
Is it true that only No1 card / Slot  delivers Video?
 

For this board it should be 8 - 16 - 8 - 8.  This is normal and is a byproduct of PLX replicated lane routing.  As for where to plug in your monitor, it is completely irrelevant, it will not effect anything.  No it is not true that only slot 1 delivers video.  But there is ZERO impact on performance from plugging your monitor into a different card.  They are all part of the same SLI setup.

Dear DaveB,
Thank you much for your valuable reply.

EVGA,
 
I am attempting to post an update in this thread; however, have been getting this error message for days:
 
An unexpected error occurred and logged. Please try again later.
 
Can you please fix this issue so further posts can be made for the EVGA Community.
 
Thank you.
 

Dave B and EVGA, 
 
It appears that I am unable to insert .jpg's in this post for some reason and have included them as attachments instead.
 
Samsung 950 Pro M.2 Performance Issues.
 
I finally added the Samsung 950 Pro 512 M.2 drive using a Lycom DT-120 M.2 PCIe adapter card.  I had installed the M.2 to all 3 of the following positions below with the BIOS reflected PCIe Speed:
 
PE1 - GPU1 (8x)                PE1 - GPU1 (8x)                    PE1 - GPU1 (8x)
PE2 - empty                        PE2 - SSD (4x)                    PE2 - empty
PE3 - SSD (4x)                    PE3 – empty                       PE3 - empty
PE4 - GPU2 (16x)              PE4 - GPU2 (16x)                PE4 - GPU2 (8x)
PE5 - empty                        PE5 – empty                       PE5 - empty
PE6 - empty                        PE6 – empty                       PE6 - SSD (4x)
 
ALL THREE CONFIGURATIONS give me the same 836 MB/S speed which is about 1/3 the 2500 MBP/S.  (Attachment 1) 
 
I am unable to run this M.2 device anywhere near it’s rated max speed.  As you can see in the next picture, my PCIe Slot Link Speed is only 2.5 Gbps out of 10 Gbps and I am unclear as to why.  (Attachment 2) 
 
I have the most current firmware for the 950 Pro.  (Attachment 3)
 
I was able install the M.2 with a few issues - Boot and Windows Surround problems during the course of troubleshooting (I still am experiencing cold boot problems as the PC will not boot on the first try and has to be reset).  Windows 10 installed the driver and in the course of troubleshooting.  I also tried Samsung’s NVM Express Driver 1.1 which did not result in any performance changes.
 
My motherboard BIOS is 2.02 and since I am not using this M.2 for a OS Boot drive, I do not believe I need to update the BIOS to 2.04 (Supports M.2 drives for OS installation).  Additionally, in the current 2.02 BIOS Front Page Menu, the M.2 is displayed in the PCIe Slots (PE 2, 3 and 6) as GEN 3 and 4X.
 
It had occurred to me that perhaps it was the Lycom DT-120 that was not allowing me the full speed but I had done extensive research and the DT-120 PCIe card is reviewed multiple times as supporting the 950 Pro with no issues.
 
I had also dug into the BIOS to see if I had missed a setting.  I even tried switching Boot Mode Select from Legacy to UEFI; however, when I did this I was unable to Boot the PC and had to clear the CMOS – which killed a RAID Array.
 
I am not going to move my top graphics card from PE1 to a PE2 and PE4 configuration to try to see if putting the 950 Pro in PE1 would make a difference as I am not stacking my GTX 980ti’s due to heat concerns.  I should not have to do this anyways as I should be getting 10 Gpbs in either PE2 or PE3 which Dave pointed out were PLX Gen 3 (Post #4 and #10).
 
So this is where I am currently at and I am asking EVGA and the good EVGA Community for assistance in getting my M.2 drive running at least near full speed.  Hopefully it is a setting in the BIOS that I am missing, a driver or something similar.  As it is now, I have a slightly faster M.2 Drive over a SATA SSD and obviously disappointed in the poor performance.  If this board is not capable of running the M.2 drive near it’s rated speed, that is ok and I just need to know to return the M.2.
 
Finally, one specific question I have for EVGA is – Has EVGA physically tested a 950 Pro with a Lycom DT-120 PCIe Adapter Card on the Z97 Classified with two video cards configured like mine and what were the results?
 
Thank you very much in advance.
 
 

That is strange.  Strictly speaking, everything should be working as intended at this point.  Have you manually set the PCIE speed for the slot the SSD is in to Gen3, I know it is detecting as that, but that is a setting it can't hurt to try as it sounds like you have a false positive somewhere.
Also, to rule out some conflict with the PLX, can you try the SSD on the top slot?
Lastly I have not tested that combo, nor do I have the adapter here to test with.  I can check with our engineers to see if they have, but I have not nor has anyone else I know personally.  I was advising based off of specs and how things SHOULD work.

EVGATech_DaveB
That is strange.  Strictly speaking, everything should be working as intended at this point.  Have you manually set the PCIE speed for the slot the SSD is in to Gen3, I know it is detecting as that, but that is a setting it can't hurt to try as it sounds like you have a false positive somewhere.
Also, to rule out some conflict with the PLX, can you try the SSD on the top slot?
Lastly I have not tested that combo, nor do I have the adapter here to test with.  I can check with our engineers to see if they have, but I have not nor has anyone else I know personally.  I was advising based off of specs and how things SHOULD work.

Not to butt in here but I have only ONE GPU and I can't get it to run any faster than his numbers either . I have Mine set up as follows.
 
Slot 1 Empty
 
Slot 2 970 FTW+
 
Slot 3 EMPTY
 
M.2 is in LAST Slot in Adapter and will only get 4X 
 
I was very excited to get the M.2 but only getting 1/4th of its speed has been quite the Bummer. 

Can both of you try it in the top slot and see if you have the same speed issues, also make sure the PCIE is set to Gen3 manually in BIOS as well?
That is the only Gen3 slot that is not run by a PLX chip, I am thinking this might be a issue form that.  Either way that will be more information I can send to the engineers.

Also, anyone here have a similar issue with a different drive, or has a different drive that is working as intended here?

Dave B and EVGA,
 
I would first like to thank Nick for his valuable input which verifies that there is an issue with the implementation of M.2 drives as recommended by EVGA.
 
I neglected to mention that as part of the trouble-shooting procedures, I did force Gen 3 for the PCIe slots in the BIOS which resulted in no change to the M.2 speeds.
 
The good news is that I installed the M.2 drive in PE1 as suggested by Dave and the results were outstanding!  My link speed is now 10Gbps and my Sequential Read speed is 2600 MB/S.  This is even slightly better than the M.2 drives rated speed.  (Attachment 1 and 2)  Thoughts on this Dave, EVGA?
 
I have now installed my GTX 980ti’s in PE2 and PE4 for the time being and I am monitoring the card’s temperatures.  I am getting 16x/16x as expected instead of 8x/16x which will be unnoticeable but it is nice to have the max speed possible.  The plastic fan shroud of my top video card was literally in direct contact with the metal backplate of the bottom video card.  These backplates get EXTREMELY hot and will literally burn you when they are running at full load.  I unscrewed the mounting brackets for both cards allowing the bottom video card to hang a bit lower and rigged the top video card to raise it slightly.  This allows about 3/8 inch clearance between the two cards.  Not optimum of course but better.  If you are water-cooling two video cards, you will not have this issue.  Since I am not moving the computer around, this should be ok but it is certainly a bit more strain on the PCIe slots.
 
As a test run, my temperatures of the video cards at idle (Celsius) are 56 top/40 bottom.  Gaming is 83 top which is the max and 59 bottom.  Obviously a large difference between the two due to the lack of proper spacing between the cards and this is with a 140mm case panel fan blowing on the cards.  In addition, I am still experiencing boot problems at times where the PC will not boot the first try as it is looking for a boot drive and resetting the PC allows it to boot the second time.
 
I will continue to monitor and weigh whether this M.2 drive is worth the increase of GPU temperatures over the SSD RAID array already in this computer as well as the boot problem.  For my current configuration, is there any way PE2, PE3 or PE6 PCIe slot can run the M.2 at full speed...10Gbps...with maybe a BIOS update?
       
In closing, please excuse me for being somewhat forward but from a customer’s perspective, it seems like I was troubleshooting EVGA’s product for EVGA.  I purchased the M.2 drive as a result of the information provided by EVGA which appears to have been incorrect and one would think that information would be passed by EVGA engineers to their customers instead of the other way around.  EVGA has many more resources with their own motherboards, power supplies, video cards, etc. than a customer and certainly should have the most knowledge of their own products.  Perhaps erroneously, I was envisioning a lab at EVGA to trouble-shoot hardware and products like my company’s IT department.  As customers of products and services themselves, I’m confident that this is understandable by EVGA.  Again, just honest feedback from a loyal customer.
 
I would like to sincerely thank Dave for his assistance in troubleshooting as well as his promptness in his replies.  I will provide any important updates/issues to this setup if they should arise to assist my fellow EVGA fans.
 
Thank you again EVGA!

Hello,
I do not think you are too forward, and I think what you said has merit, is reasonable, and frankly many would feel that way as well.  For what it's worth, which may not be much, this is part of why I write the manuals personally, try to get as much feedback as possible, and spend a lot of time in the forums.  There are things we could do better, and with ANY company, the end users will find things that the engineers did not, due to how things work.  Also, NVME wasn't really a thing yet when this board was released, so we have really moved forward onto things that would have never been tested before the board was released.  Again, that is part of why I am here, to help out, but to also see where we could improve and get that back to the engineers, so we can fix problems we have now, and see trends, and other issues so we can fix other problems BEFORE product releases in the future.  Yes you were instrumental in finding this, and I am sorry your performance was THE issue, but I am glad you spent the time to find it with me, and I will work with the engineers to see what we can do for it.
 
Now for the more technical side of it.
OK, that's the speed we are looking for.  Now the only real difference between this slot and the others is that it does NOT share lanes that are replicated from the PLX chip.  So my concern is that the entire issue stems from PLX.  Now that being said, it might be possible to fix this with a BIOS update, and I will contact the BIOS team after I am done with this post.  Also, this makes me concerned that the same thing can happen on Z170 Classified as it is the same root, on that platform it would be less impactful though as the PCH is Gen3.  
 
Now for your GPUs, the temps are about what I would expect.  Also, your temps are in NO WAY a danger, 83 is well below the limit of 92c.  I would not be concerned with that temp.  Now that being said, you will reduce your theoretical  throughput, but in the end I doubt you will see MUCH difference (you can test before and after to see how much real world difference it makes, benchmarks show it WAY more than games) you can try the cards in Slots 3 and 6 or even 2 and 6, if you go 2 and 6 you can use the 3 way bridge as well, looks good and keeps things spaced out, which will bring your temps down.
 
I still have this thread subbed, so I will see updates on it and further questions as well.