Let us know your results jchychot.  I really want to get my cards to 16x/16x. They are 500 series, so I need all the help I can get.  I'm going to upgrade with the 800 series when they are released.

rchapman45
Same here zildjian, Eleet says 8x and 16x supported. Seems these boards are having a good bit of issues with PCIe, M.2 etc. I've always heard buy something after it is out a while and has hardware/software/driver bugs worked out instead of being a guinea pig. It is my first experience with so many things not working as stated. The cpu OC thing is really disappointing to me. When EIST is disabled it does not matter if the multiplier is set to 41+ it will only run up to 4.0gHz. Disabling EIST should not effect how far the frequency can be set, it should just run at that multiplier setting at all times and not step up and down as the EIST does. My Z77 Sabertooth worked like a charm with the cpu OC and PCIe slot assignment/lane usage. Oh well, right. MAYBE it will get worked out

I know what you mean chapman...  I don't usually upgrade right off the rip when a new chipset comes out, but my ssd failed on my Z68, so I decided to use it as an excuse to take the plunge.  It is pretty frustrating. I built a rig for a friend of mine a few months back with the Z87 Classy and it was solid as a rock, so I figured the Z97 was going to be even more tweaked in since it's basically the same board.
 
I'm very confident that EVGA will fix the issue since the board would be a total fail without 16x/16x.  They will take care of us in one way or another in the end.  Lets be patient and hope it's an easy fix that can be taken care of with a BIOS update, b/c I do not feel like RMA'ing the board.  I really like it....  well except for this issue.

jotole
Hi guys,
Sorry for my English is not my native language. I have the same problem as peers, in my case I'm taking a Sli GTX Titan in pci 1 and 4. And both are 8x and 16x respectively.The two Gen 3.
The motherboard seems awesome, I have had many plates all platforms and I'm really happy with the Z97 classified, now I have a 4770k I am able to push to 4.9 Ghz. But I maintain temperature at 4.8 Ghz. and a Corsair Force GT 2133 @ 2400 Mhz
See if EVGA gives the solution soon because this time I think it's a great job this motherboard.
I follow this thread
regards

Hey jotole....  Welcome to the 8x Club!!!! 
 
We need everyone with this issue to post here!!!  The more folks w/ this issue, The more attention it will receive and the quicker it will be resolved.

We just got through testing out the PCIe lanes on a z97 Classified. We are also seeing in the BIOS with video cards in slots 1 and 4 that the BIOS is reporting the lanes wrong. When running GPUz, it reports both slots at 16x with a card in each slot. So, it appears to be functioning correctly and the BIOS is simply reporting the lanes incorrectly. I've passed this on to the Product Management to further investigate what's causing the BIOS to report incorrectly.

EVGATech_JaesonW
We just got through testing out the PCIe lanes on a z97 Classified. We are also seeing in the BIOS with video cards in slots 1 and 4 that the BIOS is reporting the lanes wrong. When running GPUz, it reports both slots at 16x with a card in each slot. So, it appears to be functioning correctly and the BIOS is simply reporting the lanes incorrectly. I've passed this on to the Product Management to further investigate what's causing the BIOS to report incorrectly.

Hi Jaeson,
That version Gpu-z using?, Because I show you the values ​​I get 16x 8x ..
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Regards

ty_ger07
Jotole, is that in GPU-Z after you clicked the "?" to the right of the lane information? Otherwise, the lanes will tend to drop down to 8x when idle. Also note that GPU-Z may not be able to take advantage of SLI, so one card may still stick in 8x even after clicking on the "?".

Hello ty_ger07,
I know, but if both are usually shown at 16x or so has been on other platforms.
Leave a picture of GPU-z reder test, it looks like there is a 16x and one at 8x.
 

regards
 

What are you talking about regarding 'not running at 4600 MHz steadily'? How unsteady is it? Please note that Intel Speedstep and C enhanced halt states drops the CPU frequency and voltage when not under heavy load. If that is what is annoying you, disable those power saving features in the BIOS. But I don't know why you would want your CPU running flat out wasting power and making heat when there is no heavy load which is requiring that performance.

Hey Jaeson.  When I run the render test in gpuz I get:
PCI-E 2.0x16 @ x8 2.0
PCI-E 1.1x16 @ x16 1.1
 
I'm going to try moving slots like jchychot and see what happens.
 
Edit:  Nevermind...  I can't do that.  The gpu's I have a have a curved fan shroud so I am unable to use slots 2 & 4...  It has to work in slots 1 & 4 for me.

@rchapman45 you should do some more research on OCing you have some thing that is reducing the speeds when its idle, C state or over volt protection or some thing. Turning the turbo off is just part of it.
 

I tried slot 2 and slot 4 and mine run 16x/16x. To me that tells me something is wrong with the board cause slot one is primary and is the only one that runs off the cpu, the others are off the PLX which is not really the same as the cpu. I have read alot in the last few days about all this stuff. 

jskibb

rchapman45
I tried slot 2 and slot 4 and mine run 16x/16x. To me that tells me something is wrong with the board cause slot one is primary and is the only one that runs off the cpu, the others are off the PLX which is not really the same as the cpu. I have read alot in the last few days about all this stuff. 

There isn't anything wrong with the board. If you run a single card it is designed to be best in slot one. If you run 2 then you have to use slots 2 and 4 because of how the PCI-Express lanes are being shared in order to achieve x16/x16. This has been reproduced several times for different users that I have found so it's how the board was designed.

Is not that what is shown here.
 
http://www.evga.com/suppo.../152-HR-E979-Part1.pdf
 
PCI-E Lane Distribution

PE1 – x16 (x8 if PE2 is used)

PE2 – x16 (x8 if PE3 is used)

PE3 – x8

PE4 – x16 (x8 if PE6 is used)

PE5 – x1

PE6 – x8

jotole

jskibb

rchapman45
I tried slot 2 and slot 4 and mine run 16x/16x. To me that tells me something is wrong with the board cause slot one is primary and is the only one that runs off the cpu, the others are off the PLX which is not really the same as the cpu. I have read alot in the last few days about all this stuff. 

There isn't anything wrong with the board. If you run a single card it is designed to be best in slot one. If you run 2 then you have to use slots 2 and 4 because of how the PCI-Express lanes are being shared in order to achieve x16/x16. This has been reproduced several times for different users that I have found so it's how the board was designed.

Is not that what is shown here.
 

 
PCI-E Lane Distribution

PE1 – x16 (x8 if PE2 is used)

PE2 – x16 (x8 if PE3 is used)

PE3 – x8

PE4 – x16 (x8 if PE6 is used)

PE5 – x1

PE6 – x8

May be a typo? Regardless, the board does run 2 cards at 16x (which is rare for motherboards) if using slots 2 and 4. Not sure why anyone cares which 2 are used as long as it runs them both at 16x.

rludwic
If you want another confirmation other than Gpu-z, you can use Nvidia control panel and in the lower left corner a link to system info and it will report on your cards. Don't mean to just bust in but thought I'd help. I'm still coin flipping on the Z97 or waiting for X99. I saw EVGA's board (X99) picture from Computex.  I know these guys are getting ready. As far as the bios issue goes, geez I must have been through 10 of them to fix little bugs but my old Classy 760 is still running very well for close to five years. Glad to see they mostly have it right with this new Z97 Classy. Sounds like just a minor bug. Good to see EVGA got their ducks in a row again. I was worrying I might have to move over to that other brand.
 
 

Hello rludwic,
That's even worse, telling me they are both at 8x.
Now, I do not consider that to be as severe as to return the motherboard or angry with Evga failure.
I'm using EVGA X58 Classified since, I've had the SR-2, and some more ancient still ....
I have a EVGA Classified 1500 and 1300 on a second computer. And I know you really do things right.
The X79 classified jumped me, because I really worked very badly, so I had a MSI Big Bang, definitely a great board.
But this time I wanted to give another chance evga my beloved, and I am really happy with the motherboard. As there are details that polish.
This should be a read error somewhere and hope to be fixed soon. But the error exists and they should know.
 

Hopper64
The only reason I was thinking of using 1 and 4 is simply more air flow to the top video card.
 

 
Exactly
Because even if the Gpu's water cooled, the level of Oc working very grateful to increased ventilation in the rear, because the VRM is very hot.
 

 

rchapman45
I moved mine to S1 and S4 and are both at 16x. But as said by myself and a few others, the guide states S1 and S4 for dual cards.

You moved them to slot 2 and slot 4 you mean?

I cannot put my cards in slots 2 & 4... They are the 560ti 448 core classifieds which actually take up about 2.5 slots. It needs to work in slots 1 & 4 for me my other 2 options are to replace my vid cards or get a different MB.

Anyway... Moral of this story...

It needs to work in slots 1 & 4 as it says it will.