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BreakPoint12
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2017/09/14 03:43:26 (permalink)
As the title implies, I'm looking into building a new PC for gaming and folding. I fell in love with the ASRock Z270 SuperCarrier the moment I saw it. It has 4 full length reinforced PCIe slots, but allows me to run a 7700K which is much cheaper than an enthusiast CPU on X99 and the like. I'm aware that it pulls this off having this many PCIe lanes using an onboard PEX 8747 which switches 32 lanes from the slots to the CPU's 16 lanes, but the spec sheet claims it can run all 4 slots at 8x simultaneously. My question is how much performance loss would there be for 4 GTX 1070s all folding at the same time?



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    Chris21010
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/14 06:35:42 (permalink)
    There is typically very little loss going from x16 to x8 on pcie gen 3. But using a chip to extend the number of lanes is not something anyone here will be able to offer performance comparisons on as these are few and far between. I personally would say go for it. If performance loss is too high with 4 gpu's you can always go back to 3.


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    bcavnaugh
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/14 09:51:07 (permalink)
    Welcome to the Forum BreakPoint12
    For Gaming and Folding you really should go with an X99 with 4 Graphics Cards.
    Between X8 Gen3 and X16 Gen3 you really will not see any real Folding Performance difference with 4 Graphics Cards.
    You could set the first 2 Cards with an HB SLI Bridge for Gaming when needed as well, you must have X8 for Each Card to enable SLI.
     
    post edited by bcavnaugh - 2017/09/14 09:55:09

    Associate Code: 9E88QK5L7811G3H


     
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    JosephL
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/14 11:09:28 (permalink)
    I recommend this for some solid testing that has been done on x8 vs. x16 performance differences. It is a negligible difference:
     
    https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2488-pci-e-3-x8-vs-x16-performance-impact-on-gpus
     

    If you have a moment, please rate my service. We appreciate the feedback!
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    Ranmacanada
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/14 17:15:11 (permalink)
    Go x99 and get a xeon ES.  They're cheap.  Or just get a regular 4 core Xeon.  They can be found used on fleabay for pretty cheap.  40 pcie lanes of goodness and vt-d and other good stuff.  

     

    ASUS TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI)
    AMD Ryzen 2700
    Fold for the CURE!
    EVGA 1080 FTW
    EVGA 1080Ti Hybrid

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    BreakPoint12
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/14 18:48:41 (permalink)
    Thanks for the replies everyone. After much ruminating, I concluded that this board would not work for folding with 4 cards. My single 1070 saturates %40 of my PCIe 3.0 x16 slot. That equates to %80 of an x8 slot or 6 lanes of constant usage. The Kaby Lake CPU for this board only has 16 lanes regardless of the PLX chip switching lanes from the slots.
     
    I was looking at x99 boards before, but the i7 CPUs for them are basically overpriced Ryzen 5 equivalents at this point. I did not realize that they support xeon procs. I'll be looking into this all night.


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    Ranmacanada
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/14 19:19:13 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby BreakPoint12 2017/09/20 06:30:36
    If you want to stick with 4 cores for the cheap, E5-1620v4 3.5 gig with a max turbo of 3.8.  https://ark.intel.com/products/92991/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1620-v4-10M-Cache-3_50-GHz Retail is about $310.00.  If you want to go with an ES processor (engineering sample), well that's when you go on Ebay and you can get 10-12 core monsters (no warranty but sky's the limit).  Though since you'll be gaming you might want a faster single core, as blah blah blah single core is better.  Xeons do not overclock though, but it will be rock solid.

     

    ASUS TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI)
    AMD Ryzen 2700
    Fold for the CURE!
    EVGA 1080 FTW
    EVGA 1080Ti Hybrid

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    BreakPoint12
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/17 13:34:38 (permalink)
    It's done. I've ordered an EVGA X99 Classified and an i7-5960X. Now to part out my current build to help pay for the cards. I decided to start with 2 GTX 1080 FE's since they're actually available for MSRP new and blower coolers work better than custom when the cards are back to back. Thanks for the advice everyone.


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    QuintLeo
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/19 23:53:41 (permalink)
    Be carefull on blower cards - the ones with DVI connectors like the ASUS 1070 and 1080 "Turbo" models have very restricted airflow and poor cooling.
    The ASUS 1080ti "Turbo" and anything should work a lot better - but that particular model seems to be almost the ONLY current NVidia card in the 1070/1080/1080ti range that does not have a DVI connector.
     
     You also need a LOT of airflow into the "air intake" part of the card when they are that crowded together, even on blower-type cards.
     
     

    Now that vorsholk has stopped his abuse, I'm returning to folding.
     I no longer MOO due to abuses by certain "whales" in the Gridcoin community - so I now work the Distributed.net project directly again.
     
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    BreakPoint12
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    Re: Question about Potential Motherboard 2017/09/20 06:36:36 (permalink)
    I am already aware that the reference style blower coolers run toasty with the stock fan curves, so you basically have to balance how loud vs how cool you want to run them. I snagged an EVGA hybrid 1080 for $540 off eBay.
     
    Due to mining, a lot of cards were going at or above MSRP used. That's why I had picked 1080 FE's originally. It's good to see order and sense return to the used market.
    post edited by BreakPoint12 - 2017/09/20 09:12:36


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