You made me have to go look at the EVGA news section, I didn't realise they had info out now for the Z390 Dark - https://www.evga.com/articles/01260/evga-z390-motherboard/ as it is not yet listed on the products page
 
For a look at how Intel has the Z390 platform working

 
So right off for SLI you do not have the 2 x16 PCIe lanes for SLI like you do with the X299 platform. You would have to do some research (information will be lacking at this time) to see how things play out with your cards in NVlink and 16x -v- 8x. Either Gamers Nexus or Jay's two Cents.
 
You also will be limited to the 2 DIMM slots = dual channel versus the quad channel of your X299
 
I will admit though, for someone looking to running 16-32gb memory and only going with a single GPU the Z390 Dark does look good

Thanks for the reply.

I also was worried about pcie bottleneck on the z390 platform but isnt that what NVLink is supposed to alleviate? My understanding is that all communication between gpus will be made via NVLink, not pcie.

I subscribe to both GamersNexus and Jay. I've watched their videos on RTX 2080Ti SLI. They are both using X299 but they dont say why. Z390 boards are just coming out, the dark hasn’t even been released yet. I would have linked the news but lack permissions on EVGA forums until I’ve posted 10 times.

So far I cant find a definitive source as to if there will be a bottleneck on the Z390 in SLI.

I have no need for 4 DIMMS, so that doesnt bother me.

I have been following Intel’s commision of the Principled Technology report. It’s completely deceptive but luckily be have reviewers like Steve and Jay that can come out and challenge the results even though they cant publish their own benchmarks until the 19th of October.

Even so, I would still be interested in either a 9900K for the Z390 or 9980XE for the X299.

Perhaps more info will be available for gaming with “workstation” class chips in the future. I’ve been combing the usual suspects videos (GN,Jay,Linus,Paul’s HW, HW Unboxed, Bitwit, ect) and cant find any info other than an occasional “some games may get confused by the high core count” disclaimer. The exception I found was with Kyle from Bitwit in his RTX 2080Ti video. He was benching 2 Founders edition cards to report scaling. He was almost completely unable to get them to both work in GTA V. No problems reported in that game with a single GPU though. This unplayability was aldo related to muliple GPU’s and not high core count of his processor. He was running an 8700K on a Z370 platform in his bench.

So I guess i’m looking for 2 answers.

1. Will NVLink allieviate pcie bottleneck on the Z390 platform so that it will perform and scale equivalent to that of the X299? RTX 2080TI scaling seems to vary between 30-60% on average. I’m shooting for 4K at 144 Hz.

2. Will gaming on a 18 core processor be buggy and just an all around pain to troubleshoot and fix?


Thank you

Is there some evidence as to gaming performance difference on:
 
Z390 platform 9900K at 5GHz running x16 and x8 in SLI
vs 
X299 with a 9980XE at 4.4GHz running x16 and x16 in SLI

Have you thought about the i7-9800X or i9-9900X instead of the i9-9980XE? Either of those chips will keep you on the X299 platform without having to worry about the super high core count issues or the possibility of PCIE bottlenecks. Granted without an overclock the single core performance won't be as good as the i9-9900k but you won't have the massive power draw issues (and probably thermal throttling) of the i9-9980XE.

ksuaviator
Both Z390 and X299 are limited to 1x16 or 2x8?
 

X299 (with certain CPU's) will support x16 + x16
Z390 can't do x16 + x16

Doomed83

ksuaviator
Both Z390 and X299 are limited to 1x16 or 2x8?
 

X299 (with certain CPU's) will support x16 + x16
Z390 can't do x16 + x16

Thank you
 
I haven't thought about the 9800x or 9900x. I have a 1600W T2 from EVGA so power draw shouldn't be an issue.
 
I'll take a look at those models, thanks!
 
 

During my research I found this excellent article from Gamers Nexus
 
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3366-nvlink-benchmark-rtx-2080-ti-pcie-bandwidth-x16-vs-x8
 
Compares x16/x16 (X299) to x16/x8 (Z370 and presumably Z390 as well for that matter)
 
Performance advantage of x16/x16 is only 1.7% 
 
Here's a link to the video for anyone comparing platforms
https://youtu.be/84OkcOYmXOk?t=260

ksuaviator
Welp now I'm thoroughly confusing myself because here's a reference from Gamer's Nexus stating that you can only use lanes from the CPU for your GPUs. So even though the Z390 chipset provides up to 24 additional pcie lanes, none may be used for graphics. Those are reserved for the CPU pcie lanes only, therefore if your chip only has 16 lanes and you're running SLI, it must be x8/x8. This results in a 16% decrease in performance according to the above video (at least in ashes of the singularity)
 
https://youtu.be/JVihgHoy8Sg?t=80

TY for that last link, the first part of the video on the CPU / PCH was interesting. I had a decent grasp of how all that worked but still picked up more insight.
I think part of what you are missing is that as far as requirements for SLI the minimum is 8 lanes. The PCH can only hand out 4 lanes at a time and what I gathered they cannot band them together - probably by Intel design. Also note that the interlink between the PCH and the CPU is the DMI and that is only a 4 lane link.
 
So for you - if you want the ultimate most (insert over blown explicit here) out of an SLI / NVLink setup then you will want something that can do a full x16 - x16 setup = a full 44+ lanes and an CPU with enough cores and speed to keep them fed.
 
I like the looks of the new Z390 and think if you are just looking at a single GPU or a pair of standard 1080 GPU's in SLI it will be good to go. For anything more then you are looking at X299

I totally agree. In fact, Gamers Nexus updated their youtube when Steve made the comment about Z370 being x16/x8. In the pinned comment, Gamers Nexus corrected the Z370 chipset to only x8/x8 when in SLI
 
I think if I'm spending the money on another 2080Ti FTW3, I don't want the 16% performance decrease by dropping to x8/x8.
 
Principled Technology has the 9900K beating the 9900X by 26% in CS:GO... I'm really not sure how that could be as the base clock is 3.6MHz vs 3.5MHz. The turbo boost is 5MHz in the K model and 4.4MHz in the X series. I am anxious to see more data after the review embargo ends on the 19th of October.
 

First I thought Z390 is great.
Now I can't suggest Z390 any more.
 
Z390 will cost 550+300$ motherboard.
X299 will cost little more. But I think customers should buy X299 Micro 2 + i9-9820X.
That's deal. My target would be model with 800$ price on discount...
 
But with EVGA Motherboard best fit somehow Heatkiller IV Pro blocks.
With ASUS better EKWB.
 
Between i9-9900K and i9-9800X, definitely X.
Special for X99 owners, who could save on memory some price.
I think 2666MHz will not bottleneck X299 and new series.