Which Z87 Motherboards have the PLX card?

[havok2191]

So far I've seen the Z87 Deluxe, XPower, Z87X-OC Force, ROG Maximus VI Extreme, G1 Sniper 5, Extreme9 from the Anandtech preview. Will this influence your decision?

[NVgamer]

PLX easily help my decision, avoid it.  if you need bandwidth maybe you should rethink platforms but am sure those z87 boards sure look all flashy :) 

[havok2191]

I mean PLX does add some additional delay. I fully agree with that. I would like to know why you are opposed to PLX cards? Is it just because of that? Does it promote micro-stuttering?

[txus.palacios]

8x/8x is perfectly fine for SLI, the only reason to need a PLX chip would be tri-SLI, but, just why would you use more than 2 cards on a standard build?

[Kajornkeat]

From what I know, PLX doesn't increase your bandwidth. It's more like manage your traffic so you will be bottlenecked by the cpu itself when you add 3rd of 4th GPU to your system. For z87 platform, dual graphic is pretty much the most you can do. You still need that bandwidth for other stuffs too (sata, usb). For me personally, any good looking mid range motherboard will be fine. Not a hardcore overclocker. Also, Motherboard that has PLX chip on them usually cost you a lot  :D

[DontUSASme]

Txus said it best. PLX is only good for multi-way CrossfireX/SLI. :)

[djGrrr]

Txus said it best. PLX is only good for multi-way CrossfireX/SLI. :)

It's not "only good" for multi-way CrossfireX/SLI. Its also very good if you have additional add-in cards. Like if you have Dual SLI/Crossfire and a x8 RAID card, the PLX chips allow you to actually use the 16 lanes from the CPU effectively. No video card is going to come even close to using the bandwidth of x8 3.0, so if you have 2 cards in SLI/Crossfire there is still a tonne of bandwidth left over that can't be used unless you have these PLX chips.

[havok2191]

Ah I see, I don't think I plan on doing external audio or anything like that so the only thing that will be taking up the PCI-E slots are GPUs. I guess I'll stick with a normal board that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. 

[djGrrr]

Ah I see, I don't think I plan on doing external audio or anything like that so the only thing that will be taking up the PCI-E slots are GPUs. I guess I'll stick with a normal board that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. 

Well to be clear, external audio does not need any PLX chips anyhow, as the x1 slots on the motherboards come from the chipset, and not the cpu :) the plx chips are only needed if you are going to want to connect more than 2 high bandwidth (ie x8 or higher) cards into the motherboard

[havok2191]

excellent, thanks a lot dj!

[LeetMiniWheat]

Asus Z87-Deluxe and Asus Z87-Expert seem to have PLX chips but Asus lists them as 8x/4x/4x configuration... odd.

[NVgamer]

I mean PLX does add some additional delay. I fully agree with that. I would like to know why you are opposed to PLX cards? Is it just because of that? Does it promote micro-stuttering?

micro-stutter, system stability when ocing, latency issues threw the arse...stay away from it, but everyone is is welcome to purchase the gimmicks the industry releases 

[LeetMiniWheat]

micro-stutter, system stability when ocing, latency issues threw the arse...stay away from it, but everyone is is welcome to purchase the gimmicks the industry releases 

 

Proof?

 

Frametimes on 600 series cards have been very good, and PLX CAN give you more performance in 3-way/4-way situations since not all the cards will be using their full bandwidth at the same time usually, so it helps manage bandwidth better.The old NF200 chip only reduced performance by about 1%-3% due to latency, but PLX claims theirs is even lower. I have heard no reports of system stability issues due to PLX chip, or micro-stutter caused by it, so I don't know where you got this information from. Even Nvidia uses a PLX chip in their GTX 690 to bridge the two GPU's and it has excellent frametimes.

[NVgamer]

only proof is my personal experience with PLX and multi card config on P67 platform about years ago almost.. Not only graphics card but using raid 0 PCIE ssd with graphics card with a capture card using plenty of bandwidth caused horrible artifacts and issues with recordings, switched platforms without PLX issues are all relieved with the same hardware  

[LeetMiniWheat]

only proof is my personal experience with PLX and multi card config on P67 platform about years ago almost.. Not only graphics card but using raid 0 PCIE ssd with graphics card with a capture card using plenty of bandwidth caused horrible artifacts and issues with recordings, switched platforms without PLX issues are all relieved with the same hardware  

 

well there you go, you had a capture card and other stuff sucking up PCI-E bandwidth. I don't doubt you would have problems with that kind of configuration. in your case, the X79 platform makes much more sense, but just running 3 GPU's off a PLX is definitely viable for the rest of us so I wouldn't knock it as just a "gimmick". The main advantage (as I see it) is it allows 3-Way SLi, since I just learned NVidia drivers won't even enable SLi if a GPU is running slower than 8x (even though 4x PCI-E 3.0 is definitely doable with not much bottlenecking).

[NVgamer]

yea it was more of a specific usage case scenario 

[LeetMiniWheat]

BTW, to anyone else following this thread I've compiled a list of boards with PLX chip for 3-way/4-way. Some boards like the Asus Deluxe and Expert have a PLX chip but they only use it to bridge the chipset lanes for extra LAN's and WLAN stuff, not for GPU slots.

 

Asus Z87-WS

Asus Maximus VI Extreme

EVGA Z87 Classified

Gigabyte Z87X-OC Force

Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5

MSI Z87 XPower

ASRock Z87 Extreme9/ac

 

I'll edit as I find more, but this is all I've found so far.