Drakius

Yeah like I've tried nudging the card, just doesn't go far enough unfortunately. But like you said, the nice thing about digital signal is it's on or off, no in between. Right now it's on and if it ain't broke don't fix it. So for now I'll go like this and if down the line I lose signal I'll probably consider a tin snip. But seems like it won't come to that so far, 2 days so far and no issues. Thank you for the input though

Oh that's great to hear. Feels better knowing someone had a similar issue without problems down the line. Thank you

Like remove the cables cover? Not sure how I'd even do that without destroying the cable, but you did mention it wouldn't cause issues. So I might just leave it as is. If it ain't broke don't fix it as they say. https://imgur.com/7Yl5QeM I circled the problem areas in red. You see those metal lips? They protrude and when I insert a cable, both HDMI and Display Port, the plastic casing of the cable's connectors presses against those metal lips preventing a fully engaged connection, but not preventing the displays from working as intended. Which is my conundrum, leave them as is, or snip them with tin snips.

So I finished my PC build and one of the issues, (maybe an issue I don't know). Is that the GPU ports are somewhat obstructed by the case as you can see in the link below. Where the rubber case of the connector hits the metal and prevents it from 100% going in https://imgur.com/CyuvAhW Now when I connect my displays, they work no issue. The connection goes in maybe 85% ~ 90% of the way in before getting blocked by the metal, but it doesn't fully click in. IE the displayport has a lock usually, but that doesn't lock in, yet the monitor works as long as I don't touch the display cable. So now my question since my PC works as is with the display, is there an issue with leaving it as is, or will it cause issues down the line with connectors not being 100% in? Or should I take a hacksaw to my case and notch the metal so that I can fully insert the cables? Honestly I'd rather leave it as is if it won't cause future issues, since I don't move my PC when it's on anyway. Just want to know if it'd cause troubles or shorts or something. Before it's suggested, I have tried unscrewing the GPU and pushing it down so the port would go in fully, but it's just too high. To get it to the point where I can connect them fully, I'd need to torque the GPU and PCI lane uncomfortably hard, and even then I just wouldn't be able to reinsert the screws the GPU holes would not be aligned to the case holes anymore.

Fair enough! I'll probably go on a deep research today some more since it's pricey equipment all around, order later today or tomorrow. MIGHT go with an MSI board, might not, I'll keep your suggestion in mind.

So I figured out my problem. In case anyone finds this thread. I use Nvidia Inspector's Multi Display Power Saver. My desktop was set to run my GPU at low clock speed when idle (not gaming), I do believe that is what caused the issues. I applied explore.exe (my desktop) as a full 3D application and now I can run 144hz no issue in game or out of game. Seems that for the 980ti atleast when the clock is too low it causes issues with 144hz not displaying properly.

So I just got the pg278qr. I have the option to put it up to 144hz+ but when I did this is what it did (pg278qr is on the left sorry about the potato quality, don't have a lot of lighting in this room or a good smartphone) as you can see the display just shows two white and grey bars (sometimes it's different colors but it's usually two colored flickering bars) and nothing happens until I revert back to 85hz and under, then the display is normal again, after some playing around by some miracle it worked (no idea what I did, just restarted a few times and tried going between a bunch of different refresh rates then it just started working like magic) and I was at 165hz, after trying a game and reading some reviews, I decided I didn't want to OC to 165hz because of the ghosting issues. So when I stopped the game to put it down to 144hz it once again just stopped working (giving the same image result as above) and once again refuses to go over 85hz (without breaking the display) now no matter what I do. my specs are Windows 10 CPU: i7-4790k GPU: SLI 980 ti RAM: 16gb Not sure if more info is needed then that. I've tried completely disconnecting the second monitor, turning SLI off, running at different rates above 85hz, connecting monitor to wall outlet instead of power bar outlet, no dice. I just don't understand why it worked for the length of a game and now it's just gone. Is it because I have SLI cards, two monitors, something else? Anyone have any clue? I know that there's the whole Display Port 1.1 and 1.2 thing, but why would the manufacturer include a 1.1 cable with a 144hz monitor? And even so, if it's a 1.1 why would it work once by some miracle and then stop working. I might try to get a new DP cable tomorrow from a local PC shop, but I just don't think that's the issue. UPDATE: After some troubleshooting, if I enable 144hz while I'm IN a game, it works no problem, buttersmooth 144hz. But as soon as I leave the game or try to enable it just on the desktop with no game running, I get that issue posted above... What's that about? I guess I can turn it on when I'm in game then turn it off before I leave the game, but I'd rather not have to do that everytime, that and sometimes when I turn it off before leaving the game it just reverts itself to 144hz and breaks the display again.

Had bad experiences with MSI motherboards I take it? That's strange, I've had an MSI motherboard and 2 MSI 980ti for my last build (the one I'm upgrading from) and I've never really had any issues, besides maybe the killer network manager giving me a memory leak once or twice over the last few years, and that was a fairly easy fix. And they seem to have good to great reviews the z390 ones. What kind of issues have you run into with MSI mobos? I'll keep looking around maybe move away from a MSI mobo, still undecided though.

Alright I think I'm decided I'll be going with the 9900k for my 2080ti SLI build this year. I don't plan on cheaping out on the mobo. The MSI meg z390 ace seems to have good reviews, might go with that one. Hopefully it has an option to turn off one of my PCI lanes and force x16 on a single card if I do run into one of those rare games. I'm glad I found your guide, really help put my mind at ease, especially with your input. Much appreciated! Thank you again.

Interesting, why is that? If I'm reading your guide right, x8 vs x16 wasn't ever the issue, it's just the bandwidth between the cards in SLI, and since NVLink uses a lot more bandwidth, then it renders the whole x8/x16 thing moot, correct? Therefore technically then I should just go with the 9900k if I'm going to SLI 2080ti with NVLink for mostly gaming purposes? The only time it'd matter is if a game doesn't like being on x8 for a single card when I can't get it to run SLI? Are there a lot of games like that, or is that a rarity? According to this review https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-pci-express-scaling the scaling seems pretty close for games, except like Hellblade, Wolfeinstein 2 and Prey at 1440p, which seem to lose 12ish FPS each. Is that what you meant by some games not liking single x8 cards? Or are there much worst example, because if ~12ish FPS is the worst of it, I feel like I'd just "recuperate" those frames from using the better gaming CPU that is the 9900k over the 9800x (that I'd need to run x16) for example, if that makes sense. Or am I way off base here with that assumption?

Hi D2ultima! I read your guide, I've been having such a hard time finding any info at all on x8 vs x16 when it comes to graphic cards, so your guide is an oasis in a desert of nothingness, great guide. That said I've got a bit more of a specific inquiry that maybe you could give me your opinion on. The way I build PCs is I build one every 4 years, I go hard on it and don't touch or update it for the next 4 years (I like it this way, won't change this formula), so I have been going SLI for the past 8 years. This year I'm set on SLI 2080ti, which I will be playing on a 144hz 1440p g-sync monitor for the next 4 years (don't care for 4k, would rather have good frames). That said the only thing I'm not sure on is the CPU/mobo combo. At first I was thinking 9900k, but after more research I came into PCI bandwidth (learn something new everyday uh) and how it might affect GPU performance. So then I thought, maybe the 9800x is better for me that way I get x16/x16 on my cards instead of x8/x8, though it's definitely not as good on gaming performance. But I'm also a realist and I know I won't get SLI to work on all my games, so is it better to go with the 9900k which has the best gaming performance on single cards (I know it'd run x8 single, but it might still be better because the 9900k is better for gaming? No clue, that's why I'm here!) or is the 9800x still the winner cause even with one card it'd run at x16, and of course the x16/x16 SLI benefits. so what do you think I should get for my set up? 9900k? 9800x? Something else entirely? I heard the 10th gen x-series stuff might be coming out this month, (IE: 10900x and such) is that any good for my needs? (not really interested going into AMD this year and would rather stick to under $1000 on the CPU budget) Sorry for the drawn out post, really would appreciate any input.