Pcie slots question

[Vudian]

I have a MSI z97 Gaming 9 ac, the user guide says it supports 2 way sli. i have my 2gpu in the  1st and 2nd slots but that puts the bottom card against the fans of the top one.Everything i find for this board says it supports "x16, x8/x8, x8/x4/x4"  so does that mean only the top 2 x16 slots will do x8/x8 or can i use the top and bottom slots so i can get my cards away  from each other?

[TheKDub]

You can use both the top and bottom slots without issue. There won't be much if any performance loss from it dropping to 4x, if it doesn't use 8x with the first and last slots filled.

[Derrk]

MSI's website says this board has 3 PCIe x16 slots, so you'd be able to use the top & bottom slot if you'd like without losing performance. This would improve airflow unless the bottom slot is completely choked for air

[Vudian]

21 minutes ago, Derrk said:

MSI's website says this board has 3 PCIe x16 slots, so you'd be able to use the top & bottom slot if you'd like without losing performance. This would improve airflow unless the bottom slot is completely choked for air

i moved the card into the bottom slot, bios said it was running the slots as x8x4, it booted into windows fine but everything froze but the mouse. couldnt click anything and no keys worked. i rebooted, and was still the same. i had to remove the bottom card to stop the freezing.  so im guessing i cant use the top and bottom slots then?

[Derrk]

1 minute ago, Vudian said:

i moved the card into the bottom slot, bios said it was running the slots as x8x4, it booted into windows fine but everything froze but the mouse. couldnt click anything and no keys worked. i rebooted, and was still the same. i had to remove the bottom card to stop the freezing.  so im guessing i cant use the top and bottom slots then?

typically the bottom slot runs are x8, so i'm not sure what MSI's website was trying to advertise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Vudian]

2 minutes ago, Derrk said:

typically the bottom slot runs are x8, so i'm not sure what MSI's website was trying to advertise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have been looking into this for most of the day and i couldnt find anything on what could be used for sli on this board. the user guide says it supports sli BUT it only has a page for single card set up. same for the website. SLI works on the stop 2 x16 slots. but it makes me stop gpu idle temp 62c. and under load it breaks 90c in just mins.

[Derrk]

7 minutes ago, Vudian said:

I have been looking into this for most of the day and i couldnt find anything on what could be used for sli on this board. the user guide says it supports sli BUT it only has a page for single card set up. same for the website. SLI works on the stop 2 x16 slots. but it makes me stop gpu idle temp 62c. and under load it breaks 90c in just mins.

depending on your case, you could get a riser cable and mod a spot to mount it. although that would also require a soft sli bridge

[Vudian]

3 minutes ago, Derrk said:

depending on your case, you could get a riser cable and mod a spot to mount it. although that would also require a soft sli bridge

I have a ton of space, its a corsair obsidian 900d, heavy mods already done to it. just not sure how i would mod it now for the other gpu to be held up

[Spotty]

29 minutes ago, Derrk said:

MSI's website says this board has 3 PCIe x16 slots, so you'd be able to use the top & bottom slot if you'd like without losing performance.

Unfortunately that's not the case. The slots are physically x16 in length, however they are not x16 in bandwidth. Only the first slot has the traces wired in for x16, with the 2nd slot only having it wired for x8.

@Vudian If you take a close look inside the PCIe slot on your motherboard you will see that the bottom slots are missing half the gold connectors and the rest is just empty plastic.

 

For SLI you will want to use the top two slots, which due to PCIe limitations of the CPU will both run at x8. x8 is fine for most gaming GPUs and won't impact performance. GTX1080Ti for example shouldn't saturate x8 PCIe lanes. Titan V or RTX2080Ti - maybe?

 

What are your system specs?

[Derrk]

1 minute ago, Vudian said:

I have a ton of space, its a corsair obsidian 900d, heavy mods already done to it. just not sure how i would mod it now for the other gpu to be held up

why not just get gpu blocks since you're running a custom loop? would cost more than mods but would easily fix the problem

[Vudian]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Unfortunately that's not the case. The slots are physically x16 in length, however they are not x16 in bandwidth. Only the first slot has the traces wired in for x16, with the 2nd slot only having it wired for x8.

@Vudian If you take a close look inside the PCIe slot on your motherboard you will see that the bottom slots are missing half the gold connectors and the rest is just empty plastic.

 

For SLI you will want to use the top two slots, which due to PCIe limitations of the CPU will both run at x8. x8 is fine for most gaming GPUs and won't impact performance. GTX1080Ti for example shouldn't saturate x8 PCIe lanes. Titan V or RTX2080Ti - maybe?

 

What are your system specs?

4790k

msi z97 Gaming 9 ac

Msi gtx 980 ti gaming 6 x2

16 gb ddr3 gskill

evga supernova 1000 g2

 

[Vudian]

5 minutes ago, Derrk said:

why not just get gpu blocks since you're running a custom loop? would cost more than mods but would easily fix the problem

I have to do this right now with using very little money, i am medically not fit to work for a little while still.

[Derrk]

2 minutes ago, Vudian said:

I have to do this right now with using very little money, i am medically not fit to work for a little while still.

sorry to hear that. in the time being, it might be best to run single card in the time being if the top card just throttles immediately.

 

If you're well enough to work on a project, a riser mod might be enjoyable. I'm not entirely sure how you'd mount it. perhaps get some sort of gpu mount & drill holes into the side of the case, under the motherboard so it could fit

[Spotty]

I'd just run a single 980Ti if you don't have waterblocks for the cards. I would not invest money in waterblocks and fittings for SLI 980Ti's either (assuming you can even buy 980 Ti waterblocks new these days, might have to go used market). Game developers just aren't supporting SLI these days like they used to. You'd get likely better performance by selling the two cards and using the money to buy a single, more powerful card.

 

What monitor are you using? Resolution & refresh rate?

[Vudian]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

I'd just run a single 980Ti if you don't have waterblocks for the cards. I would not invest money in waterblocks and fittings for SLI 980Ti's either (assuming you can even buy 980 Ti waterblocks new these days, might have to go used market). Game developers just aren't supporting SLI these days like they used to. You'd get likely better performance by selling the two cards and using the money to buy a single, more powerful card.

 

What monitor are you using? Resolution & refresh rate?

i have all the fittings i need, i just have to try and find blocks for them, ones i have found are still $100+ and im not willing to pay that for a block that old. the monitor i am using is a msi optix g27c curved 1920x1080 144hz

[Spotty]

Just now, Vudian said:

the monitor i am using is a msi optix g27c curved 1920x1080 144hz

Should be able to drive that with a single GTX980Ti. What games are you playing?

 

3 minutes ago, Vudian said:

i have all the fittings i need, i just have to try and find blocks for them, ones i have found are still $100+ and im not willing to pay that for a block that old.

Yeah, not worth investing the money in waterblocks for them. The performance wouldn't be worth it from SLI 980Tis.

Run a single 980Ti for now and wait a few weeks for the new AMD Navi launch and rumoured Nvidia Super and see what prices and performance are like.

[Vudian]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Should be able to drive that with a single GTX980Ti. What games are you playing?

 

Yeah, not worth investing the money in waterblocks for them. The performance wouldn't be worth it from SLI 980Tis.

Run a single 980Ti for now and wait a few weeks for the new AMD Navi launch and rumoured Nvidia Super and see what prices and performance are like.

Destiny 2 is my main game i play, it plays at around 70-110 fps with both cards

apex

diablo 3

monster hunter world

warframe (just got it)

rainbow six siege

witcher 3

 

[Spotty]

Just now, Vudian said:

Destiny 2 is my main game i play, it plays at around 70-110 fps with both cards

What's your performance with a single card?

Looking at some 1080p benchmarks and a single 980Ti gives better performance, though that's with a better CPU (i7 7700k at 4.9GHz)

[Vudian]

8 minutes ago, Spotty said:

What's your performance with a single card?

Looking at some 1080p benchmarks and a single 980Ti gives better performance, though that's with a better CPU (i7 7700k at 4.9GHz)

im getting 50-70fps with no other players around on a single card