Pcie x16 splitter

[Mischiefmakr]

So I have a weird couple questions....

 

I have a dedicated streaming rig that is a mini ITX build. I also run a fair number of animated overlays and alerts. my questions are:

 

1. am I able to split a pcie x16 slot into two with some kind of splitter?

 And 

2. would I be able to run a GPU AND a capture card off the one slot with that splitter and be fine ?

[Elisis]

2 minutes ago, Mischiefmakr said:

1. am I able to split a pcie x16 slot into two with some kind of splitter?

Short answer: no. You'll require any number of drivers specifically designed to be aware of such a setup, and the board will have to also support a splitter, which is unlikely.

[Mischiefmakr]

15 minutes ago, Elisis said:

Short answer: no. You'll require any number of drivers specifically designed to be aware of such a setup, and the board will have to also support a splitter, which is unlikely.

Damn....guess I’m going to have to go with single pc or find a way to make it not kill my cpu

[AZ Hobo]

48 minutes ago, Mischiefmakr said:

So I have a weird couple questions....

 

I have a dedicated streaming rig that is a mini ITX build. I also run a fair number of animated overlays and alerts. my questions are:

 

1. am I able to split a pcie x16 slot into two with some kind of splitter?

 And 

2. would I be able to run a GPU AND a capture card off the one slot with that splitter and be fine ?

Yes, if your motherboard supports it. For example

 

ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac

 

- 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slot (PCIE1: x16 mode)*

Supports PCIe riser cards to extend one x16 slot to two x8 slots

 

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITXac/#Specification

[ZzLy]

4 hours ago, Mischiefmakr said:

So I have a weird couple questions....

 

I have a dedicated streaming rig that is a mini ITX build. I also run a fair number of animated overlays and alerts. my questions are:

 

1. am I able to split a pcie x16 slot into two with some kind of splitter?

 And 

2. would I be able to run a GPU AND a capture card off the one slot with that splitter and be fine ?

1. Yes, that is possible and it's called "PCIe bifurcation", but I couldn't find one for sale anywhere, I only saw it in a youtube video about ITX.

2. Yes.

[ZzLy]

4 hours ago, Elisis said:

Short answer: no. You'll require any number of drivers specifically designed to be aware of such a setup, and the board will have to also support a splitter, which is unlikely.

Wrong.

[Elisis]

26 minutes ago, ZzLy said:

Wrong.

You gonna, y'know, explain why I'm wrong or even explain how one may use such a splitter?

[ZzLy]

34 minutes ago, Elisis said:

You gonna, y'know, explain why I'm wrong or even explain how one may use such a splitter?

It's called PCIe bifurcation, google it. Ever seen one of those pcie 16x cards that have 4 nvme slots? Yeah well an nvme slot is just a smaller 4x pcie slot, so those cards split the 16x slot into 4 4x slots, so there's the bifurcation, or in this case quantification.

[ZzLy]

5 hours ago, Mischiefmakr said:

Damn....guess I’m going to have to go with single pc or find a way to make it not kill my cpu

He's wrong. Read the other comments please.

[Mischiefmakr]

3 hours ago, ZzLy said:

He's wrong. Read the other comments please.

Neat! I may look at getting that board and a cheap gpu so I can use nvenc to help with the overall resources used while streaming. 

[Mischiefmakr]

8 hours ago, ZzLy said:

It's called PCIe bifurcation, google it. Ever seen one of those pcie 16x cards that have 4 nvme slots? Yeah well an nvme slot is just a smaller 4x pcie slot, so those cards split the 16x slot into 4 4x slots, so there's the bifurcation, or in this case quantification.

Now the issue is just finding a splitter card....harder than I sounds lol

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, Mischiefmakr said:

Now the issue is just finding a splitter card....harder than I sounds lol

If your mobo/CPU can't do PCIe bifurcation on their own you'll need to make sure to get one with its own controller, capable of doing the splitting itself. They're also very expensive (in the case of the M.2 cards someone else mentioned, the ones dependent on the mobo/CPU combo doing the splitting are $60 or so, the ones with controllers are around $300). 

If you're running two PCIe devices and not doing a very specific super tiny rig in a special case with a single slot GPU (which I have seen done before over on Level1Techs), is there any reason to run ITX? Why not just swap to mATX? You can still get very compact cases, but typically have 2-3 PCIe slots without the need for funky splitters. Most ITX cases I've seen only have 2 PCIe expansion slots, so you'll need a bigger case anyways in order to fit both a GPU and capture card. 

[Mischiefmakr]

49 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

If your mobo/CPU can't do PCIe bifurcation on their own you'll need to make sure to get one with its own controller, capable of doing the splitting itself. They're also very expensive (in the case of the M.2 cards someone else mentioned, the ones dependent on the mobo/CPU combo doing the splitting are $60 or so, the ones with controllers are around $300). 

If you're running two PCIe devices and not doing a very specific super tiny rig in a special case with a single slot GPU (which I have seen done before over on Level1Techs), is there any reason to run ITX? Why not just swap to mATX? You can still get very compact cases, but typically have 2-3 PCIe slots without the need for funky splitters. Most ITX cases I've seen only have 2 PCIe expansion slots, so you'll need a bigger case anyways in order to fit both a GPU and capture card. 

As some additional info:

 

the case I’m running is a phanteks enthoo 719. I have a mini ITX build in the bottom section. The bottom section allows for 3 total slots. So, if I can get a small card that supports nvenc, a motherboard that allow me to split the one pcie x16, and a splitter that does this I can figure out how to get it all to fit. And my situation will be golden.

 

i prefer to run everything in one case to save space in my gaming area. 

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Mischiefmakr said:

As some additional info:

 

the case I’m running is a phanteks enthoo 719. I have a mini ITX build in the bottom section. The bottom section allows for 3 total slots. So, if I can get a small card that supports nvenc, a motherboard that allow me to split the one pcie x16, I can figure out how to get it all to fit. And my situation will be golden.

 

i prefer to run everything in one case to save space in my gaming area. 

Is there a reason you need a dGPU for the stream rig? Couldn't you use an iGPU for display out? IIRC the streaming/recording cards will do the encoding on their own anyways. I assume the main rig already has it's own dGPU for gaming.

Seems like a more logical solution than trying to split out the 16x, but then again I'm only going off of what I know about your setup. 

[Mischiefmakr]

I did find this card:

 

Supermicro RSC-R2UT-2E8R 2U RISER PASSIVE GEN 2-PCIE X16 TO 2X PCIE X8 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0037KAE2O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_0bhpEbQCG83PH
 

just curious about space. Think it will work so guess I can order it along with the motherboard above and see how it all works....if it doesn’t then amazon returns are usually pretty good lol

[Mischiefmakr]

9 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Is there a reason you need a dGPU for the stream rig? Couldn't you use an iGPU for display out? IIRC the streaming/recording cards will do the encoding on their own anyways. I assume the main rig already has it's own dGPU for gaming.

Seems like a more logical solution than trying to split out the 16x, but then again I'm only going off of what I know about your setup. 

Running a the amount of animated overlays, banners, transitioning, and alerts is causing the CPU in my stream rig to drop frames. 
 

also, I’m running an Elgato 4k60 pro so I can run at 1080p 240hz. Which does not do the encoding on the card....and....from my understand most capture cards don’t actually do the encoding on them????

 

also, basic rig information:

 

gaming rig (top)

8700k at 5.2 16gb of ram 2080Ti

 

stream rig (bottom)

8700k at 5.0 16gb ram Elgato 4k60 pro

[BTGbullseye]

10 minutes ago, Mischiefmakr said:

Running a the amount of animated overlays, banners, transitioning, and alerts is causing the CPU in my stream rig to drop frames. 

 

stream rig (bottom)

8700k at 5.0 16gb ram

Ok then, something's very wrong then, as no amount of overlays or effects should cause frame drops for that CPU that won't also occur on a GPU.

[Mischiefmakr]

5 minutes ago, BTGbullseye said:

Ok then, something's very wrong then, as no amount of overlays or effects should cause frame drops for that CPU that won't also occur on a GPU.

Then would you be able to provide me some suggestion? If I can have it fixed before my stream tonight, I would be super happy!!!

[AZ Hobo]

9 hours ago, Mischiefmakr said:

I did find this card:

 

Supermicro RSC-R2UT-2E8R 2U RISER PASSIVE GEN 2-PCIE X16 TO 2X PCIE X8 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0037KAE2O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_0bhpEbQCG83PH
 

just curious about space. Think it will work so guess I can order it along with the motherboard above and see how it all works....if it doesn’t then amazon returns are usually pretty good lol

https://www.rackmountmart.com/html/rc1.htm

[BTGbullseye]

On 2/6/2020 at 1:24 PM, Mischiefmakr said:

Then would you be able to provide me some suggestion? If I can have it fixed before my stream tonight, I would be super happy!!!

You'd have to provide a LOT more details about what you're using, both for software, and hardware.