Enough PCI lanes

[TheOnlyGodHere]

Hello,

 

I have the Asus Maximus VI Extreme, Intel i-7 4790, with 4x8GB(Total 32GB) RAM and 2x MSI 980Ti's.

I want to add a Samsung 950 Pro 512(orMore)GB to my system..

So i can video edit on my SSD and when i'm done with the project can just move all the files it to a HDD.

But I don't know if i have enough PCI lanes..

 

http://www.nexthardware.com/repository/recensioni/823/immagini/MAximus-VI-Extreme-Slot-PCIE.jpg

My videocards are in slot:

1 and 2B

I can't change the slot of the videocards because of a non flexiable SLI-bridge

 

Is it possiable to connect a 950 Pro ? without any drawbacks of my Peformance(videocards)?

 

Thanks for the help,

Kevin

 

 

 

Sorry for Bad English, I'm from Holland.

[Kirky2k15]

z97 only has 16 pcie lanes so no you can't sli and have a 950 pro sux don't it - this is the reason I shoulda gone x99

[OAcesync]

You can't do SLI or Crossfire

[OAcesync]

z97 only has 16 pcie lanes so no you can't sli and have a 950 pro sux don't it - this is the reason I shoulda gone x99

or Skylake now since it has chipset 20 lanes so you could still run SLI/Xfire with a Wireless adapter,PCIe SSD, etc.

[ReHWolution]

You will be heavily bottlenecked because if you go with a 2 GPU configuration, you'll use all the CPU lanes without triggering the PLX bridge. Also, the M.2 module (the combo with BT one) is PCI-E 2.0 1x:

 

 

Intel® Z87 chipset : 
1 x M.2 (NGFF) Socket 2 on mPCIe Combo II expansion card(s), black
Support M.2 (NGFF) Type 2242 SSD card (22mm x 42mm), Support PCI express 2.0 x1 and SATA 6Gb/s standards

AND only 22mm and 42mm are supported. IIRC SM950 have a minimum form factor of 2280 (80mm).

[Kirky2k15]

You will be heavily bottlenecked because if you go with a 2 GPU configuration, you'll use all the CPU lanes without triggering the PLX bridge. Also, the M.2 module (the combo with BT one) is PCI-E 2.0 1x:

AND only 22mm and 42mm are supported. IIRC SM950 have a minimum form factor of 2280 (80mm).

 

or Skylake now since it has chipset 20 lanes so you could still run SLI/Xfire with a Wireless adapter,PCIe SSD, etc.

I'm not 100% sure but wouldn't you still run into trouble with skylake even with 20 pcie lanes DMI 3.0 you'd need 2x8 for sli leaving you x4 for a NVMe drive but I think you'd still slightly bottleneck it because its off the chipset rather than from the CPU

[Sakkura]

z97 only has 16 pcie lanes so no you can't sli and have a 950 pro sux don't it - this is the reason I shoulda gone x99

 

No, this is wrong. The CPU has 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes. Those are used for the graphics cards.

 

The Z87 chipset has 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes. Those are used for other things, like SSDs.

[Kirky2k15]

No, this is wrong. The CPU has 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes. Those are used for the graphics cards.

 

The Z87 chipset has 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes. Those are used for other things, like SSDs.

Errr, so what do the SATA ports, M.2 slots and SATA express ports use then fairy dust?

[Sakkura]

I'm not 100% sure but wouldn't you still run into trouble with skylake even with 20 pcie lanes DMI 3.0 you'd need 2x8 for sli leaving you x4 for a NVMe drive but I think you'd still slightly bottleneck it because its off the chipset rather than from the CPU

 

Skylake has 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes off the CPU, as well as 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes off the chipset. But it's true that DMI 3.0 may bottleneck performance in some situations; you can't fully utilize the 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes on the chipset simultaneously. But that's independent of the graphics cards; it's just that traffic from storage drives, optical drives, USB devices, network etc. all have to feed through the DMI 3.0 connection.

[Oshino Shinobu]

No, this is wrong. The CPU has 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes. Those are used for the graphics cards.

 

The Z87 chipset has 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes. Those are used for other things, like SSDs.

That is true for conventional PCIe SSDs, but the 950 Pro is a NVMe SSD, which uses the CPU's lanes. 

 

 

Errr, so what do the SATA ports, M.2 slots and SATA express ports use then fairy dust?

A lot of PCIe based storage will run off the Chipset, not the CPU's PCIe lanes. Doesn't apply to the 950 Pro though, as it is a NVMe SSD.

[Sakkura]

That is true for conventional PCIe SSDs, but the 950 Pro is a NVMe SSD, which uses the CPU's lanes.

 

No it does not.

[Kirky2k15]

Skylake has 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes off the CPU, as well as 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes off the chipset. 

So, it has a grand total of 36 pcie lanes??? 

[Oshino Shinobu]

No it does not.

Considering some PCIe 2.0 lanes are provided by the chipset, the 950 Pro shouldn't be able to run off it, as it uses PCIe 3.0 4x. That's my understanding, at least. 

[Kirky2k15]

Considering some PCIe 2.0 lanes are provided by the chipset, the 950 Pro shouldn't be able to run off it, as it uses PCIe 3.0 4x. That's my understanding, at least. 

It will run off it just not at full speed it will probably get somewhere in the region of 700mbps read 600 write at pcie x2 speeds

[Sakkura]

So, it has a grand total of 36 pcie lanes??? 

 

Technically yes. Just that the 20 on the chipset are restricted so that each device can only get 4 of them (so no SLI off the chipset), and they're bottlenecked by the DMI 3.0 connection to the CPU (so don't expect RAID0'ing a few 950 Pro's for 10+ GB/s speeds).

 

Considering some PCIe 2.0 lanes are provided by the chipset, the 950 Pro shouldn't be able to run off it, as it uses PCIe 3.0 4x. That's my understanding, at least. 

 

PCIe devices are configurable and backwards compatible, it would run off PCIe 2.0 x1 just fine if that's what you plugged it into. It would just be bottlenecked to hell, with less bandwidth than even SATA3 provides. On OPs board it looks like it would indeed be running off PCIe 2.0 x1.

[NumLock21]

Z87 dont support nvme

[NumLock21]

Considering some PCIe 2.0 lanes are provided by the chipset, the 950 Pro shouldn't be able to run off it, as it uses PCIe 3.0 4x. That's my understanding, at least.

Z170 chipset is dmi 3.0. On the others it runs at dmi 2.0 for z97, at x2

X99 at 3.0 x4.