PCIe Lanes, SLI, ASUS X-99a and 5820k HALP!

[graphixxnewb]

Ok guys, I'm rocking the X-99a from ASUS and the i7 5820k. I've been looking at picking up another gtx 980ti hybrid to run SLI with the one I already have. Problem is I do not full yunderstrand the performance because of my 28 lanes instead of 40. Also, I had wanted to pick up an m.2 SSD but from what I can tell, I dont have the right equipment to make good use of SLI and m.2? I've watched some videos and I have some hope now but I dont fully understand. Can anyone give me some insight on this? Is this a good idea, or even possible at all? Thanks ahead of time guys!

[thebrownieguy]

What you can expect is that both cards will run at pcie 8x because that is the higest possible (16+16 equals 32 so the cards won't run at pcie 3.0 16x anymore). You have then occupied 16 total lanes and you've got 12 left. The ssd uses 4 so you will have 8 lanes left on the cpu after the ssd and the gpus. Hope this helped!

[Curufinwe_wins]

12 minutes ago, thebrownieguy said:

What you can expect is that both cards will run at pcie 8x because that is the higest possible (16+16 equals 32 so the cards won't run at pcie 3.0 16x anymore). You have then occupied 16 total lanes and you've got 12 left. The ssd uses 4 so you will have 8 lanes left on the cpu after the ssd and the gpus. Hope this helped!

Unfortunately ASUS is dumb and stupid and dicks, so it actually runs at 16x (gpu 1), 8x (gpu 2), 4x (m.2), and that kills the last 16x slot.

19 minutes ago, graphixxnewb said:

Ok guys, I'm rocking the X-99a from ASUS and the i7 5820k. I've been looking at picking up another gtx 980ti hybrid to run SLI with the one I already have. Problem is I do not full yunderstrand the performance because of my 28 lanes instead of 40. Also, I had wanted to pick up an m.2 SSD but from what I can tell, I dont have the right equipment to make good use of SLI and m.2? I've watched some videos and I have some hope now but I dont fully understand. Can anyone give me some insight on this? Is this a good idea, or even possible at all? Thanks ahead of time guys!

It will work without issue, but you might not be able to do that AND another PCIE x4 addin card (like say a 10GBe card or something.) This is a specific issue with the motherboard not with the CPU, and you probably won't be affected by it.

[graphixxnewb]

2 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Unfortunately ASUS is dumb and stupid and dicks, so it actually runs at 16x (gpu 1), 8x (gpu 2), 4x (m.2), and that kills the last 16x slot.

It will work without issue, but you might not be able to do that AND another PCIE x4 addin card (like say a 10GBe card or something.) This is a specific issue with the motherboard not with the CPU, and you probably won't be affected by it.

SO, is there not a substantial amount of benefit in saving up for the 5930k to access the 40 lanes? If my GPUs are running 16x/8x, its not literally cutting the speed of my second GPU in half (I'm sorry, I may be a little slow and I'm still learning)?   The m.s drive would be for games primarily, as I already have a cheapish sata SSD with my OS and another larger sata SSD for photo/video. I can't, as I believe you are saying, think of anything else that I would need that uses PCIE 3.0 or that would be affected by it. I just want the best possible performance at the most sensible price considering what I already have. 

 

I did watch a couple videos, and I think that I know the answer to my question, but I want to make sure. Probably because I don't understand exactly what the difference in performance a high end GPU using 8 lanes versus the same GPU using 16 lanes means to me. 

 

Ok last thought here.... that build's awesome there friend and that you named it after one of my favorite, nay favorite, series of epic fantasy novels is pretty badass. Thanks for the help. I bet you can't tell my finger is itching to push the purchase button =p

[Curufinwe_wins]

6 minutes ago, graphixxnewb said:

SO, is there not a substantial amount of benefit in saving up for the 5930k to access the 40 lanes? If my GPUs are running 16x/8x, its not literally cutting the speed of my second GPU in half (I'm sorry, I may be a little slow and I'm still learning)?   The m.s drive would be for games primarily, as I already have a cheapish sata SSD with my OS and another larger sata SSD for photo/video. I can't, as I believe you are saying, think of anything else that I would need that uses PCIE 3.0 or that would be affected by it. I just want the best possible performance at the most sensible price considering what I already have. 

 

I did watch a couple videos, and I think that I know the answer to my question, but I want to make sure. Probably because I don't understand exactly what the difference in performance a high end GPU using 8 lanes versus the same GPU using 16 lanes means to me. 

 

Ok last thought here.... that build's awesome there friend and that you named it after one of my favorite, nay favorite, series of epic fantasy novels is pretty badass. Thanks for the help. I bet you can't tell my finger is itching to push the purchase button =p

Thanks alot. Yea I love it to. It's my second favorite epic fantasy. The name of my NAS should give you hints to my first.

 

Yea. There 100% is NEVER a good reason to buy a 5930k at the respective msrp. You will be perfectly fine and there is no difference in gaming performance. 

[graphixxnewb]

21 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Thanks alot. Yea I love it to. It's my second favorite epic fantasy. The name of my NAS should give you hints to my first.

 

Yea. There 100% is NEVER a good reason to buy a 5930k at the respective msrp. You will be perfectly fine and there is no difference in gaming performance. 

Thanks friend. EVGA GTX 980 ti hybrid numero dos and SLI pro bridge is in the mail! You're awesome, thanks again for the help. Now off to the monitors section to see what those guys think! =p