SLI - Does it matter which slot you use?

[CGurrell]

Hi Guys,

 

I have an MSI X99A SLI Plus motherboard, and want to run 2-way SLI on it with my GTX 970s. This board has really close spacing for the 1st and 2nd PCI-E slots on the board, so if I was to put my 2nd GPU in the 3rd 16x slot, assuming I have a long enough SLI bridge, will SLI still work?

 

Thanks

-CGurrell

[zMeul]

you should check the mobo manual

[dany_boy]

I guess it depends on how many lanes your CPU has

[xentropa]

Yes it does.

 

Some slots are "CPU" pcie lanes.  The others are the "PCH" pcie lanes.  Graphics cards should be in the "CPU" pcie lanes.

 

Answer to your question.  Yes it will work.  I believe for that particular board, all the "longer" pcie lanes are CPU pcie lanes.  So any of them will work for graphics cards and SLI.

[done12many2]

16 minutes ago, CGurrell said:

Hi Guys,

 

I have an MSI X99A SLI Plus motherboard, and want to run 2-way SLI on it with my GTX 970s. This board has really close spacing for the 1st and 2nd PCI-E slots on the board, so if I was to put my 2nd GPU in the 3rd 16x slot, assuming I have a long enough SLI bridge, will SLI still work?

 

Thanks

-CGurrell

 

Your manual suggests using PCI_E1 and PCI_E3 for x16 + x16 or x8 + x8 depending on your CPU PCIe lane availability.   While PCI_E5 is a x16 slot, you will have to try it to see if it works in x16 or x8 since your motherboard may force you into x8, which isn't necessarily bad at all.  There's really no difference between x16 or x8.

 

I've also attached a copy of your manual for you.  Good luck.

7885v1.1(G52-78851XG)(X99A SLI PLUS).pdf

[NumLock21]

35 minutes ago, CGurrell said:

Hi Guys,

 

I have an MSI X99A SLI Plus motherboard, and want to run 2-way SLI on it with my GTX 970s. This board has really close spacing for the 1st and 2nd PCI-E slots on the board, so if I was to put my 2nd GPU in the 3rd 16x slot, assuming I have a long enough SLI bridge, will SLI still work?

 

Thanks

-CGurrell

28 lanes cpu uses different slot for sli compare to the 40 lanes. I know that the original msi board don't let breathing room 28 lanes and i think they new one does. The original was the msi x99s sli plus

 

25 minutes ago, xentropa said:

Yes it does.

 

Some slots are "CPU" pcie lanes.  The others are the "PCH" pcie lanes.  Graphics cards should be in the "CPU" pcie lanes.

 

Answer to your question.  Yes it will work.  I believe for that particular board, all the "longer" pcie lanes are CPU pcie lanes.  So any of them will work for graphics cards and SLI.

On x99 all pcie slots uses lanes from the cpu. 

[xentropa]

38 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

28 lanes cpu uses different slot for sli compare to the 40 lanes. I know that the original msi board don't let breathing room 28 lanes and i think they new one does. The original was the msi x99s sli plus

 

On x99 all pcie slots uses lanes from the cpu. 

I think all pcie 3.0 are CPU.  pcie 2.0 (pcie2 and pcie4 in the picture above) are PCH pcie slots.

[CGurrell]

As a follow up guys, my buddy had a long sli bridge (I bought the board second hand and it was missing any SLI bridges).

 

The GPUs seem to be running in SLI in nvidia control panel, and the cards are reportedly running at 8x-8x. Doesn't seem to be a performance hit and temps are pretty cool under load  

 

Thanks everyone for your help