Empty PCI-Express 3.0 Slot

I have the asrock board in my sig with the A10-7850k 12core R7 cpu/gpu. For the money and the space I have, using the wifi/bt slot for my evo msata boot drive, and leaving the 6 sata slots for data seems to me to be the best cost/efficiency ratio atm. I want to use the PCI-Express 3.0 slot for something but am not sure what. If I get a dedicated PCI-Express 3.0 video card, would that free up the cpu from doing gpu stuff, or would I be doing an 'sli' type video setup? I wouldn't mind having a PCI-Express 3.0 hard drive but they are over $700 and I don't think that would be cost effective at all considering this board does not support ddr4 or m.2 slots. Definitely don't need a sound card and I'm no gamer either.

Any suggestions or tips? Thank you in advance.

What are you using the computer for? If you aren't gaming I don't see any reason to get a video card in there as the APU has enough graphical processing for any minor workloads like video streaming and such.

would that free up the cpu from doing gpu stuff, or would I be doing an 'sli' type video setup?

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The iGPU on the CPU is independent in that it doesn't take up any more cycles than a discrete GPU would (perhaps less even). Depending on the card you choose, you can run "CrossfireX" (SLI is for NVIDIA). But as Janus said, if you don't game, you don't need it.

If you're doing CAD or 3D Rendering of some sort then the extra GPU power could help, pending what software you use.
Without details on what you use the machine for we can't help you very much.

I'll probably leave it open for now. Thanks all.
I do like to on ocassion rip dvd's to mkv's. I'm assuming a graphics card would help. They are cheaper than workstation cards too.