Curious on options of mb, 3way CFX 16x or 8x PCI-E and space,

[Pierre3400]

I have a question about motherboards for tri maybe even quad fire.

This mainly boils down to a few simple things. I have 1x Hd7970 Vapor-x 6gb at the moment, and getting my second one next week. After looking at my MSI MPower z77,i noticed, yes, i can do trifire, but not without going watercooled with those cards, because the cards take up 3 expansion slots . I dont pln on water for the GPUs.

The MSI splits the ports so that its single card, 16x, 2 cards 8x/8x, and 3 cards 8x/4x/4x. Now i only have space for 2 of these cards, but might want 3 at some point

Looking at the AsRock Z77 Extreme9, it has space for quadfire, at 8x/8x/8x/8x, or 16x/16 dual cards, and with trifire its 8x/8x/16x.

This board does support to what could be my future needs, but its placed onto PCI-E slots 1,3 and 5 for trifire. This once more leaves me with the dual slot cards only. Once more, leaving this option out of question for use of triple slot cards in trifire.

I took a quick look at Asus motherboards, now this is where i become nothing less then a question mark.
Asus does not produce any motherboard that would be able to run more then 2x ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II. They make 3slot cards, yet no motherboard with the option of having more the dual cards when it comes to these?

Is there a motherboard out there where one could run trifire with 3 slot GPU's? and will i notice difference between 8x/8x and 16x/16x?

 

[Ajay57]

Yes and the choice is between these boards, but the problems can be Micro stutter in video games! As there is always a trade off?

1, http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/342065-15-mobo-crossfire-7970-16x16x8

This first post asks about crossfire then goes on to ask about Tri- fire 7970's.

2, http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157289

3, http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=Specifications&Model=Z68 Extreme4 Gen3

The next 2 posts give you information on 2 motherboards which will answer your question on 16x16x16 etc!

4, http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/fullimage.php?image=42871

 

[Pierre3400]

Yes and the choice is between these boards, but the problems can be Micro stutter in video games! As there is always a trade off?

1, http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/342065-15-mobo-crossfire-7970-16x16x8

This first post asks about crossfire then goes on to ask about Tri- fire 7970's.

2, http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157289

3, http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=Specifications&Model=Z68 Extreme4 Gen3

The next 2 posts give you information on 2 motherboards which will answer your question on 16x16x16 etc!

Maybe i should have mentioned that it should me LGA 1155.

But Phil, non of those boards support trifire with triple slot cards

 

[Ajay57]

OK just check the photo in post no 4 it says it does the only slight problem by over hanging the USB Port below? Well it was worth a try anyway Pierre but yeah not 1155 Phil.


P.S. So are you OK my friend hope things going fine there for you!

 

[Pierre3400]

The only motherboard i have found that will support the setup im looking for it the EVGA Z77 FTW.

But i am unable to see in the manual for this board, if it matters which PCI-E slots are in use, and how its allocated them 16x/16x/16? 8x/8x/8x? I feel a lack of information from EVGA.

 

[GamerDude]

That's one of the reasons why I'd refused to consider any triple slot vid cards, this issue of card placement and buswidth speed. Even with my LGA2011 R4E, which was one of the best LGA2011 board when LGA2011 first debut, I find card placement to be a headache. I dunno how accurate GPUZ is, but it reports that my 3 cards are doing PCie 3.0 x16 @x16 3.0, PCIe 3.0 x16 @x8 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 x18 @x16 2.0. If this is true, I don't believe I'm buswidth limited.

Wait a sec, I have a friend who had just built a gaming rig with an EVGA Z77 FTW board in another forum, I can ask him for info if you can wait for the answer.....may take a while as I've to see your question, ask him, and wait for his reply.

 

[Pierre3400]

That's one of the reasons why I'd refused to consider any triple slot vid cards, this issue of card placement and buswidth speed. Even with my LGA2011 R4E, which was one of the best LGA2011 board when LGA2011 first debut, I find card placement to be a headache. I dunno how accurate GPUZ is, but it reports that my 3 cards are doing PCie 3.0 x16 @x16 3.0, PCIe 3.0 x16 @x8 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 x18 @x16 2.0. If this is true, I don't believe I'm buswidth limited.

Wait a sec, I have a friend who had just built a gaming rig with an EVGA Z77 FTW board in another forum, I can ask him for info if you can wait for the answer.....may take a while as I've to see your question, ask him, and wait for his reply.

Please go ahead, i have not read a good review on the motherboard yet, so personal input is welcome, this is not a rush situation, its a 6months in time thing.