Best motherboard for multi-GPUs

[torin3]

I'm on our folding@home team and I'd like to upgrade my main system to a more modern CPU/Motherboard.

The board I currently have has dual chipsets chips so I can I have enough PCI-E lanes run 4 GPUs at 8x connection speed (Folding doesn't work as well at 4x or 1x). It is an ASUS Z170-WS with an i7 6700K.

Looking for a more modern one, I see that the X299 boards (LGA 2066) have a model that has 7 16x connectors that can either be 4 at 16x speed, or 1 at 16x and 6 more at 8x speed.

WS X299 SAGE/10G｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA

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www.asus.com

Is there something more recent that can do at least 8x speed for at least 4 16x slots?

Thanks!

 

[BugFreak]

What about one of those mining motherboards? Like this one.

I've never looked at one of these so don't know how they work but it sure has plenty of space.

 

[Johan45]

You could look for a used TRX40 threadripper and board. They have up to 88 PCIe 4.0 lanes. Could still be a bit pricy though.
Some AM4 boards have 4 x16 slots running a mix of PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 that might suit your needs as well

 

[torin3]

What about one of those mining motherboards? Like this one.

I've never looked at one of these so don't know how they work but it sure has plenty of space.

Since I want this for my daily driver, I'm not happy with only one memory stick.

And this: https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/H510 Pro BTC+/index.us.asp#Manual

Page 2 of the motherboard manual:

Expansion Slots: 6 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1 at x16 / PCIE2~6 at x1)

Which is a deal breaker. 5 of the slots will only run at x1 connection width/speed.

 

[Woomack]

I'm not sure if the best (probably not) but I was reviewing Supermicro/SuperO C9Z490-PGW and it supports 4x PCIe x8. I guess you can get it significantly cheaper from 2nd hand or even some online stores as I don't think it's selling well. I had a hard time selling mine, so I gave it to my brother and it runs 24/7 on his PC now. It was mining for some months with 2 and later 3 graphics cards, without any issues.

C9Z490-PGW | Motherboards | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.

C9Z4, C9Z49, C9Z490, C9Z490-PGW

www.supermicro.com

Pros - server design, VRM, and everything else
Cons - you may have problems with RAM above DDR4-3200

Besides that, there are only workstation and Intel X or Threadripper motherboards with that functionality and they cost a lot (also X299 is already old and has its own issues). I don't remember any motherboards from the middle shelf in the last years that were using PCIe bridges. Since SLI/CF is already dead then no one cares and also motherboard manufacturers assume you can use it only for something professional. Every new motherboard has 2x PCIe x16 (electrical) and 1x PCIe x1/x4. If there are more slots then usually split lanes for more x1 or x4. I have Gigabyte Z690 Master which has x16+x4+x4. There is not even a popular 8+8+4 design.

 

[torin3]

Since I'm limited to 2 folding machines by my wife, getting a 7 GPU setup over the 4 GPU I have now, would be a big increase for me. I'm perfectly fine going with a server motherboard as long as I have a decent user experience (I'm getting lag playing Elden Ring at 1080p on low settings with a 3080 Ti)

The problem I've got is folding takes a hit at lower than x8 connection speeds, and mining is pushing the hardware and they can make do with x1 connection speeds.

 

[Woomack]

It's just better to keep the daily rig and mining/folding rig separately. Recently I'm not mining or folding, and I'm not using anything top for gaming anymore. My gaming PC is worse than my test rigs and I care more about a quiet PC for gaming but strong enough to run everything at 1440p. Recently I decided to buy Xbox X on which I run Elden Ring. Somehow, the experience is better than on PC and Xbox itself costs significantly less than even the average gaming PC nowadays.

 

[Blaylock]

@torin3 This site should help you out. I know it's a mining resource site, but the hardware requirements for folding look the same as for RTX 3060 mining.

https://dizzymining.com/tools/3060-motherboard/