Catalyst reports my PCIE-E1&E5 x8 (x99s sli plus)

[no1ninja]

Hi guys,

Maybe someone can help me have two XFX Hydra's R9 295x2.  One is sitting in E1 and the other in E5 for spacing.  Hardware explorer in bios says it sees the cards as gen3 x16.

Yet when I go to Catalyst the cards report at x8 maximum bus speed.  My Benchmarks reflect this as well.


Computer:
- i7-5820K
- MSI X99s SLI Plus (w1.15 firmware)
- 2 x XFX R9 295x2 Radeon  (seated in E1 and E5)
- 16GB DDR4 Gskill @ 2666 15-15-15-35 (4x4)
- Corsair axi 1500W
- Windows 8.1 64bit
- AMD drivers 14.501.1003 (14.12)

 

[badboy2k]

Intel? Core? i7-5820K Processor
(15M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz)

Expansion Options
PCI Express Revision 3.0
Max # of PCI Express Lanes 28

as you are occupying the positions for tripple SLI for a 28Lane CPU like you have the slot at E5 is x8 only and that is sharing the back half of the lanes with E1 so your forcing the upper slot into x8 mode too as the slots you have them in do that!

max you can do with 2 cards is x16 (E1) and x8 (E3).

its a limit to what your doing here and your processor is a 28 lane chip not a 40 lane

with your x16 slots and CPU here are there functionality:

Slots



? support up to 3-way mode
- 1-way mode: x16/ x0/ x0/ x0
- 2-way mode: 16/ x8/ x0/ x0
- 3-way mode: x8/ x8/ x8/ x0 <--- Your forcing THAT due to lane occupying at E1 and E5 being the ends of the 3 way card configuration set-up

 

[no1ninja]

Crap, I knew it would be something simple.    Okay, are there any boards that do 16x,16x  ?

This board if I go 1 & 3 has no room to breathe... I may get 16x,8X but the hardware will be toast in 6 months.  Not a very good design.

 

[badboy2k]

with the Board you have the slots electrically are this!

x16
x1
x16
x1
x8
x8

you would need a 40 Land CPU and a different motherboard (For Some space between cards) to have what you want

Minimum CPU = Intel? Core? i7-5930K Processor (15M Cache, up to 3.70 GHz) 40 Lane CPU (2 x16 slots makes the lanes used 32 lanes and your one is limited to 28 lanes maximum)

only 3 motherboards of that class I know of that MSI makes that would have the spacing you need to allow breathing room/a gap between the cards is a X99S GAMING 9 AC , X99S GAMING 9 ACK and X99S XPOWER AC  (All the rest would have the same problem of being 2 slot spaced just like your SLI Plus)

 

[no1ninja]

Thanks, just ordered;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130808&cm_re=gaming_9_msi-_-13-130-808-_-Product

I realize that it will not be optimal with my chip, but I'll take 28/32 vs 28//16.  I can also upgrade just the chip in the future.

 

[badboy2k]

with your processor on that board you will be using 24 of the 28 lanes it has

16/ x0/ x0/ x8/x0 so when you get the board use E1 and E4 (that will be 2 empty slots between them) basically the same positions you have yours currently on the SLI Plus

x16  <---- This
no slot
x8
x8
x16 (with your CPU will run at x8) <---- This
x8

In later time if you get a higher end CPU thats a 40 lane maybe when the prices drop on lets say the i7-5830k or i7-5860x in later time you will be able to just add it and jump to both cards on x16 lane allocations so you have some expansion room there.

 

[no1ninja]

Thanks man.  I wish I knew this before I bought the motherboard and chip, lol... part of me wants to buy a 40 lane chip now and hand down my pc to a member of the family.

 

[Nichrome]

Can you not get a refund for your current CPU and simply buy a 40 lane one? Seems to me to be more sensible than using x16/x8 especially for some amount of time when you have very high end graphics cards and in fact you wanted to use them as much as possible.