Intel Motherboards - Z97 Extreme4x 16X PCI-E Slots Reserved for GPU's?

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Z97 Extreme4x 16X PCI-E Slots Reserved for GPU's?

Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: Intel Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock Intel Motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=969
Printed Date: 19 May 2024 at 8:33pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Z97 Extreme4x 16X PCI-E Slots Reserved for GPU's?

Posted By: Antoine
Subject: Z97 Extreme4x 16X PCI-E Slots Reserved for GPU's?
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2015 at 7:27am

Hello everyone,

I plan to buy a Z97 Extreme4 motherboard. But I have 2 questions about it.

1. The documentation states that the 16X slots are reserved for GPU's... and it's confusing me. I planned to install on this board a 16X-slot GPU (GTX960) in slot2, and a 8X-slot RAID controller (LSI 9266-8I) in slot 5. Is this possible or will the RAID card be ignored by the system, not being a GPU? I'm okay with both cards operating at 8X each, as I was told that this wouldn't affect the GPU's performance.

2. Also, I plan to use the slot 6 to hold a mounting card (a card with no embedded electronics designed to hold a battery for the RAID controller, but equipped with a 8X connector nonetheless for physical support). But I wouldn't want that this card be uselessly allocated PCIE lanes away from slots 2 and 5 (holding the GPU and the RAID controller). Will the sole presence of a connector on such an "empty" card make it detected by the board ? If so, ~~is there a way to shut down a slot so that the board won't detect the presence of this card?~~ Nevermind the 2nd question LOL

I hope I was clear. Thanks in advance for your help!

Sincerely,

Antoine

Replies:

Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2015 at 1:07pm

It will work fine, the documentation is trying to say that graphics cards are supported fully in those slots. They are capable of supporting a GPU but you can just as easily slot a PCIE x1 soundcard/LAN controller into them without issue. A PCIE x8 RAID controller should be fine and is within the lane specs for the Z97 chipset. Basically the GPU will run at X8 (as intended) and the RAID controller will run at x8 just like if you had a second GPU installed so long as you use the correct PCIE slots (PCIE2 and PCIE5).

Posted By: Antoine
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2015 at 5:29pm

Thank you for your answer, it is of great help.

Just one more question out of curiosity: why are you saying that the GPU would run at 8X "just as intended". I was worried that it would underperform in this scenario, should the PCI-E slot it is plugged in be "degraded" to 8X-speed, since this GPU was in fact intended to run at 16X. But I read elsewhere that such a GPU wouldn't be impacted by running at 8X. Do you concur?

Sincerely,

Antoine

Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2015 at 6:01pm

There will be no performance impact on your GPU at x8, in fact there would likely not be any even at x4 with most mid range GPUs. AMD allows for crossfire in an x8 - x4 combo which they do not feel will negatively impact performance to any significant degree. x8 - x8 -x4 triple crossfire setups with high end AMD GPUs see only the smallest of bottleneck vs dual card x8 - x8 scaling and a lot of that bottleneck comes from driver implementation and other factors.

Your system will not suffer any performance loss with the x8 Raid controller installed due to PCIe lanes. If there is a performance hit of any kind it would be coming from elsewhere like driver conflicts etc. There shouldn't be any issues in that regard, I just felt it worth noting that it is possible.

Posted By: Antoine
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2015 at 6:47pm

Thank you very much for your detailed answer!

Sincerely,

Antoine