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16x/8x/8x mode or an SLI Bridge for 16x/0x/8x/8x configuration?

Retired
Not applicable
Is there a way of running the R3E in 16x/8x/8x/0x mode?

I have a Tri-SLI GTX570 setup, and would rather have my Primary card have x16 instead of the 3rd card.

The other option would be to install the primary card in slot 1, and the other two cards in slots 3 & 4... This would require an SLI bridge with a 2 slot extension, does such a Bridge exist? If so, where can I buy it?

I can't believe this awesome $400 board would be designed for Tri-SLI and not have a way of running x16 on the primary GPU.

8x/8x/16x is a waste of 8x, when the primary GPU would benefit more.
They should have designed the boards with a different slot order
1 GTX570 16x
4 GTX570 8x
2 GTX570 8x
3 0x

I'm thinking Asus is smarter than to see a board with such a limitation, is there a setting in the bios or on the switches on the board which can allow for 16x slot 1, with slot 4 0x?
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8 REPLIES 8

Andre
Level 8
This is a X58 northbridge lanes rule. X58 has totally 32 lanes. R3E has 4 pcie. 1 and 2 share 16 lanes, 3 and 4 share another 16 lanes. If you use 1/2/3 slot, it should be 8X/8X/16X. 4 way should be 8X/8X/8X/8X.


But Rampage III Formula is different. R3f only has 3 slot. first pcie slot is 16 lanes, but 2 and 3 pcie share another 16X. R3F lanes rule should be 16/8/8 if you use 3 way sli.

Andre

martin_metal_88
Level 8
Yup Andre is right on that one. Even is asus want it they can't do nothing. You will have to live with the issue.
Martin_metal_88


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ottoyu34
Level 9
It's no issue. You would barely see a noticable difference in benchmarks.

Retired
Not applicable
Does Asus or anyone else offer an SLI Bridge with an extension to allow 16x/0x/8x/8x configuration?

<><> GTX570 Primary
|||| empty (2 slots)
<><> GTX570 2
<><> GTX570 3

This is what I need to properly setup Tri-SLI on a R3E.
-- my old 790i had slots ordered 1,3,2 for 16x/8x/16x and a middle 8x (16x 1.0) configuration. (that board also had 32 lanes dedicated for slots 1 & 2, and a separate 30 lanes for middle slot 3 and the system)

Retired
Not applicable
Why not try using slot 2/3/4 for your tri-sli configuration? Shouldn't that give you 0/16x/8x/8x?

Or heck with all that and just go quad 🙂

Retired
Not applicable
itcrashed wrote:
Why not try using slot 2/3/4 for your tri-sli configuration? Shouldn't that give you 0/16x/8x/8x?

Or heck with all that and just go quad 🙂


Moving the cards down would as far I I know, run 8x/8x/8x, as slot 2 is 8x... sharing 8x with slot 1 which is 16x/8x.
--- If slot 2 is actually 16x/8x... not just a secondary 8x port... AND the system will boot without a card in slot 1.. PLEASE LET ME KNOW... I will deal with the lack of pin header and annoying wiring because it will be worth it!
(not only that but the distance will be greater between cards, northbridge and CPU)

Last time I checked, neither GTX570s, nor the Asus Rampage III Extreme supports Quad-SLI.
--- I am using 4 cards, 3x SLI GTX570s + GTX460 for PhysX... but the 8x slots are really bottlenecking the system badly, the 4th card kills the system, leaving me to believe, the 3rd 16x slot is really helping the entire array, and the proper setup would be that as the primary card.

The R3E doesn't support Quad-SLI regardless of whether the card supports it or not, due to the lack of bandwidth without an NF200 (adds 16x chip, contained in the ROG Xpander).

I'm return the Asus Rampage III extreme, if I cannot get an ROG Xpander for Quad-SLI soon.

Quad-SLI is supported with a ROG Xpander (not yet released).



-----

Somewhere on this ROG site, I found Asus set world record with a Rampage III Exteme with an ROG Xpander (16x/16x/16x/16x daughter card which goes on top of the PCIe part of the board)

-----

Based on slots specifications of
1 x16/x8_a(1)
2 x8_b(1)
3 x16/x8_a(2)
4 x8_b(2)...
That leads me to think that slot 2 only runs 8x, but if it will run 16x, I will just move the array down, I've thought about it but doubt it. Someone earlier posted Intel specs require certain arrangements being such with a 8x for port 2.

**Please be wrong**



If anyone has any information about an ROG Xpander, please let me know, if I don't find one to buy or a 100% certain reasonable release date, it's bye-bye R3E, hello NF200 or 2xNF200 EVGA/Asus/Something Else with True x16/x16/x16 or True x16/x16/x16/x16....

And I'm a die hard Asus customer. They're the only motherboards I've bought in the last 10 years (except for an EVGA 750i). I even have 3x Asus 3D vision monitors and know Asus means quality and performance.

**Rant** Asus just made a dumb move to release a 4 PCIe slot board without NF200 when they already have a 3 slot board.

Obviously anyone building only a Tri-SLI setup would buy the 3 slot board.
-- so Obviously anyone interest in the 4 slot board WANTS QUAD support. /**end rant**

Retired
Not applicable
how are you determining your system is bottlenecking? you can run crossfirex and it will run fine. you can run 4 580 for folding and it will run fine. if anything when you are using a dedicated physx card, it should have less bottleneck.

the 570 and 580 both support 4way sli. the Xpander is x8 across 4 lanes as anyboard will be with 2 NF200. so whether you get another board that has 2 NF200, they will all be running at x8 x8 x8 x8

what software are you using to determine the lane configuration? try using everest. GPUZ sometimes has mixed reports.

no we dont offer a hard bridge for that type of configuration. i GUESS it may be possible you can use the 4way bridge on the xpander to activate that configuration but i have never tested it and im sure we can to see if it works. this may take some time tho.

why not just make your second card the primary card if thats what you want the video to come out of? But you should not see a difference whether your primary card is x8 or x16 because performance wise they are pretty much identical. if you're running in SLI, i don't see why this would even matter? are you benching or playing games?

yea im still waiting on the release date for the xpander here...

and you can read my post on the xpander and why we made the R3E the way it is: http://www.asusrog.com/forums/showthread.php?773-Xpander-extensive-overview

only 1-2% use 4way sli. having 2 NF200 from the get go would just increase cost for the 98% of buyers and would actually decrease performance for the percentage that only run 1-3 cards. plus we support crossfire X.

again if youre not benching are you putting this in a case? as of now dangerden is the only one that offers a case to fit the xpander.

Retired
Not applicable
Hi there,
(First post)

Have you guys seen this ?


http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4/

After reading this I changed my cards to slots 1 and 2 just for looks and to make room, having used them in x16 and x8 I can confirm there is NO difference 🙂

Merry Christmas

Rick