Hi folks, looking for a few suggestions on my configuration. This machine is mostly used for gaming.
I've got a Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard running an Intel Core i7 XTreme 6950X. This means the CPU supports 40 lanes.
I'm running Windows 10 64-bit on a Samsung 950 PRO Series PCI-e NVME SSD in the M.2 socket.
Then for video I have 2x ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce 1080 8GB video cards (STRIX-GTX1080-A8G-GAMING) using the nVidia SLI HB Bridge (4-slot size, with video cards in slots 1 & 3).
RAM is maxed at 128GB (8x16) G.Skill TridentZ series, DDR4 3333 (PC4 26600).
So here are my questions:
1) Can I tell if the system is running SLI at 16x/16x? The manual says the motherboard's M.2 port shares bandwidth with M.2 and U.2, but doesn't specify whether that overhead interferes with a 40-lane supported processor running 2-card SLI
2) If I added a PCI-e SSD into one of the PCI-e lanes, would that drop graphics bandwidth?
3) Or if I put in a PCI-e card in slot 2 or 4, the kind that lets you stick a couple of M.2 SSDs on it, would that similarly impact SLI bandwidth?
Thanks!