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Z370 on Hero/Formula with 8700K and NVMe drives in regard to PCIE lanes - clarify pls

orcinus
Level 7
I need some clarification on this:

I'm planning to build an 8700K machine on an Maximus X board (any) but I'm not sure about usability since I plan on using two GTX TITAN V cards, two Intel 900P NVMe drives or a single Intel 900P and a Samsung 960 Pro M2 drive.

No, I know there is no SLI for those Titans, but I don't need SLI, just two cards (rendering).

Since 8700K provides only 16 PCIE lanes, I assume dual TITAN Vs will split dual PCIE slots into x8 + x8, which is fine. But, what about my Intel drives or Intel + Samsung? Those can run on a PCH which has only a single x4 connection to the CPU so actually, the only available performance to the whole PCH is x4 level and I can use only a single NVMe drive concurrently, not more.

Right?
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12 REPLIES 12

Menthol
Level 14
With 2 GPU's using all of the CPU pcie lanes as you state you can use one nvme drive on the 4x pcie lane, the bottom pcie slot off the PCH, and one or two M.2 nvme drives off the PCH.
I have a single Titan Xp at 3.0X16, an Intel 900p on the bottom pcie slot at 3.0X4 and a Samsung 960 Pro in M.2 slot at 3.0X4, and 2 SATA drives one 1TB 850 EVO and one 4TB spinner on my M X Apex. Everything operates at full speed smoothly

So everything will work fine but in my opinion if you need 2 Titan V cards for rendering a X299 platform would still be better suited and allow upgrade path as far as CPU's, GPU's, and storage solutions

MrAgapiGC
Level 13
I agree with mentol.

Even that 8700K is a good processor, it has limitations. you can get around some hd/ssd isuess iwth external drivers. but 1 limitation. is pcie lanes. if you go with x299 7820x is the same issue. but you can grow. IF you want to take the full power of those titans you need more. there is gamer stand of point and productivity side. 7900x is a good all you will have all the power you need. A friend of mine have these same questions. and he is happy have the best of the productivity and have the game with he needed. beside..... you can do 4k gaming in surround without a sweat. And if you water cool those, there is no limit. IF! you do 1 gpu like my my other friend, he work with blender, and cinema4d works but really put the computer into the limit i mean a limit that cpu is 100% with gpu to the max and is slowing down some times and that is until finish the render the computer is useless. 8700k 1080tioc (asus) at 4.8 1.28v. Go with x299. having a sli titans is real power! and have spare to do more
Learn, Play Enjoy!

orcinus
Level 7
More and more it seems moving from 4.7 5960X to 8700K will be a sidegrade or a dowsngrade, rather than upgrade.

Menthol
Level 14
The 8700K on a good Z370 board can't be beat for gaming and most tasks, it only lacks in pcie lanes, if it fits your needs you will be happy with how fast it is.
Dual Titan V's won't loose much bandwidth at X8 lanes and a single Titan V will run any game at any resolution without issue. It's really a decision you will have to make
If you can live with drive specs as I listed you will like how fast the system is

Menthol wrote:
The 8700K on a good Z370 board can't be beat for gaming and most tasks, it only lacks in pcie lanes, if it fits your needs you will be happy with how fast it is.
Dual Titan V's won't loose much bandwidth at X8 lanes and a single Titan V will run any game at any resolution without issue. It's really a decision you will have to make
If you can live with drive specs as I listed you will like how fast the system is


Well, I know; I actually asked for real-life observations and a scheme for the board design. I assumed PCH connects by a single x4 set, which means we have 20 PCIE lanes at disposal: 16 direct, 4 for PCH, which can balance multiple devices, but essentially communicates across x4 only. That means, two PCIE drives would share 4 PCIE lanes and would not work as expected simultaneously.

I'm trying to avoid X299 for multiple reasons. I currently own R6E+7980XE, overclocked to 4.2GHz, but I'm fully dissatisfied with the mesh architecture since that and the new cache design are killing my performance, being worse for my workload (I profit from cache size, inter-core comm) and I also often need single-core to perform as best as possible. At the same time, I really need fast storage.

The plan was to move my secondary workstation to be 8700K instead of 5960X. I'll keep using 7980XE for heavy MT workloads, but these are not my core target.

Do you know of any real benchmark with 8700K that uses 2 cards and an NVMe or two NVMes?

But you have a single card so you're using 16 lanes with your Titan plus two PCIE drives. 😞 That's still 8+4+4. 🙂 Need something that goes beyond. Dual cards to use 8+8 up, and then two drives contending for x4 on the PCH...

Menthol
Level 14
My GPU operates at X16, all my NVME drives are on the PCH
Intel is claiming 40 available pcie lanes, "marketing", not completely a lie
Z370 PCH has 20 pcie lanes for USB, SATA, NVME, Wifi, etc. so multiple nvme drives can all run at 3.0X4, the only bottle neck is the DMI 3.0X4 buss between CPU and PCH, which is not really an issue unless you are moving massive amounts of data between drives

So depending on how many M.2 slots the board has, usually 2 on ASUS boards, plus the one X4 you can use 3 NVME drives without affecting the 16 lanes from the CPU for Video cards

I am running a binned delidded 8700K at 5.2 GHZ -2 AVX offset, 4.8 GHZ cache, 16GB memory at 4266 MHZ 17-18-18-38-1, using a 280mm AIO, no HEDT platform can match that, it is the fastest smoothest running system I have ever owned.

Menthol wrote:
My GPU operates at X16, all my NVME drives are on the PCH
Intel is claiming 40 available pcie lanes, "marketing", not completely a lie
Z370 PCH has 20 pcie lanes for USB, SATA, NVME, Wifi, etc. so multiple nvme drives can all run at 3.0X4, the only bottle neck is the DMI 3.0X4 buss between CPU and PCH, which is not really an issue unless you are moving massive amounts of data between drives

So depending on how many M.2 slots the board has, usually 2 on ASUS boards, plus the one X4 you can use 3 NVME drives without affecting the 16 lanes from the CPU for Video cards

I am running a binned delidded 8700K at 5.2 GHZ -2 AVX offset, 4.8 GHZ cache, 16GB memory at 4266 MHZ 17-18-18-38-1, using a 280mm AIO, no HEDT platform can match that, it is the fastest smoothest running system I have ever owned.


Yes, sounds nice, although I've seen 7980XE@5GHz and 4.1GHz RAM HEDT system which definitely has no reason to shy from the slightly faster 5.2, especially since quad-channel enables double the bandwidth per clock on HEDT. 🙂

Still, the cost is significantly lower for 8700K.

What AIO you're using to cool a 5.2GHz 6-core? Is that 1.35V running? Max RPM under load? Temps?

Menthol
Level 14
Corsair H115i with ML fans on motherboard fan headers standard mode fans run at approx. 700 rpm idle 1500 rpm max. pretty quite during normal use. CPU is a 5.3 @ 1.437 volts Silicon Lottery binned, I am running 5.2 @ 1.4 volts 24/7
Quad channel memory does equal much more bandwidth, a 7980XE at 5.0 all core OC is a rarity and will have a much more costly cooling requirement, a 7900X @ 5.0 is more realistic but still a rarity

I didn't mean to directly compare a Z370 to HEDP platform as they are a different beast, I do own a R6Apex and 7980XE that I only use for 3D benchmarks (waiting for new GPU's this year), 4.8 to 4.9 GHZ all core OC using a water chiller to keep it cool, 3.2 cache, 4000 cl17, non delidded at the moment, I have no real use for HEDP except as a toy to play with

71472

Menthol wrote:
Corsair H115i with ML fans on motherboard fan headers standard mode fans run at approx. 700 rpm idle 1500 rpm max. pretty quite during normal use. CPU is a 5.3 @ 1.437 volts Silicon Lottery binned, I am running 5.2 @ 1.4 volts 24/7
Quad channel memory does equal much more bandwidth, a 7980XE at 5.0 all core OC is a rarity and will have a much more costly cooling requirement, a 7900X @ 5.0 is more realistic but still a rarity

I didn't mean to directly compare a Z370 to HEDP platform as they are a different beast, I do own a R6Apex and 7980XE that I only use for 3D benchmarks (waiting for new GPU's this year), 4.8 to 4.9 GHZ all core OC using a water chiller to keep it cool, 3.2 cache, 4000 cl17, non delidded at the moment, I have no real use for HEDP except as a toy to play with

71472


I see... also, 4.9, what voltage? 🙂 - 5.0 exclusively with a chiller. I can't run my 7980XE above 4.7 and cool it at the same time. It's impossible at load. But I've seen reports.
Regarding 7900X, funny thing is, 7980XE clocks much better than 7900X. I presume it's the die area thing - 7980Xe comes from a higher core count die process and is less hungry and less packed).

It's impressive to hear that at 700RPM H115i cools it fine. 🙂