Best mobo for multi gpu setup

[stuckinasquare3]

I'm interested in acquiring a motherboard for gaming with two or three video cards in SLI. Is it worth spending the extra money to get a board that can do x16/x16/x16 with pcie 3.0 (is that even possible)

 

[Prey2big]

Have you looked into the world of micro-stuttering? If not, I would advice you to do so before investing.

 

[stuckinasquare3]

Are you trying to convince me that SLI isn't a good idea? I have a hard time believing that. I looked up micro stuttering Wikipedia:

"Beyond dual-GPU setups, CrossFireX/SLI setups do not seem to be as affected by micro-stuttering; the frame rate variability in a three-way CrossFireX/SLI setup approaches the smoothness achieved by a single GPU.[5]"

"In tests performed in Battlefield 3, a configuration with two GeForce GTX 680 in SLi-mode showed a 7% variation in frame delays, compared to 5% for a single GTX 680, indicating virtually no micro stuttering at all."

 

[Black Octagon]

If you base your purchasing decisions on WIKIPEDIA then you deserve what you get. Microstutter is very, very real. And it sucks, big time.

Maybe SLI is not as bad as Crossfire, but still, read up (proper review sites!) before diving in. Don't say you weren't warned

 

[stuckinasquare3]

Did some more reading and it seems to be hit or miss. It seems not as common with SLI than crossfire, it doesn't happen to everyone, and some games have more trouble with it than others. People still run SLI though and people will still continue to. If today's best single gpu graphics cards can't run the games on the highest settings then SLI is the only option, wouldn't you say? That being said, what about motherboards

 

[BrightCandle]

For three cards you are within the realm of wanting 2011 platform. You could find try and find a motherboard that is 8x/8x/8x but I think all of the triple card boards use the NVidia chip for additional lanes. They aren't exactly the perfect solution but they do restore some of the performance difference of having less real lanes.

With 2011 at least you would have 16x/8x/8x natively and given PCI-E 3.0 you would have no performance degradation at all. But conversely the CPU is going to be slower and the platform is over a year old. No native USB 3.0 for example.

Its not an easy decision actually, there are performance trade offs. I would probably take 2011 instead of 1155 but then I can find a use for those 2 additional cores.