Sandy Bridge and 16 total PCI-E lanes. Is this going to be a problem?

[sxr7171]

I'm trying to figure out if this is an issue or a non-issue with SB. The fact that nobody's talking about it leads me to believe it isn't an issue. However will this be okay for SLI/CF configurations?

Not to mention people needing lanes for other PCI-E cards.

 

[mnewsham]

Sli and cross fire will be limited, get the highest single card you can or wait for socket 2011

 

[sxr7171]

Ahh. So it is an issue and nobody's really talking. Yeah I'll stick with my X58 rig. I was surprised to read that in the AT review but not one mention of this limitation and its consequences.

 

[mnewsham]

X58/1366 is still better then 1155/P67 even if the 2500/2600 can clock higher. X58 has more PCI bandwidth more Memory bandwidth, so far more cores(good for Vm's and such), and more knowledge of the chipset.

 

[Jdmathew]

... With a good board (nf200 chip) it can still run dual x16 and scale at 90%. (see hothardeware.com?) 16 lanes or not, that's impressive. Won't be future proof but with pcie 3.0 coming, nothing is right?

 

[mnewsham]

... With a good board (nf200 chip) it can still run dual x16 and scale at 90%. (see hothardeware.com?) 16 lanes or not, that's impressive. Won't be future proof but with pcie 3.0 coming, nothing is right?

That just adds to the cost of the bored. And anyone running multiple GPU's should probably be waiting for socket R (2011) anyway with PCI-e 3.0 about twice the current amount of L3 cache and octo-core cpu's.

 

[Sp12]

In most games you'll lose 1-2% for a x8/x8. Some games at 2560 can be as much as 8% slower than x16/x16.

That said, Hardocp did a review at x4/x4 and the game play experience was the same so it's a non-issue.

 

[Patmage]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_480_PCI-Express_Scaling/24.html

Was the closest I could find. Had the same question myself, but from the comparisons there I'm not to worried.


Edit:
http://hardocp.com/article/2010/08/23/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x8x8/3 I believe this is the HardOCP review Sp12 was referencing. Basically they said no difference unless you are going to a resolution over 2560x1600 or running multiple displays.

 

[BFG10K]

There will be little to no performance change in most cases.

 

[sxr7171]

I guess that settles that. But does the chipset offer additional lanes for other PCI-E cards? Such as NIC, SATA etc?

 

[3DVagabond]

I guess that settles that. But does the chipset offer additional lanes for other PCI-E cards? Such as NIC, SATA etc?

I'm curious about this too.

 

[Sp12]

The DMI linked lanes run at double rate compared to P55, so it shouldn't have any of the USB3/Sata3 limiting issues P55 had when both X8 slots were in use.

 

[Mark R]

I guess that settles that. But does the chipset offer additional lanes for other PCI-E cards? Such as NIC, SATA etc?

Socket 1155 SB processors offer 16 lanes internally (configurable as 1x16 or 2x8)

P67 chipset provides an additional 8 lanes.

Socket 2011 specs are preliminary. But suggestion is that socket 2011 SB CPUs will provide 32-40 lanes internally with more provided by the chipset.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Sli and cross fire will be limited, get the highest single card you can or wait for socket 2011

Not sure but whats the bandwidth of pci-e on SB . I thought it was the 3rd generation now. If ya need more lanes NV and hydra have solutions. Should be pci-e 3 on 2011 for sure . I thought it was on 1155 maybe not Ihaven't really looked at specs. Never mind I just did a refresh. pci-e on socket 2011. But as already stated NV and hydra both have the solution to your question.