Thoughts on GIGABYTE GA-Z170XP-SLI ?

axlrose87

Member
Oct 12, 2014
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Thinking of buying this for my first Skylake build (6600k). All I need is a mild overclock and I will be using a single GPU but I would like the capability of having SLI in the future.

My question is, why does this board have SLI when other similarly priced (or cheaper) boards don't? If it doesn't have SLI then I am stuck with crossfire, correct?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128841
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,380
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Thinking of buying this for my first Skylake build (6600k). All I need is a mild overclock and I will be using a single GPU but I would like the capability of having SLI in the future.

My question is, why does this board have SLI when other similarly priced (or cheaper) boards don't? If it doesn't have SLI then I am stuck with crossfire, correct?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128841

Correct. Motherboards will state if they support Crossfire (AMD) and/or SLI (Nvidia).

This price point is very competive (board can sell for $15-$20 more). A good chunk of people stay under $150, so for features Gigabyte has to really compete with Asrock (who usually undercuts Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte with most of their line-up).

It's a good board that's not really missing anything. Depending on your budget, you could go a step higher in their line-up and grab the GA-z170x-UD5 for $150 after rebate. It is mostly the same features, but the UD5 has a little bit better build and has metal supports around the PCIe slots.

In the end, there are a lot of good choices out there right now in the sub-$150 market from all manufacturers. Once you go beyond that, a lot of the price increase you pay for is the fancier styling of the board. Some high priced models might get you s little higher overclock with different power phases and stuff like that, but it is usually very minor and geared for the hard core people who want to push their cpu to the brink of death. ;)

Edit: I had a few minutes to look, but the here are the other manufacturer's boards where they start offering SLI.

Asrock z170 Extreme3 $129.99
Asus z170-e $135.99
MSI z170a sli $139.99

I could have missed a model because I'm on mobile, but you can see the price range. It doesn't have to have 'SLI' in it's name to have that feature.
 
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abekl

Senior member
Jul 2, 2011
264
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71
I'm a fan of the Gigabyte GA-z170x-UD5 myself. Just the right mix of features.
 

Magic Carpet

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2011
3,477
231
106
Seems to be quite a power-efficient board. I'd give it a shot.

power18.jpg


I'm a fan of the Gigabyte GA-z170x-UD5 myself. Just the right mix of features.
Solid board as well.
 
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DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,472
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WOHA!

boards that do not support crossfire, or SLI, *do* support both crossfire and sli. It's just that they don't have the sticker. If it supports one, it supports the other, except not officially.
 

Magic Carpet

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2011
3,477
231
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Can any one (gigabyte z170 owners) test power consumption of your rigs?

Say, wPrime 1.55 maximum watts @ stock (idle to load delta would be fine).
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,325
10,034
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WOHA!

boards that do not support crossfire, or SLI, *do* support both crossfire and sli. It's just that they don't have the sticker. If it supports one, it supports the other, except not officially.

Uhm, yeah, good luck finding and using hacked drivers, to enable SLI on non-approved boards/chipsets. For sure, you won't get "same day playability" when new games come out. It's a totally ghetto solution. That's why no-one here recommends it.

And in terms of technical specs, SLI requires two x8 PCI-E slots. Crossfire can work with an x4. Cheaper boards have x16 off of the CPU, and the second slot is x4 off of the chipset/PCH.