Can this MoBo Handle two MSI Lighting 290X's?

ComicWheat

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http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dttVgs

Im using the Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard and was originally going to have 2 GTX 970s but they are permanently removed from my parts list for the obvious reasons. So I decided to go with the R9 290X instead since the price drops. The Lighting appeals to me more because of the variable fan speeds and the fact that its quieter and tends to run better than the other non reference cards. But in many reviews I've seen they refer to it taking 3 slots. Could this MoBo handle that with the gaps? Any insight would be amazing.
 
'Obvious reasons' ? They run better than 290Xs with less power - http://www.tomshardware.de/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-gtx-980-roundup-vergleichstest,testberichte-241658-18.html

If your mobo can fit 2 x 970s then it should fit 2 x r9 290xs.

Your mobo - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_990FXGEN3_R20/specifications/ spec says "3 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (dual x16 or x16/x8/x8) *1"

So I'd expect it'd work just as well with the second card in the third slot as in the second slot. This gives more room between cards.
 

ComicWheat

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ComicWheat

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Im using this for video editing for college and gaming for the hell of it. Countless people say that when you use 2 GTX 970Sli that the videos and other editing stats become choppy as hell, including that the .5GB of VRAM that is tucked away becomes 1GB tucked away when using it Sli. Your telling me otherwise and only showing stuff from a gaming stand point. When it comes time to do rendering and even capturing video at Hi-Res (3840 x 2160 for me) all 4 GB of VRAM will be needed. And btw, I asked about spacing for the MSI lightning cards not if I should change back and get the GTX 970's
 

ComicWheat

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I know that 1 MSI R9 290X Lighting 4GB is compatible, but being it is a 3 slot wide card my question is would 2 of them fit on the mother board in the 1st and 3rd slots. Im not using the reference card in the situation, im using the MSI non reference, its a lot bigger and heavier than the regular ole' Radeon R9 290X .
 

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1134_single-slot-vs-dual-slot-gpus.jpg


Fig E is a Single Slot Card, It sets in one PCIE slot and doesnt cover up another.
Fig F is a Dual Slot Card, It sets in one PCIE slot and cover up the next slot because of it size.

The Radeon R9 290X is a Dual Slot card. The MSI version of it is a Triple Slot Card, meaning it should cover the next 2 slots, think of Fig F with 75% of Fig E slapped on top. But my mobo has a pretty large gap between the first and third slot ( which they say to run the GPUs on because its faster) So I want to know, if those Triple Slot Cards will fit, will they cover up all the other Slots, Can I even fit a second one into the 3rd slot. That is what I want to know.

IMG_9906.JPG


This a size comparison between a Radeon R9 290X and the MSI version, easily over and inch fatter