[SOLVED] How many PCIe 3.0 lanes can be used?

[AARRGGHHH]

I've been away from PC building for quite a while. I used to thinking of four x16 lanes, or 64 lanes, as the maximum that one would need. But now I'm seeing CPUs and Motherboards that support higher lane counts. I'd appreciate if some Tom's forum users could enlighten me as to what the > 64 lanes would be used for.

Thank you

 

[CountMike]

I've been away from PC building for quite a while. I used to thinking of four x16 lanes, or 64 lanes, as the maximum that one would need. But now I'm seeing CPUs and Motherboards that support higher lane counts. I'd appreciate if some Tom's forum users could enlighten me as to what the > 64 lanes would be used for.

Thank you

Multiple GPUs for instance as well as any other PCIe cards including NVME drives. Some lines are also divided between CPU and chipset

 

[AARRGGHHH]

Thank you.

For the sake of discussion, suppose there's four GPUs each using 16 lanes in a gaming or 3D rendering machine, that would be 64 lanes. How many additional lanes are needed for the CPU and chipset? How many lanes are needed for each NVME drive?

I'm trying to get an idea of a realistic maximum (versus overkill / paying for lanes I'll never use).