SLI with Slots 1 and 3?

[atBrenthor]

Hello,

I can't find an answer for this anywhere! Here's my situation.

I have an MSI X99a SLI Plus mobo and a Zotac Amp! Extreme 980 ti. Within the next 18 months I'd like to get another 980 ti and SLI the cards but the card is a triple slot monster. The mobo has 4 PCI-E slots (3 @ 16x and the bottom one is 8x). Where the card is a monster, would I be able to SLI using slots 1 and 3 because the card makes accessing the 2nd slot impossible.

So tl:dr: On an x99 mobo, can I run SLI in slots 1 and 3 instead of 1 and 2, and will doing so cost me performance, and if so, how much?

Thanks!

 

[Mousemonkey]

Check the manual, it will tell you what slots can be used.

 

[atBrenthor]

The manual basically tells me to start with one and work down but that's not possible with my card. Where the first 3 slots all operate at 16x I can't see why it would be an issue but I'm not as savvy as a lot of the folks around here. The only impact I can really see is having to buy a longer sli bridge. The x99 stuff is all crazy and I don't know how it all comes together just yet.

 

[Mousemonkey]

The manual basically tells me to start with one and work down but that's not possible with my card. Where the first 3 slots all operate at 16x I can't see why it would be an issue but I'm not as savvy as a lot of the folks around here. The only impact I can really see is having to buy a longer sli bridge. The x99 stuff is all crazy and I don't know how it all comes together just yet.

Chances are that if you miss a slot then the second card won't work in SLi. This is the downside of triple slot cards and why going down the SLi or Crossfire route requires a bit of forethought.

 

[atBrenthor]

Additionally,

I'm using a 5820k so I know it's only 28 lanes so my second card would almost have to run in 8x/8x/8x but I couldn't afford 40 lanes. Is it even worth doing SLI?

 

[atBrenthor]

The manual basically tells me to start with one and work down but that's not possible with my card. Where the first 3 slots all operate at 16x I can't see why it would be an issue but I'm not as savvy as a lot of the folks around here. The only impact I can really see is having to buy a longer sli bridge. The x99 stuff is all crazy and I don't know how it all comes together just yet.

Chances are that if you miss a slot then the second card won't work in SLi. This is the downside of triple slot cards and why going down the SLi or Crossfire route requires a bit of forethought.

Is there a reason why, though? I can't find a technical reason on the x99 board that it won;t work. I just wanted to confirm before I bought another card.

 

[MEMOFLEX]

The manual basically tells me to start with one and work down but that's not possible with my card. Where the first 3 slots all operate at 16x I can't see why it would be an issue but I'm not as savvy as a lot of the folks around here. The only impact I can really see is having to buy a longer sli bridge. The x99 stuff is all crazy and I don't know how it all comes together just yet.

Chances are that if you miss a slot then the second card won't work in SLi. This is the downside of triple slot cards and why going down the SLi or Crossfire route requires a bit of forethought.

Is there a reason why, though? I can't find a technical reason on the x99 board that it won;t work. I just wanted to confirm before I bought another card.

Looking at the manual for the board it suggests that only x16/x8/x0/x0 with the PCI-E lanes you have available, would be possible but I have found this to differ from board to board. On my P6X58D-E it states the same but I ran 560 ti SLI in slots 1 and 3 no issues. The amount of lanes you have available to you would still more than make SLI worth it if the motherboard would accept a card in slot 3.

UPDATE : I have found this information for you :

In order to overcome the cooling worries of using back-to-back graphics cards, the first and third full-length PCIe slots can be used when running a 5820K CPU (as we saw OCUK apply here). A similar graphics card placement workaround can be used to run three graphics cards alongside a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD when using a 40-lane CPU (don’t use the bottom full-length PCIe slot).

from this review http://

Seems that you are able to run this configuration.

 

[atBrenthor]

[/quotemsg]

Looking at the manual for the board it suggests that only x16/x8/x0/x0 with the PCI-E lanes you have available, would be possible but I have found this to differ from board to board. On my P6X58D-E it states the same but I ran 560 ti SLI in slots 1 and 3 no issues. The amount of lanes you have available to you would still more than make SLI worth it if the motherboard would accept a card in slot 3.

UPDATE : I have found this information for you :

In order to overcome the cooling worries of using back-to-back graphics cards, the first and third full-length PCIe slots can be used when running a 5820K CPU (as we saw OCUK apply here). A similar graphics card placement workaround can be used to run three graphics cards alongside a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD when using a 40-lane CPU (don’t use the bottom full-length PCIe slot).

from this review http://

Seems that you are able to run this configuration.
[/quotemsg]

Thanks so much! The one referenced uses a x99S not x99A but the only difference I'm aware of between the two is that the A has two 3.1 ports.

This is great news! I was pulling my hair out over this one!

Thanks so much!