the MSI PC Mate Z97 MB has 1 PCIE 3.0X16 and 1 PCIE 2.0X16. I have a pair of 7970's. Is it a big enough deal to find a differe

[PatThe3rd]

MSI PC Mate Z97 MB has 1 PCIE 3.0X16 and 1 PCIE 2.0X16. Is the performance of two 3.0's significant? Im upgrading from an ASUS Sabertooth 55i and i7-860 with the now obsolete chipset. I bought another 7970 to Crossfire but after installation I was very disappointed. The performance gain was negligible. I plan to go with an i5-4690K and a Z97 board. The MSI PC Mate is perfect in every other way. I don't want to make any expensive mistakes.

 

[clutchc]

Version 2.0 won't slow down the CF cards at all. No gfx card I'm aware of can yet saturate 2.0 at 16 lanes. But your board's 2nd PCIe x16 slot is only x4 lanes according to the specs: http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z97_PC_Mate.html#hero-specification
That will indeed be a performance killer.