[SOLVED] Using 1st and 3rd PCI-E slot - x570 motherboard

[Pavelgreen]

Hello! I have recently obtained a second 3080 for my rendering machine and installing it leaves only a tiny gap between the cards with my current Asus Tuf x570 motherboard. They are two massive three-slot cards. The heat is just too much.
I have been thinking of getting an Asus Pro WS X570-ACE which offers triple x8 (PCIe 4.0) when three GPUs are used (I am using a 3950x). The third slot I am planning to use goes through the chipset rather than the processor.
So my question is - will I have issues using only the first and third slots skipping the second PCI-e slot? Thank you in advance.

 

[Lutfij]

You might want to look into probably beefing up the airflow in your case and maybe have one of the GPU's off of a GPU riser while not investing in a new motherboard. As it stands yes the Workstation board has a third PCIe slot for the GPU but it's going to be towards the bottom of the case and perhaps closer to the PSU's basement, assuming you have a case with a PSU basement. Which does lead me to ask what the make and model of your chassis(?).

As for your question, yes the slot will operate at x8 mode, as mentioned in the Workstation motherboard's manual, page 1-6. Dropping any component into the third PCIe slot will meaning the other slots will operate at x8 mode.

I'd look into watercooling the cards to alleviate the slot spacing issue and to combat thermals.

 

[Pavelgreen]

You might want to look into probably beefing up the airflow in your case and maybe have one of the GPU's off of a GPU riser while not investing in a new motherboard. As it stands yes the Workstation board has a third PCIe slot for the GPU but it's going to be towards the bottom of the case and perhaps closer to the PSU's basement, assuming you have a case with a PSU basement. Which does lead me to ask what the make and model of your chassis(?).

As for your question, yes the slot will operate at x8 mode, as mentioned in the Workstation motherboard's manual, page 1-6. Dropping any component into the third PCIe slot will meaning the other slots will operate at x8 mode.

I'd look into watercooling the cards to alleviate the slot spacing issue and to combat thermals.

Thank you. I have removed the PSU shroud and plan to move the PSU out of the case to avoid this issue you are mentioning.
I have been thinking of moving the GPU out of the slot with an extender but it then mounting it securely gets complicated.