PCI compatibility

[Xander95]

I am looking to hopefully install multiple graphic cards and my current build has the following slot compatibilities.

1 PCIe Express 3.0 x16
1 PCIe 2.0 x16
2 PCIe 2.0 x1
3 PCI

The graphics cards I want to run uses 3.0 so is it possible to install a PCIe Express 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot? I really don't wanna build a whole new computer yet.

 

[beers]

What are the rest of your specs? Which specific cards are you looking to use?

PCIE 2.0 16x has the same bandwidth as a PCIE 3.0 8x slot and the card is backwards compatible with the previous standard.

 

[Intel_man]

It depends on the following circumstances...

• What motherboard chipset are you running
• what multi-gpu setup are you trying to achieve (SLi/CF/other)
• What PSU are you running
• What are you trying to achieve in terms of performance.

There's a few other questions to ask, but those are the four I'd ask straight off the bat.

 

[Xander95]

Well my motherboard is the ASRock fm2a88x+ killer. Here is a link for all the specs of the board.
www.asrock.com/mb/amd/fatal1ty%20fm2a88x+%20killer/

I wish to run 2 Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti's but I am not sure if it is possible. If it is, I wish to bridge the two to run it as one unit and also OC the cards.

 

[Intel_man]

Well there's 2 problems here. Your mobo doesn't support SLi and GTX 1050 Ti doesn't support SLi.

What's the rest of your specs of your computer and what kind of a budget are you looking at to improving your computer?

 

[Xander95]

I am just making gradual upgrades. I am on a tight budget as of right now. I am running a 4.3 GHz A10 processor, 8gb of RAM, a Radeon R7 integrated graphics (hence why I am getting a graphics card), and Windows 7. That is all the info I have. I am just trying to upgrade it so I can play some upcoming betas.

 

[beers]

Is that one stick of RAM or two?

I wouldn't run dual gpu on fm2. Plus if you don't even own one of the cards already it's always a better buy to get the single faster card.

 

[Xander95]

Is that one stick of RAM or two?

I wouldn't run dual gpu on fm2. Plus if you don't even own one of the cards already it's always a better buy to get the single faster card.

Would you mind explaining to me why ya wouldn't run dual gpu on fm2? I am still learning.

 

[Intel_man]

The CPU will be a bottleneck to a multi-gpu setup in performance to the point where it's not worth the cost of running a dual gpu setup. You'd be better off spending money elsewhere to gain some performance.

 

[Xander95]

The CPU will be a bottleneck to a multi-gpu setup in performance to the point where it's not worth the cost of running a dual gpu setup. You'd be better off spending money elsewhere to gain some performance.

So I should just run a single graphics card? Cuz I'm fine with that. I could disable the integrated graphics and switch over to the graphics card.

 

[beers]

Would you mind explaining to me why ya wouldn't run dual gpu on fm2? I am still learning.

You'd have to go at least 1070 for SLI, that's pretty expensive and even if you bought them the FM2 platform is limited to 4-core/2-module processors, which aren't sufficient for most modern games. You'd still get low performance and stuttering in a lot of situations based on not having enough available CPU resources.

 

[JLuchinski]

So I should just run a single graphics card? Cuz I'm fine with that. I could disable the integrated graphics and switch over to the graphics card.

When you install the video card and hook it up your motherboard will automatically turn off the integrated graphics and switch to the video card, you can't run both at the same time. If it doesn't automatically change it you have to go into the bios and change it.

 

[beers]

you can't run both at the same time

This used to be the case, however with modern platforms you can run both in tandem

 

[JLuchinski]

This used to be the case, however with modern platforms you can run both in tandem

I was completely unaware of that.

 

[beers]

Give it a try on the 3330 if you ever need additional monitor connections for 2d productivity

 

[Darren]

I was completely unaware of that.

AMD has supported asynchronous Crossfire for a while, at least a couple years.

 

[JLuchinski]

Give it a try on the 3330 if you ever need additional monitor connections for 2d productivity

I doubt my motherboard would support it, plus I had to get rid of my 1050 so now I'm using the onboard gpu. I feel so empty.

 

[JLuchinski]

AMD has supported asynchronous Crossfire for a while, at least a couple years.

What a time to be alive