3XS Black Widow Extreme with Rampage III Extreme - PCI Link Width Query

[drharvey12]

Hi,

I have got a 3XS Black Widow Extreme with twin watercooled GTX480's on a Rampage 3 Extreme mobo. Recently downloaded CPU-Z and saw that this reports the graphics cards using an 8x link width as opposed to the maximum supported 16x. As these are the only things I have in the PCI slots shouldn't they be running at 16x?

The gfx cards are in the top 2 slots towards the CPU (assume these are slots 1 and 2) and the lower 2 are completely empty. Having read some other posts people seem to be suggesting that only slots 1 and 3 offer full 16x support?!? Is this correct?

How do I go about finding out exactly what PCI bandwidth both cards are on and ideally changing them to use the full 16x bandwidth if at all possible.

Hope this is enough info but if anybody needs anything else let me know and I'll do my best to provide you with it. Sorry if posted on the wrong forum. Feel free to move it if required.

Really appreciate any advice from anybody on getting this sorted.

[Phage]

A quick Google to here
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/print...therboard/1006
Your cards should be in 1 & 3 positions. You will need the longer bridge.

"The first PCI Express x16 slot works at x16 if the second slot is empty. If there is a video card on the second slot, both the first and the second slot will work at x8. The third and fourth PCI Express x16 slots work the same way: the third one works at x16 or x8, depending whether the fourth slot is empty or not. So if you have two video cards it is really important to use the first and the third (and not the second) PCI Express x16 slots in order to get the best performance possible. Using the manufacturer nomenclature, this motherboard supports the following configurations: x16; x16/x16; x16/x8/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8. The slots are compatible with SLI and CrossFireX arrays."

[drharvey12]

Cheers Phage.

Just read an article on hardocp stating that 8x/8x mode is ok only using 1 monitor at up to 2560x1600.

As I'm only using a single monitor at the moment I guess I can keep it as it is.

Thanks again for your help.

[Phage]

No worries.

[drharvey12]

Having spoken to Scan they confirmed that the setup in slots 1 and 2 is normal as that is the best way for the custom cooling loop that they build. I was told that it would be possible to configure it for slots 1 and 3 but that would require a (probably expensive) rebuild and woudn't come as standard. However they did confirm that 2 GTX 480's are fine on an 8x/8x at up to 2560x1600 before any noticeable performance decrease occurs. 2 GTX 480's will not saturate the available bandwidth at this resolution. On a multiple monitor setup at higher resolutions however it appears as though there will be a definite fps gain if you were to have both cards working in slots 1 and 3 at 16/16 mode. Just thought I'd mention it so anybody thinking of buying for a multiple monitor setup can ask about this before placing an order.