Four Multi-GPU Z77 Boards from $280-$350 - PLX PEX 8747 featuring Gigabyte, ASRock, ECS and EVGA
by Ian Cutress on August 22, 2012 9:15 AM ESTGaming Benchmarks
Clarification of Lane Counts
In this review, we are dealing with motherboards that utilize the PLX PEX 8747 chip differently, such that the PCIe lanes that power each of these boards can come from either the CPU or the PLX chip depending on routing. The following describes the behavior of the four motherboards in this review, along with the ASUS P8Z77-V Premium reviewed previously that also utilized the PLX chip.
ASUS: 16x CPU to PLX, x8/x8/x8/x8
Gigabyte: 16x CPU to PLX, x8/x8/x8/x8
EVGA: 8x CPU to PCIe 1, 8x CPU to PLX for overall x8/x16/x8/x8
ASRock: 16x CPU to PLX, x8/x8/x8/x8
ECS: 16x CPU to PLX, x16/x8/x8
Dirt 3
Dirt 3 is a rallying video game and the third in the Dirt series of the Colin McRae Rally series, developed and published by Codemasters. Using the in game benchmark, Dirt 3 is run at 2560x1440 with full graphical settings. Results are reported as the average frame rate across four runs.
Despite the lane adjustment for EVGA to improve single GPU performance over the other boards, this does not materialize in Dirt3 which ends up being very power and memory hungry. When looking at a fully loaded setup, the eight lane uplink from the EVGA looks to be a limiting factor also.
In comparison, there does not seem to be much to stretch apart the motherboards when NVIDIA cards are used.
Metro2033
Metro2033 is a DX11 benchmark that challenges every system that tries to run it at any high-end settings. Developed by 4A Games and released in March 2010, we use the inbuilt DirectX 11 Frontline benchmark to test the hardware at 2560x1440 with full graphical settings. Results are given as the average frame rate from 10 runs.
For single card setups in Metro2033, the routing via the PLX produces a 4.7% to 6.2% difference in frame rates compared to the top results.
Whereas for NVIDIA cards, Metro2033 shows indifference between PLX enabled motherboards and non-PLX motherboards.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
24 Comments
View All Comments
ultimatex - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
I got this MOBO from Newegg the first day they had it available , I couldn't believe the price since it offered 8x8x8x8x , Picked it up the first day and havent looked back. Doesnt look as cool as the Asrock extreme9 but it still looks good. Awesome Job Gygabyte , Anandtech should have given them a Gold not bronze though since the fan issue is a minor issue.Arbie - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
For gaming, at least, how many people are really going to build a 2xGPU system? Let alone 3x or 4x. The are so few PC games that can use anything more than one strong card AND are worth playing for more than 10 minutes. I actually don't know of any such games, but tastes differ. And some folks will have multi-monitor setups, and possibly need two cards. But overall I'd think the target audience for these mobos is extremely small.Maybe for scientific computing?
Belard - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
Yep.... considering that most AAA PC games are just ports from consoles... having 3-4 GPUs is pointless. The returns get worse after the first 2 cards.Only those with 2~6 monitors can benefit with 2-3 cards.
Also, even $80 Gigabyte boards will do 8x x 8x SLI/CF just fine.
But hey, someone wants to spend $300 on a board... more power to them.
cmdrdredd - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
"Only those with 2~6 monitors can benefit with 2-3 cards."Oh really? 2560x1440 on a single card is garbage in my view. I am not happy with 50fps average.
rarson - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
If you're going multi-GPU on a single monitor, you're wasting money.Sabresiberian - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
Because everyone should build to your standards, O god of all things computer.Do some reading; get a clue.
Steveymoo - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
Incorrect.If you have a 120hz monitor, 2 GPUs make a tonne of difference. Before you come back with a "no one can see 120hz" jibe. That is also incorrect.... My eyes have orgasms every once in a while when you get those ultra detail 100+ fps moments in battlefield, that look great!
von Krupp - Friday, August 24, 2012 - link
No. Metro 2033 is not happy at 2560x1440 with just a single HD 7970, and neither are Battlefield 3 or Crysis. The Total War series also crawls at maximum settings.I bought the U2711 specifically to take advantage of two cards (and for accurate colours, mind you). I have a distaste for multi-monitor gaming and will continue to have such as long as they keep making bezels on monitors.
So please, don't go claiming that multi-card is useless on a single monitor because that just isn't true.
swing848 - Monday, December 8, 2014 - link
At this date, December 2014, with maximum eye candy turned on, there are games that drop a refrence AMD R9 290 below 60 fps on a single monitor at 1920x1080 [using an Intel i5-3570K at 4GHz to 4.2GHz]Sabresiberian - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
This is not 1998, there are many games built for the PC only, and even previously console-oriented publishers aren't just making ports for the PC, they are developing their games to take advantage of the goodness only PCs can bring to the table. Despite what console fanboys continue to spew, PC gaming is on the rise, and console gaming is on the relative decline.