I want to offer the Asus ROG b450-f gaming as a cheap option for a 3 gpu server.
I will stipulate that I don't have a read on it's long term reliability.
Since it is running gen 3 it may be unsuitable for any project that is sensitive to bandwidth.
At first blush it is competing with motherboards sporting gen4 and prices in the 2x-3x range more expensive than it seems to be costing.
Note: I am limiting this comparison to motherboards with 3 or more full length slots. So any of the x570 (or other chipsets) that are offering good to great 2 slot solutions are not the competition I am thinking about.
Anyway.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
I want to offer the Asus ROG b450-f gaming as a cheap option for a 3 gpu server.
I don't know if the 3rd slot will work that well as it only runs at PCIe2 x4 as will most AMD boards based on the b450 chipset as the Chipset link is only PCIe3 x4 and has to feed most of the SATA and other peripheral interfaces.
AMD widened the Chipset link on b550, however, to PCIe3 x8 so motherboards based on those might be more viable for triple GPUs and the b550 boards also appear to have better VRM solutions than b450 better suited to driving 105W TDP CPUs (r7 and r9). The down-side is that many manufacturers have stopped making "SLI-capable" cards (with the PCIe switches necessary to bifurcate the x16 slot off the CPU to x8/x8) as these are more expensive for Gen4 than Gen3 and often also require re-drivers to work reliably).
ASrock has the TaiChiPG RipTide (but the lower 2 slots on this one are both fed from the chipset one at x4 and the other at x1)
MSI doesn't appear to have any b550 boards with 3 x16 slots
But honestly at the price point of most of these higher-end b500 boards you'd be better off spending a little more money and getting a board based on the x570 chipset as these typically have better VRMs and more features.
I want to offer the Asus ROG b450-f gaming as a cheap option for a 3 gpu server.
I don't know if the 3rd slot will work that well as it only runs at PCIe2 x4 as will most AMD boards based on the b450 chipset as the Chipset link is only PCIe3 x4 and has to feed most of the SATA and other peripheral interfaces.
Einstein uses very little of the PCIe bus. so even PCIe gen 2.0 x4 is more than enough. The only BOINC project that I've found that was sensitive to PCIe bandwidth has been GPUGRID's acemd3 CUDA application.
I want to offer the Asus ROG b450-f gaming as a cheap option for a 3 gpu server.
But honestly at the price point of most of these higher-end b500 boards you'd be better off spending a little more money and getting a board based on the x570 chipset as these typically have better VRMs and more features.
I agree except that I have been having really bad luck with $180+ motherboards. Since the goal is to run 3 gpus via 16x ribbon cables and not spend $250 or more on the motherboard(s) like I have repeatedly (have had 4-6 x570 MB's so far). A ~$100 new/open box MB seems like a really good choice.
If/when (the itch hits me 'regularly') I decide to return to the 4 and up GPU class system I will almost certainly have to switch to a server MB with more full length Pcie slots $500. LDRS? Ram $200~, and a CPU cooler $50-100. I already have two server cpus that don't run very fast but have oodles of Pcie lanes directly off the CPU chips.
As well as another Rtx 3080 GPU card ~$1,800+
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
A Google search alleged a bug in the chipset. The work around screwed up at least the speed of the third GPU. Maybe all of them.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
Oh yes. I only have one 3000 series CPU (gave my grandson the other one). The 550 chipset doesn't recognize my 2700s, my 2200g or anything else of that old a generation.
With an x570 or a b450 I can run either 2000 or 3000 series.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
Oh yes. I only have one 3000 series CPU (gave my grandson the other one). The 550 chipset doesn't recognize my 2700s, my 2200g or anything else of that old a generation.
With an x570 or a b450 I can run either 2000 or 3000 series.
Tom M
I have 2 cards running without issues in the bottom slot. Have had as many as five at one time.
You would have less issues running a Ryzen Zen+ generation X470 based or B450 based motherboard running Ryzen Zen+ cpus of the same time period such as your 2700X cpus. They were after all developed at the same time.
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
I want to offer the Asus ROG
)
I want to offer the Asus ROG b450-f gaming as a cheap option for a 3 gpu server.
I will stipulate that I don't have a read on it's long term reliability.
Since it is running gen 3 it may be unsuitable for any project that is sensitive to bandwidth.
At first blush it is competing with motherboards sporting gen4 and prices in the 2x-3x range more expensive than it seems to be costing.
Note: I am limiting this comparison to motherboards with 3 or more full length slots. So any of the x570 (or other chipsets) that are offering good to great 2 slot solutions are not the competition I am thinking about.
Anyway.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
Tom M wrote:I want to offer
)
I don't know if the 3rd slot will work that well as it only runs at PCIe2 x4 as will most AMD boards based on the b450 chipset as the Chipset link is only PCIe3 x4 and has to feed most of the SATA and other peripheral interfaces.
AMD widened the Chipset link on b550, however, to PCIe3 x8 so motherboards based on those might be more viable for triple GPUs and the b550 boards also appear to have better VRM solutions than b450 better suited to driving 105W TDP CPUs (r7 and r9). The down-side is that many manufacturers have stopped making "SLI-capable" cards (with the PCIe switches necessary to bifurcate the x16 slot off the CPU to x8/x8) as these are more expensive for Gen4 than Gen3 and often also require re-drivers to work reliably).
ASUS has the b550 XE and -E
Gigabyte's only b550 option is the b550 Vision Pro
ASrock has the TaiChi PG RipTide (but the lower 2 slots on this one are both fed from the chipset one at x4 and the other at x1)
MSI doesn't appear to have any b550 boards with 3 x16 slots
But honestly at the price point of most of these higher-end b500 boards you'd be better off spending a little more money and getting a board based on the x570 chipset as these typically have better VRMs and more features.
gordonbb wrote: Tom M
)
Einstein uses very little of the PCIe bus. so even PCIe gen 2.0 x4 is more than enough. The only BOINC project that I've found that was sensitive to PCIe bandwidth has been GPUGRID's acemd3 CUDA application.
_________________________________________________________________________
gordonbb wrote:Tom M
)
I agree except that I have been having really bad luck with $180+ motherboards. Since the goal is to run 3 gpus via 16x ribbon cables and not spend $250 or more on the motherboard(s) like I have repeatedly (have had 4-6 x570 MB's so far). A ~$100 new/open box MB seems like a really good choice.
If/when (the itch hits me 'regularly') I decide to return to the 4 and up GPU class system I will almost certainly have to switch to a server MB with more full length Pcie slots $500. LDRS? Ram $200~, and a CPU cooler $50-100. I already have two server cpus that don't run very fast but have oodles of Pcie lanes directly off the CPU chips.
As well as another Rtx 3080 GPU card ~$1,800+
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
Why do you always go for the
)
Why do you always go for the X570 boards? Of no benefit for crunching. Perfectly fine X470 boards with MUCH LESS issues than the X570 boards.
I have had zero issues with my ASUS Crosshair VII Hero boards which are X470 based chipsets.
Benefit is you get all your sensors reported while you do not with X570 boards.
The last x470 I had the third
)
The last x470 I had the third slot didn't work.
A Google search alleged a bug in the chipset. The work around screwed up at least the speed of the third GPU. Maybe all of them.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
Oh yes. I only have one 3000
)
Oh yes. I only have one 3000 series CPU (gave my grandson the other one). The 550 chipset doesn't recognize my 2700s, my 2200g or anything else of that old a generation.
With an x570 or a b450 I can run either 2000 or 3000 series.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!
Tom M wrote: The last x470 I
)
The only thing different on the third card in the bottom slot is it runs at X4 Gen. 2 speed because it is driven by the chipset instead of the cpu.
Which has absolutely NO bearing on Einstein crunching as Ian has mentioned several times.
Only has marginal effect on tasks from GPUGrid.
Tom M wrote: Oh yes. I only
)
I have 2 cards running without issues in the bottom slot. Have had as many as five at one time.
You would have less issues running a Ryzen Zen+ generation X470 based or B450 based motherboard running Ryzen Zen+ cpus of the same time period such as your 2700X cpus. They were after all developed at the same time.
Keith Myers wrote: Tom M
)
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor) I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!