PLX PEX 8747 Z77 Motherboards PCI E question
1 Aug 2014 10:38:00 UTC
Topic 197661
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I was wondering if anyone had experience using Z77 boards with PLX PEX 8747 chips and vs standard motherboards without this feature and would like to share their experience. Particularly if the PLX chip provided any greater PCI E performance which resulted in shorter task completion times for work units that are seemingly limited by PCI E bandwidth like the Perseus Arm Survey. Thanks.
PLX PEX 8747 Z77 Motherboards PCI E question
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The CPU has 16 lanes available for use. The 8747 switch can connect 16 lanes upstream to the CPU and 32 lanes downstream to the GPUs. This opens up the opportunity for GPUs to share the available bandwidth rather than having a fixed smaller quantity of lanes allocated to each GPU. In the scenario where an application running on GPU #1 is transferring data and an application running on GPU #2 is doing something else, GPU #1 could use the extra bandwidth available at that time.
I would suggest reading any available technical documentation to determine PCI-E lane distribution for the motherboards that you are considering. For example, the EVGA Z77 motherboard connects 8 lanes from the 8747 to the CPU where most other Z77 motherboards connect all 16 lanes from the 8747 to the CPU.
Thanks for the input Jeroen,
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Thanks for the input Jeroen, I appreciate the help.
AnandTech has published some
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AnandTech has published some Z77 test results for MB's with/without the 8747 chip. Interesting read...
Gord
Gord thanks for the link,
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Gord thanks for the link, that article is interesting.