Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

[TroyR]

I've been told due to the PLX PEX8747 PCI-Express 3.0 x48 bridge chip a single graphics cards performance would be diminished and would need two cards to reach their full potential..!? Does this make any sense to any one
Thank you for reading.

[TroyR]

Re: Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

1610 views and not one comment..?! Please, Any opinion at all would really be appreciated.

[profJim]

Re: Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

It looks like a single video card has a 1 - 2% latency "penalty" when it is run through a PLX chip. Years ago some high end motherboards provided an option that allowed you to configure which pci-e slots used the PLX chip.

In Steven Bassiri's ASUS Z270-WS Motherboard Review he says:
on page 4:

The Avago PLX PEX8747 provides x32 PCI-E 3.0 downstream from only x16 PCI-E 3.0, meaning if the CPU provides x16 then the PEX8747 can provide the GPUs with x32. The tradeoff is increased latency, but you will only really see diminishing returns if you only use a single GPU.


Multi-GPU configurations should benefit, and the PEX8747 is the only way to get 3-way and 4-way SLI on the Z270 platform. Multiple ASMedia ASM1480 quick switches move around PCI-E bandwidth, and we find a second clock buffer on the motherboard to facilitate the PEX8747, implementation.

page 8:

The Z270-WS's performance is very strong in CPU and memory benchmarks. Since we are using a single GPU on a motherboard with a PEX8747, some latency is added, but not enough to really make you notice performance issues.

Looking at the video card benchmarks in his review the Z270-WS results are right up there with the other similar high end motherboards.

Don't worry, be happy!!

[TroyR]

Re: Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

Thank you so much for your thorough reply ProJim...My concern was in game studdering...

[profJim]

Re: Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

You're welcome.

I've never been a gamer but I've run 3D Mark benchmarks to see how my now antiquated Q9550/P45 system performs with similar systems. Right now you can buy the 3DMark + PCMark 10 + VRMark bundle for $18.35 and the 3DMark Time Spy upgrade for an additional $1.49. I have a Sapphire RX 480 Nitro 8GB video card so it will we interesting to see how well my system does with DX 11 and DX 12 benchmarks. I'm pretty sure that my benchmark scores will be somewhat lower than your scores.

On the Futuremark site they say:

When you buy PCMark 10 Advanced Edition from Steam you get a fast download, easy installation and automatic updates. You can move your key freely between Steam and the stand-alone version.

Save 85% on 3DMark on Steam

edit: The $1.49 Time Spy upgrade is included in the bundled price, so with sales tax added, the total price was $20 and change.

[TroyR]

Re: Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

Those are some good savings...Thanks for the tip. Lastly; In any ones opinion, Do you think I'll get ingame micro studdering due to the latency...?

[profJim]

Re: Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

Those are some good savings...Thanks for the tip. Lastly;In your opinion, Do you think I'll get ingame micro studdering due to the latency...?

It looks like you haven't built your system yet.
I don't have personal experience with high end systems, but my google-fu is pretty good.

A google search using: video game micro stuttering is a good starting point.
At the bottom of the google search pages they have additional suggested search criteria, such as:

Searches related to video game micro stuttering

• micro stuttering windows 10
• micro stuttering fix nvidia
• what is micro stuttering
• what causes micro stuttering
• how to fix stuttering in pc games
• what does micro stuttering look like
• micro stuttering example
• micro stuttering overwatch

I was blown away several years ago when pcper.com developed their video card Frame Rating system.
Another worthwhile search is:

• site: pcper.com video game micro stuttering

When seeking advice in a forum, it's best to provide a very detailed list of your hardware setup. Look at the amount of detail in my PC Specs and forum signature. Sometimes posters will ask for advice before buying hardware where they include a detailed list of their proposed hardware and then ask "waddyah think about my list?"

You want/need a balanced system where none of the components will be a bottleneck, such as:

• is the cpu powerful enough that it won't be a bottleneck?
• does the motherboard chipset have enough video card lanes to drive my video card(s)?
• is there enough system memory and is it fast enough?
• does the video card have enough memory and is it powerful enough?
• what is the monitor's native screen resolution? 1920 x 1080? 2550 x 1440? 4K?
• does the monitor have G-Sync? FreeSync?
• what is the monitor's maximum refresh rate? 60Hz? 100Hz? 144Hz?
• do you want to run more than one monitor?

Don't forget to read and/or post in "official" tech support forums from EVGA, Asus, MSI, etc. where you can find some very experienced users and they might also have some posters that are from the manufacturer's tech support department.

Happy reading!!

[TroyR]

Re: Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

Your Google Fu is strong wise one...Thankyou so much for your time.

[profJim]

Re: Z270-WS diminished graphics performance w/ a single card..?!

Your Google Fu is strong wise one...Thankyou so much for your time.

Welcome you are young Padawan.

May you be with the force.