AMD's X370 Only Chipset to Support NVIDIA's SLI

[Raevenlord]

Only AMD's top-of-the-line X370 chipset will support competing NVIDIA's SLI technology. AMD's next-in-line B350 eschews SLI support but retains CrossFire compatibility, while the low-end A320 chipset will offer no support for any such multi-GPU technologies. While this may seem a move by AMD to purposely gimp NVIDIA products on its platforms, it stands to reason that even enthusiasts tend to stay away from multi-GPU solutions and their associated problems. Besides, AMD will surely avoid any way of giving NVIDIA more funds than the company already has, by way of paying the "SLI Tax" on every chipset it ships. By limiting SLI support to its highest-end chipsets, AMD shaves some expenses from licensing efforts, whilst keeping SLI support to those that are, in truth, more likely to use them: power users, who will certainly spare no expense in springing to a X370-based platform.

As of now, some details remain unclear in the overall feature-set and compatibility differences between AMD's upcoming AM4 chipsets, but it would seem that only AMD's X370 chipset manages to leverage the full 20 PCIe lanes (18x if you run 2x SATA connections) delivered by AMD's Ryzen CPUs. This would look like a way for AMD to impose a "motherboard tax" on users, by limiting the number of PCIe lanes available on lower-end motherboards, and thus urging them to take the next step to their own X370. Apparently, PCIe lanes are not a differentiating factor between AMD chipsets (with X370, B350 and A320 all offering 4 native lanes), only their ability to access (or not) Ryzen's own 20.

Not much time until all of this is adequately cleared up, though.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[eidairaman1]

If you want the best i suppose.

 

[alucasa]

Hmm, seems weak.

 

[eidairaman1]

Hmm, seems weak.

Could very well change with revision boards if there is enough demand, but think about it sli and crossfire have been around since 2004- it has been almost 13 years and the gpu makers still haven't gotten it right and most game devs pretty much ignore it.

 

[alucasa]

Not worried about sli since I don't use them. But overall port # is a little worrying. Having only 2 USB3 unless it's top of line?

I generally don't buy top of line mobo for builds.

 

[eidairaman1]

3.1 Ports you mean? What is out there now that uses it?

 

[dj-electric]

Makes a lot of sense to me. Just like Z270 is compered to B250.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Well this is a very interesting move by AMD. Also, I doubt most builders would pick the X370 board for SLI or CFX since scaling on newer games is a mixed bag... but this move is interesting nonetheless.

 

[petepete]

Could very well change with revision boards if there is enough demand, but think about it sli and crossfire have been around since 2004- it has been almost 13 years and the gpu makers still haven't gotten it right and most game devs pretty much ignore it.

Speak for yourself, I go to my cousins and watch his 980's in SLI destroy games like Witcher, Doom, BF1, BF4, WoW, GTA, Fallout 4, Shadow Warrior, Siege, Overwatch.. Like basically every AAA games besides Resident evil runs flawlessly on his 5820k rig and it sure as hell beats 1 1080.

Games that run SLI destroys any single-gpu solution which is why after I go Ryzen I might pop in another 980 Ti

tl;dr - Sli support has grown massively,, almost all AAA games support it .. 980 Tis will certainly beat a 1080 Ti

 

[eidairaman1]

Speak for yourself, I go to my cousins and watch his 980's in SLI destroy games like Witcher, Doom, BF1, BF4, WoW, GTA, Fallout 4, Shadow Warrior, Siege, Overwatch.. Like basically every AAA games besides Resident evil runs flawlessly on his 5820k rig and it sure as hell beats 1 1080 through benchies.

Games that run SLI destroys any single-gpu solution

As you claim yourself, there are several who used it but have since went back to using single cards.

 

[petepete]

As you claim yourself, there are several who used it but have since went back to using single cards.

Do your research, 980's are beast, mention more games than I have that don't play like butter, even more-so with SLI. .

The year is 2017 now, SLI are hugely scalable, no micro stutter whatsoever, it runs remarkably

 

[cdawall]

Why is this news? The B series chipsets are aimed at mainstream, middle of the road and have all been labeled as 16x for the top slot and 4x for the lower. That means no SLi based off of nvidia wont do SLi with a 4x slot.

Do your research, 980's are beast, mention more games than I have that don't play like butter, even more-so with SLI. .

The year is 2017 now, SLI are hugely scalable, no micro stutter whatsoever, it runs remarkably

What on gods green earth are you talking about SLi scaling is trash in a copious number of titles. My work machine is 3 980Ti's and it causes more issues leaving it in SLi than just disabling it and moving on.

 

[petepete]

Why is this news? The B series chipsets are aimed at mainstream, middle of the road and have all been labeled as 16x for the top slot and 4x for the lower. That means no SLi based off of nvidia wont do SLi with a 4x slot.



What on gods green earth are you talking about SLi scaling is trash in a copious number of titles. My work machine is 3 980Ti's and it causes more issues leaving it in SLi than just disabling it and moving on.

That is called Tri-Sli, see what I did there? Totally not talking about that, SLI is almost 100 percent scalable (meaning another card will give an added 50% of the other one), what are you talking about? Tri-Sli on the other hand is a complete joke and it's pretty comical that you wasted your money for 3 of them, what resolution are you running? Try taking one out and see the negligible difference

Haha just saw your 60hz 'beast' monitor, Guess you don't play competitive FPS games

tl;dr - SLI is not Tri-SLI (3way) and SLI does in fact scale incredibly, do your research

Back on topic without randoms talking about other's experiences without trying it themselves, This is a good way for consumers to pinch a little more for their enthusiast needs.

 

[Steevo]

That is called Tri-Sli, see what I did there? Totally not talking about that, SLI is almost 100 percent scalable, what are you talking about? Tri-Sli on the other hand is a complete joke and it's pretty comical that you wasted your money for 3 of them, what resolution are you running? Try taking one out and see the negligible difference

Haha just saw your 60hz 'beast' monitor, Guess you don't play competitive FPS games

tl;dr - SLI is not Tri-SLI (3way) and SLI does in fact scale incredibly, do your research

Back on topic without randoms talking about other's experiences without trying it themselves, This is a good way for consumers to pinch a little more for their enthusiast needs.

SLI falls behind Crossfire on scaling, and while a select few games experience high 90%'s on scaling, most fall in around 50-70%. Please do your own research as YOU are the one who has made the statement requiring facts. But because I am feeling gracious today.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1080_SLI/20.html

 

[petepete]

SLI falls behind Crossfire on scaling, and while a select few games experience high 90%'s on scaling, most fall in around 50-70%. Please do your own research as YOU are the one who has made the statement requiring facts. But because I am feeling gracious today.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1080_SLI/20.html

Thanks for that bro you actually misinterpreted my calculation which is what I was trying to explain as exactly posted on this chart, Thanks for YOUR effort QT

 

[Steevo]

You were trying to explain away the 52% average tested game performance increase? Or how great 980's are? No doubt the 980Ti is a great card, and will probably remain one of the best of the best till Nvidia caps it in the knee in future drivers, but SLI and Crossfire are very unpredictable setups, and very often cause more issues than they are worth. I have avoided crossfire after trying it once when setting up machines, SLI isn't better. For what you could sell two 980Tis for you could buy a 1070 that would perform as well overall with fewer issues, or donate to Jen's penis extension fund and buy a 1080.

Also, 52% means you are only using 52% of the seconds cards power, 50% more is another way of saying 50% less processing power used from 100% of the cards ability.

 

[petepete]

You were trying to explain away the 52% average tested game performance increase? Or how great 980's are? No doubt the 980Ti is a great card, and will probably remain one of the best of the best till Nvidia caps it in the knee in future drivers, but SLI and Crossfire are very unpredictable setups, and very often cause more issues than they are worth. I have avoided crossfire after trying it once when setting up machines, SLI isn't better. For what you could sell two 980Tis for you could buy a 1070 that would perform as well overall with fewer issues, or donate to Jen's penis extension fund and buy a 1080.

100% hear you on Nvidia gimping older cards and suddenly frames are lower after a newer driver for the 'legacy' chipsets, it is a business and of course that does not make it right though, I like your style. The penis extension fund seems like it's mostly for vanity so I might actually just take your advice on the 1070 I just saw the prices in Canada slashed hard, seems very enticing to say the least.

But I still think more and more games are going to support SLI I wouldn't give up on it yet, especially to the other sites all these people trashing SLI, it has improved significantly over the years.

EDIT: totally didn't read the 1080 part, HAHA Yes,, But the 1080 Ti sure looks sweet

EDIT2: correct me if I am wrong but I am pretty sure two 980 Ti's would smoke one 1070, no?

 

[cdawall]

That is called Tri-Sli, see what I did there? Totally not talking about that, SLI is almost 100 percent scalable (meaning another card will give an added 50% of the other one), what are you talking about? Tri-Sli on the other hand is a complete joke and it's pretty comical that you wasted your money for 3 of them, what resolution are you running? Try taking one out and see the negligible difference

Haha just saw your 60hz 'beast' monitor, Guess you don't play competitive FPS games

tl;dr - SLI is not Tri-SLI (3way) and SLI does in fact scale incredibly, do your research

Back on topic without randoms talking about other's experiences without trying it themselves, This is a good way for consumers to pinch a little more for their enthusiast needs.

That is my home rig hence the RX480's listed and not 980Ti's. Work is an Asus rog swift 144hz 1440P TN panel. The 980Ti's are not typically used for gaming, but offered one of the best bang for the bucks to do password decryption.

but yea as was said SLi doesn't scale for shit right now. Unluckily this isn't 4 or 5 years ago when the opposite was true and crossfire was hit or miss. Welcome to 2017, the year of AMD.

100% hear you on Nvidia gimping older cards and suddenly frames are lower after a newer driver for the 'legacy' chipsets, it is a business and of course that does not make it right though, I like your style. The penis extension fund seems like it's mostly for vanity so I might actually just take your advice on the 1070 I just saw the prices in Canada slashed hard, seems very enticing to say the least.

But I still think more and more games are going to support SLI I wouldn't give up on it yet, especially to the other sites all these people trashing SLI, it has improved significantly over the years.

Nvidia doesn't gimp anything, they just stop adding additional updates for older cards... There has yet to be any proven loss going from one driver to the next on the nvidia side. You are starting to sound like you should lay off of the BS news sites a little bit.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Crossfire is super ace on most dx11 games , but modern api support is a really mixed bag , most times its one card time.

but im hoping for a nice uplift when i upgrade cpu ,mobo,memory soon because this cpu is limited.

erm OT , seams fair enough to me , you want sli , pay Amd (hopefully) a bit more , i mean imagine that phonecall in amd land , so how much for us to licence sli nvidia, hmmn.

 

[Steevo]

That is my home rig hence the RX480's listed and not 980Ti's. Work is an Asus rog swift 144hz 1440P TN panel. The 980Ti's are not typically used for gaming, but offered one of the best bang for the bucks to do password decryption.

but yea as was said SLi doesn't scale for shit right now. Unluckily this isn't 4 or 5 years ago when the opposite was true and crossfire was hit or miss. Welcome to 2017, the year of AMD.



Nvidia doesn't gimp anything, they just stop adding additional updates for older cards... There has yet to be any proven loss going from one driver to the next on the nvidia side. You are starting to sound like you should lay off of the BS news sites a little bit.

A user elsewhere has shown a 4-5% average decrease in performance across many cards, which is harder hitting as they get older and newer titles are more demanding, VS AMD that has consistently improved performance and maintained the performance even on my crappy hardware. Blame that on AMD not having the best drivers out of the gate, or other things, but at teh end of the day AMD hardware ages better.

 

[petepete]

Nvidia doesn't gimp anything, they just stop adding additional updates for older cards... There has yet to be any proven loss going from one driver to the next on the nvidia side. You are starting to sound like you should lay off of the BS news sites a little bit.

That's fair that you're calling me out because I called you out

A user elsewhere has shown a 4-5% average decrease in performance across many cards, which is harder hitting as they get older and newer titles are more demanding, VS AMD that has consistently improved performance and maintained the performance even on my crappy hardware. Blame that on AMD not having the best drivers out of the gate, or other things, but at teh end of the day AMD hardware ages better.

I didn't want to elaborate but this is true, I've also read many posts even here on TPU that people roll back drivers for better performance.. But you would still go one 1070 vs two 980 Ti's ? Correct me if I am wrong but would the 980 Ti's in SLI smoke it? (in over 80 percent of these AAA game titles)

 

[cdawall]

A user elsewhere has shown a 4-5% average decrease in performance across many cards, which is harder hitting as they get older and newer titles are more demanding, VS AMD that has consistently improved performance and maintained the performance even on my crappy hardware. Blame that on AMD not having the best drivers out of the gate, or other things, but at teh end of the day AMD hardware ages better.

I am meaning same title driver A vs driver B, performance vs AMD at this point shouldn't matter for the subject. I haven't really seen anything showing a loss of performance at least looking at the reviews w1z does and he does retest on the newer drivers.

 

[Steevo]

That's fair that you're calling me out because I called you out



I didn't want to elaborate but this is true, I've also read many posts even here on TPU that people roll back drivers for better performance.. But you would still go one 1070 vs two 980 Ti's ? Correct me if I am wrong but would the 980 Ti's in SLI smoke it? (in over 80 percent of these AAA game titles)

I would completely get a 1070 and overclock the crap out of it VS two 980's, the 980Ti's you aren't going to gain much performance unless it is in newer titles, but you will have fewer issues.


EDIT** Plus the price of reselling 980's are just going to go down from here, Nvidia will be forced to lower their prices in a few months which will hit older cards more.

 

[Toothless]

I can name some big mainstream games that don't support SLI.. I smell fanboyism in the thread.

Good for AMD for doing what will help them more for their name. I remember AMD going on about their 480's in xfire against i think the 1080. Get more driver support and it'll be golden.

 

[cdawall]

That's fair that you're calling me out because I called you out

You want a call out, because that wasn't a call out that was me calling straight up bullshit.

Here is release date for the 980Ti vs the latest review w1z has available. Mind pointing out what resolution we lost performance in for nvidia?

here is a random intermediate driver and these are just random games that match between reviews. Not every game is tested every review.

I would completely get a 1070 and overclock the crap out of it VS two 980's, the 980Ti's you aren't going to gain much performance unless it is in newer titles, but you will have fewer issues.


EDIT** Plus the price of reselling 980's are just going to go down from here, Nvidia will be forced to lower their prices in a few months which will hit older cards more.

Single video card each and every time.