The GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 Preview: The OC board and the UD9 meet. - Page 3

Originally Posted by yakaway 

does this beat asus V maximus V extreme? or msi big bang mpower?

Originally Posted by Vi0lence 

just ordered one of these to upgrade from my p67 board. going to see how it does.

Originally Posted by Atlantida 

Please post any gains, losses, or issues. I'm sure you won't be disappointed though. This seems like a very well designed board.

Originally Posted by DrDeathhand 


You see so many PCI-E 3.0 2x quick switches, We have 16 of them in total, this is one of the reasons 10 layers had to be harnessed.

I have taken the time to draw out how it works. It is very simple, either put a card in the black slot or in any of the orange slots, but not in both.
You get the best of both worlds, as giving the PEX8747 less than 16x lanes will cause a greater delay, however giving it all the 16x lanes will give you the best multi-GPU performance. Giving all the lanes to the single slot for a single GPU is also the best you can do, this method just requires the highest amount of PCI-E lanes. Other than the single lane bypass, the layout is the same as the G1.Sniper 3 when it comes to operation modes.
Dear Sin0822,
First of al thank you for such an awesome review!!! I have enjoyed reading it very much and also the pictures are just awesome!! and your explenation of all kinds of things are great and super detailed.
Buttttttt I have two questions for you regarding the PCIE slots on this mobo.
First I have to say that I also want to buy this motherboard! because its just awesome, but I am not really planning to go for an SLI setting and thus I am going for a single GPU setting. I am concidering two vid cards, either a MSI 680 GTX Lightning or an Asus 680 GTX Direct CU II TOP. The only reason I am question both cards is size and noise. I want the most quiet vidcard. Most people say ASUS because its the most silent card, but I have read many many reviews and in a lot of those reviews the msi card also came out as a really quiet card. Size wise I am doubting the Asus because its a 3 slot card and thus will probally cover the first PCIE1x slot which I want to use for my soundcard or the Wifi / Bluetooth card which is included with the Z77X-UP7.
My first question has to do with the fact that the ASUS card is a three slot card and thus, if I am correct, covers the first PCIE1 (mini) slot because of its size but I am not sure about that so question nr 1.
1. Is the Asus 680 GTX Direct CU II TOP card so big that it covers the first PCIE1 (mini) slot??
If so then I will have a problem with this card because in my new rig I also want to use a Creative XFI PCIE1 audio card and I want to use the included Wifi bluetooth card. And because of this I want to know the following
2. Because of the size of the Asus card I probally wont be able to use the black PCIE16x slot because if I do i will probally cover the first PCIE1 slot. Sooo then my only real option will be to put the card in the first Orange PCIE16X slot. What I have heard is that the black PCIE16x slot has a direct lane to the CPU and the Orange slots go through the PEX8747 chip. My question is: Will I reach / get the same performance when I just use one GPU Card and thus one Orange PCIE16x slot or will it be much lower then when I use the same card in the Black PCIE16x slot?? Or is the performance really close to each other??
Well I hope you are able to answer my questions about the UP7 board!
GReetings from DrDEathhand