Need an X870E That Can Handle Dual GPUs Without Screwing the Headers

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

Hey all,

Looking for real-world input on a decent X870E board that can handle my setup properly. I’ve already tested one and sent it back — so I’m not interested in guesses or what should work in theory. I need proper support for dual GPUs, Gen5 NVMe, and working sensors — ideally under Linux.

Current Core Setup:

  • CPU: Ryzen 9 9950X3D
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 Aorus Xtreme V2
  • RAM: 96GB DDR5-6400 (2×48GB, CL32)
  • GPU 1: RTX 3090 FE (24GB)
  • GPU 2: RTX 3060 (12GB)
  • Primary NVMe: 4TB Gen5
  • Secondary Drives: 2TB Gen4 + 1TB Gen4 (Windows)
  • OS: Dual boot – Kubuntu 24.04 LTS (primary) and Windows 11 Pro (for a few tools Linux doesn’t cover)

What happened with the MSI board:

I bought the MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wi-Fi, did the BIOS updates, installed both GPUs and the NVMe drives — and ran into immediate issues.

Under Linux, fan headers, VRM temps, and system sensors weren’t reporting at all. Nothing useful via HWMON.
Windows wasn’t much better. Patchy sensor support, and instability when all major slots were populated.

It also felt like GPU and drive detection got flakey when all components were in — not the kind of confidence I want from a £500+ board. So, it went back.

I’ve temporarily reverted to the Gigabyte B650 Aorus Xtreme V2 — which does a better job overall, but still doesn’t expose fan data properly, and I’m lane-limited with dual GPUs and the Gen5 SSD.

What I actually need:

  • Two GPUs fully usable (x16 + x8, or x8 + x8 is fine — just don’t kill lanes when using NVMe)
  • One Gen5 NVMe with no ridiculous bandwidth trade-offs
  • Full sensor/header support, especially in Linux — fans, VRMs, temps, all of it
  • BIOS that isn’t flaky — doesn’t need to be “mature” (this is X870E, after all), but it has to be functional
  • Clear PCIe lane allocation — I want to know what’s being shared or shut off when I populate all the slots

One added concern:

A lot of the new X870E boards only have two full-length PCIe slots. That’s fine electrically, but physically the second slot is too close to the bottom edge. With my RTX 3060 in that slot, it ends up blocking the entire bottom row of headers (USB, fans, etc).

Not a deal breaker, but it’s a pain in the arse. If a board had a third x16 slot (even at x4) slightly higher up, it might give me the extra centimetre of clearance I need. So layout matters — not just specs.

Ask:

Has anyone here got a proper dual-GPU + Gen5 NVMe setup running on an X870E board with sensor visibility and slot clearance that doesn’t make you want to throw it through a window?

Looking at ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte — open to suggestions, but only if you’ve actually used the board with this kind of setup.

Appreciate it,
Dunc

2

On the MSI Z690-A / Z790-P for LGA 1700 I have seen people having to use out of tree Kernel modules to get the Super IO to report correctly, have you done so before returning the board?

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I have a MSI X670E Carbon and I had to install the kernel module that @ZirBlazer mentioned and then all works fine. Fedora 42.

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Thanks for the reply — appreciate you taking the time.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what you’re referring to regarding out-of-tree kernel modules. I’m fairly competent on Linux, but I wouldn’t call myself a kernel expert. That said, I gave it a good go.

My issue wasn’t just that a sensor or two was missing — nothing showed up. No fan headers reported, no RGB control, no VRM or chipset temperatures. The entire board was effectively invisible from a hardware monitoring point of view under Linux.

I did try the usual things — loaded sensors, built and installed the it87 module manually, tried force IDs and every hwmon parameter I could find — but nothing worked. And to be honest, I wasn’t keen on patching the kernel or bodging together a workaround for a board in this price range. I’d expect something north of £400 to at least offer some degree of out-the-box support.

If others are managing to get these boards working with extra steps, fair enough — but I needed something that just works, and unfortunately this one didn’t.

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Thanks — that’s good to know, but I think we’re talking about different beasts here.

The X670E and X870E may look similar on paper, but under Linux they behave quite differently. What works with the X670E doesn’t seem to carry over cleanly — at least not in my case. I had the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi, and despite trying the usual routes (kernel module from groeck’s repo, it87 with forced IDs, sensors-detect, modprobe tweaks etc), I couldn’t get a single fan header, temperature sensor, or RGB element to show up properly.

If there’s something new being tested for X870E boards, I’d be all ears — but as it stands, that board just wasn’t viable for me. Shame, because it looked great on paper.

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Gigabyte tends to use ITE SIOs. The MSI board you returned uses a Nuvoton NCT6687-R Super IO chip, it is stated in the Manual.

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Sensor reporting under linux is going to require a lot of manual development and tinkering. There is no consistent way to get all the data hwmon can get in Windows. Period. “Sensors!” it might work for some old piece of server gear a lot of linux devs owned, but it is not going to work for desktop components at.all.

The Asrock X870e Nova Wifi is the only motherboard this generation that…ya know what, my memory is such crap, go look up reviews for it. Hardware Unboxed calls out the fact that it’s the only mobo this generation that does PCIe lane spitting in a certain way that is ideal. I don’t remember the exact details, but if any board can get you what you want, it’s probably that one.

1 Like
8

Cheers for that. Shame about the colour, but the reply itself is spot on — thank you.

And yeah, the Linux sensor situation… honestly, it’s exactly what I’m starting to realise. Half the stuff works if you’ve got some dusty old server board from years ago, but on modern desktop hardware it’s a complete lottery. There’s no unified way of pulling all the metrics you’d expect to be available, and I’m not going to pretend I’ve got the patience of a saint.

I’ll take a look at the ASRock X870E Nova WiFi. If it’s the one board this generation that’s doing PCIe lane splitting properly, then fair play — that’s probably the closest to what I actually need. I’ll dig into the reviews and have a proper look.

Thanks again,

9

My contender would be the Asrock Taichi Creator. The lane split seems sane. Both of the full lengh slots are from the CPU according to the manual and it is advertised for 2x GPU usage. The second slot might still sit to low - Dunno about the sensor situation:

But please do a BIOS update, some Asrock boards may have issues with the Ryzen R9 9xxx CPUs causing permanent damage.