I’m planning on having a GTX 1060 (planning on upgrading to a 60 or 70-series) as the 2nd GPU, and I’m looking for a good motherboard that can fully take advantage of it. Any recommedations? Would any X570 ATX mobo suffice, or do I need to go for E-ATX, though most seems to have the same spacing.
Here’s my planned build:
Only question is how many lanes you want on the PCIe lanes and what other cards you got. Also surprised you don’t go for the 5950x given the budget, but whatever 
Also, I do not think any board allows you to max all PCIe slots AND m.2 slots. Theoretically any X570 should work.
Having done the research recently, my recommendations are as follows.
Asterixes (*) on the PCIe/m.2 lanes means it splits lanes with the previous port, e.g. x16/x8* means x8/x8 if second slot is used.
A " means these lanes are shared, so choose one or the other.
VRMs: Great
x16 PCIe slots: x16/x8*"/x4
M.2 slots: x4/x4"/x4
VRMs: Great
x16 PCIe slots: x16/x8*/x8
M.2 slots: x4/x2*
VRMs : Godlike
x16 PCIe slots: x16/x8*/x4"
M.2 slots: x4/x2*/x4"/x2*
VRMs : Great
x16 PCIe slots: x16/x8*/x4"
M.2 slots: x4/x4"
VRMs : Good
x16 PCIe slots: x16/x8*/x4"
M.2 slots: x4/x4"
So if I put a GPU on the 3rd slot (for applicable mobos) instead of 2nd, the 3rd will become x8?
Sorry. Just feeling slightly confused.
Nope…
Let’s say you have x16/x8*/x4
This means, if you populate slot 1 and 3, the first slot will get x16 and the third will get x4 lanes. If you populate 1+2, you will get x8/x8.
Sorry for not clarifying
I meant for this scenario: x16/x8*/x4"
Edit: in addition, any motherboard whose chipset is at x8? I found out recently that if I put a PCIe 4.0 GPU like the 6800XT and a PCIe 3.0 GPU like the 1060, it won’t work at all.
This means if you populate x4, you must choose between x4 m.2 or a x16 with 4 PCIe lanes.
The x570 Ace is x8 from chipset. I think you can bifurb to a split 4.0/3.0 mode, otherwise just run the 4.0 GPU in a 3.0 mode, it will downgrade just fine. 4.0 is more important for fast storage than it is GPU with the current gen graphic cards, interestingly enough.
Even with having it cut to 3.0 x8?
That means I lose out on some M.2s?
For this one with x16/x8*"/x4 from the Pro Art, I have to sacrifice M.2 for some GPUs?
Strangely enough, the Pro Art is special, if you populate everything you get x8/x4/x4 on the PCIe slots and x4/x4/x4 on the m.2 slots.
[edit]And BTW, It is pretty easy to see that X570 will never allow you to max out PCIe lanes, but x8 instead of x16 isn’t that much of a performance hit regardless. x4 though, that bites…
As for why not possible to max out, x20 from CPU, x16 from chipset = 36 max theoretical limit, you would need x16+x16+x4+x4+x4+x4 = 48 lanes. Something has to give.
Well if money isn’t an issue you could also look into the Msi X570 MEG Godlike.
This particular board has additional pci-e switches.
Only downside of the board in my opinion is that the rear io is a bit lack luster for such an expensive board.
But basically you could run two gpu’s from pretty much every x570 (S) board.
So basically you could go for a top of the line $700+ board.
But it isn’t really necessary if the main goal is just two gpu’s and a m.2.
In regards to a workstation type board the Asus Pro Art X570 Creator,
offers a pretty nice feature set.
The X570 Pro Art Creator is the only board below the $500,- mark that comes with a 10G nic onboard and Thunderbolt.
Is it actually the case that having a PCIe 4.0 GPU and a PCIe 3.0 GPU won’t work unless I make the mobo PCIE 3.0?
I wouldn’t have minded the x8/x8 for dual GPUs, if I didn’t have to bring it down to 3.0 to get my 1060 to work. That’d be pretty much be x4 for the 6800XT
From my understanding 3.0 x8 is still plenty fast, though not the fastest. You should also be able to control most lanes separately, AFAIK.
The worst case scenario on a 4.0 x16 vs 3.0 x8 seems to be around 4-5% and is highly dependent on your game. To be fair, we are talking less than 10 FPS difference in most cases.
Yes you will be a little starved, but as always it is a game of tradeoffs. If you need more PCIe control than what X570 offers, I suggest you invest in the Threadripper platform.
Threadripper wasn’t in my budget, unfortunately.
I almost got all of my PC parts. I’m now just waiting for my 6900XT & case fans to arrive.
Really hope I can keep 1 PCIe in 4.0, while the other in 3.0.
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