x8x8

**DJ Ms. White** · 03-20-11, 06:52 PM

So, I've looking at motherboards trying to get an idea of what I'll need a few months from now. I notice, when looking at PCIe slots specifically when running two GPUs, that some MBs say x8 x8, and others say x16 x16. What's the difference?

I also notice that all of the Sandy Bridge MBs seem to only have x8 x8. Is that actually something I should care about?

**Gumby** · 03-20-11, 07:25 PM

Current sandy bridge mobos are x16/x8x8. This means that if you run in Crossfire or SLI, you will only have the bandwidth of 8 lanes on each slot, but if you are running a single card, you will have 16 lanes on that slot. With current graphics cards, this makes no performance difference because no currently available card can over-saturate 8x worth of bandwidth. In the future, who knows? Intel feels threatened by GPU compute and is looking for excuses to get rid of PCI-E and is under a court order to support it for a while longer. On the Sandy Bridge CPUs, the PCI-E controller is integrated into the CPU and they have not released a chip that supports 16X16x chip yet.

**DJ Ms. White** · 03-20-11, 07:38 PM

If they phase out PCI-E, how will GPUs work? Is Intel going to replace PCI-E with something new?

**Phyrelight** · 03-20-11, 09:09 PM

they used to be AGP, then AGP 8X, then PCI then PCI-E then PCI-Ex4 then pci-ex16 (you get the idea) there will be new boards and new GPUs when they change. They haven't announced what is coming next and 16X PCI-E has been the standards for a while now. They typically move to something new when they reach the current capacities limit. Like they said above. They have yet to use the full bandwidth of 8 lanes yet. They have 16 lanes after that they can fill. Until that day comes I don't see them pouring money into the next one.

**HeavyG** · 03-20-11, 10:18 PM

Originally Posted by DJ Mr. White

If they phase out PCI-E, how will GPUs work? Is Intel going to replace PCI-E with something new?

You will need to buy a new GPU that supports the new BUS. From ISA, to PCI, to AGP, to PCI-E... the cycle will continue.

I may be a bit of an optimist, but I really think that we are going to see less of a need for beefy graphics cards as the technology for graphics processing over the cloud continues to improve. We may see another platform in the next couple of years, but after that I think the requirements for Graphics cards all together will disappear.

**DJ Ms. White** · 03-21-11, 10:57 AM

Can you explain what you just said a little simpler? I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "graphics processing over the cloud".

**Phyrelight** · 03-21-11, 10:58 AM

I agree HeavyG. The prediction in the meetings and seminars I have been to is that it will move to graphics combined on the CPU like the i5 currently is. As they get more powerful even 1080p HD can be done with the GPU on the CPU. The belief is that a dedicated card even 5 years from now will not be necessary. You could just devote 1 or 2 cores from the CPU (after its converted to GPU instead) So you could have an 8 core processor with 6 CPUs and 2 GPUs and run the equivalent of SLI/Crossfire from the on-board.

**Phyrelight** · 03-21-11, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by DJ Mr. White

Can you explain what you just said a little simpler? I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "graphics processing over the cloud".

GPU on the cloud is something like facebook. If you play an app in facebook (farmville for example) the graphics are rendered on the cloud server and displayed on your PC via the browser. Your PC does zero percent of the rendering. It only displays. Think of it as a dumb terminal. In the future if cloud computing continues the way it is now you will buy a PC, boot it, launch a browser, log into a cloud computing site (which can be done at boot) and that site will give you your desktop, All your apps etc. You click to run word 2010 and it runs through the browser. It still has access to your local resources such as hard drive and printer but in cloud computing even they aren't really necessary. With networked printers you can store your files on the cloud and print directly to the printer in your house via the network without printing directly from your PC. Does that make more sense?

**DJ Ms. White** · 03-21-11, 11:13 AM

Yeah, kind of crazy, but I'm not sure how that would work with net neutrality being thrown out the window. That is a WHOLE other thread though.

**HeavyG** · 03-21-11, 11:27 AM

Amazon Web Services Takes Advantage of GPUs in the Cloud - PCWorld Business Center

There are many articles out there like this that can help explain. The graphics are not processed on your local machine, but rather on a cloud server, such as the ones Amazon offers. Even at Quakecon last year, John Carmack admitted that he is a strong believer that cloud based processing is coming a lot faster than he originally thought.

It really makes you wonder what will happen to the graphics card companies/manufacturers in the next few years. In addition, Intel and AMD are both integrating computer processing and graphics processing into a single die. While this technology is still in it's infancy, the Sandy Bridge CPUs have really started to make progress with capabilities for handling 3D graphics processing from the CPU. It won't run Crysis... but give it a year or two and we will likely see mainstream games being played on PCs that don't have discrete graphics cards.

Things are changing. While it is never a good idea to be an early adopter (cough... Sandy Bridge recall), there will likely be a huge shift in technology. We just have to wait and see.