03-28-2023 06:41 AM
Hey everyone.
I am planning on doing an upgrade here by the end of the month. Typically the last 3 generations I've been on I've used the Apex motherboards but this time around I've settled on the Hero variant of the Z790 board from Asus. My needs have changed and I'll discuss that in a little bit. The upgrade I am planning is:
Intel Core i9 13900KF or S
Asus Maximus Hero Z790
GSKILL Trident Z5 32GB DDR5 7200MHz CL32 Dual Channel Kit
The reason I've chosen the Maximus Hero is because I want the native Thunderbolt 4 support as I want to grab two Element Hub's from CalDigit and run all my peripherals and maybe some screens off of them. My PC sits about 15' away from my screen and I currently use a Vantec USB 3.1 Hub to do it, but I need faster speed.
My questions:
1.) The Tunderbolt 4 ports, do they connect directly to the CPU or do they connect to the chipset? I can't find anything on this through the spec sheets.
2.) Do the Thunderbolt 4 ports share bandwidth or do they each have separate 40Gbps speeds?
3.) I'll be using a Creative Sound Blaster AE5 Plus Pure, since there is no PCIE x4 port on the board I'd have to use the bottom most PCIE slot. Doing this would it force the PCIE-5 port in 8x mode?
4.) I'll be using the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB but the M.2 port above the PCIE5 16x slot both share bandwidth, would this force the GPU to run in 8x Mode?
Thanks everyone.
03-28-2023 10:52 PM - edited 03-28-2023 10:53 PM
Hello,
1) USB/TB connectivity goes through the DMI to the chipset.
2) Each port can deliver *up to* 40gbps bidirectionally.
3) Both M.2_2 and M.2_3 utilise DMI Chipset lanes.
4) PCIEX16(G5)_1 & M.2_1 both share CPU lanes, the GPU will remain at 16x because there are 20 lanes in total.
03-30-2023 06:50 AM
Awesome, thanx