Which motherboard is best for SLI 1080Ti? Space wise

[F0x135]

I have a z370-F in a meshify C case, but despite the fantastic (air) cooling and no matter the fan curves, the top GPU in SLI is hitting 85c. Bottom card hovers at 65-68c.

Without resorting to water cooling, is going to a different motherboard, with bigger space in between the cards, worth swapping out? Will it regulate the heat better? With the Z370-F, there is very little room between cards like they're almost kissing, hence the high heat.

If it's worth going to a different motherboard, which ROG one has enough space for 1080Ti SLI and is best with an 8700K?

[Phillyflyer]

F0x135 wrote:
I have a z370-F in a meshify C case, but despite the fantastic (air) cooling and no matter the fan curves, the top GPU in SLI is hitting 85c. Bottom card hovers at 65-68c.

Without resorting to water cooling, is going to a different motherboard, with bigger space in between the cards, worth swapping out? Will it regulate the heat better? With the Z370-F, there is very little room between cards like they're almost kissing, hence the high heat.

If it's worth going to a different motherboard, which ROG one has enough space for 1080Ti SLI and is best with an 8700K?

I believe all spacing is the same on the Asus z370 boards...I stand to be corrected though....think only board that may have better spacing is the MSI z370 Godlike board.

[F0x135]

Phillyflyer wrote:
I believe all spacing is the same on the Asus z370 boards...I stand to be corrected though....think only board that may have better spacing is the MSI z370 Godlike board.

That's what i thought and was wondering if i posted to the correct forum. So are there even any 1151

edrickjk wrote:
just use a riser card ,you can move your gpu farther apart this way.

Thought about this too - is it possible to use a SLI bridge if one GPU is on a riser? Both on risers would defeat the purpose i think.

[edrickjk]

you would need to get a flexible sli bridge ,but definitely you will need to fiddle with the fitment. Your card are open air or blower style?


I have seen these before in a build cant find it anymore but the guy had is 2 card mounted on the power supply shroud with these bracket.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAGYY7NN9127&cm_re=vertical_gpu-_-9SIAGYY7NN9127-...

[edrickjk]

just use a riser card ,you can move your gpu farther apart this way.

[xeromist]

I would try taking the side panel off and get some sort of fan pointing at the cards. It might be that GPU and motherboard configuration requires a case with a side fan.

[F0x135]

Thanks all for your thoughts.

I just got home now and had a look at my build - meshify-c is really compact hence the name, i don't think it can house a x1 riser:

xeromist wrote:
I would try taking the side panel off and get some sort of fan pointing at the cards. It might be that GPU and motherboard configuration requires a case with a side fan.

I tried this too, i have one of those small house fans but industrial strength:

Unfortunately it's noisy as f**k, but it did cool it down top GPU to 75c. After tis experiment i tried putting a 140mm fan flushed right against the 2 GPU's next to the SLIbridge with the side cover back on - it did absolutely nothing.

[Arioch13]

F0x135 wrote:
I have a z370-F in a meshify C case, but despite the fantastic (air) cooling and no matter the fan curves, the top GPU in SLI is hitting 85c. Bottom card hovers at 65-68c.

Without resorting to water cooling, is going to a different motherboard, with bigger space in between the cards, worth swapping out? Will it regulate the heat better? With the Z370-F, there is very little room between cards like they're almost kissing, hence the high heat.

If it's worth going to a different motherboard, which ROG one has enough space for 1080Ti SLI and is best with an 8700K?

I have several machines. The best motherboard I have found for SLI is the Rampage series. Plenty of space to work.
I do move things around and currently have 2 x 1080ti in a Maximus X code but that is like sticking a V10 engine in a for fiesta chassis. Not because of the motherboard, which is nice. But because of the chipset it supports. You get a maximum of one x 16 lane pcie and 1 x 8 pcie. Of course, if you put in a NVME etc you start reducing that even further and I can visibly see the difference.

Having said that, with the almost non existent support for SLI in any new games it is less of problem either way. I have 3 PC's with SLI and I am planning to sell off the second card in all but one because it is almost never used. I sometimes play BF1 so I force it to DX11 mode so I can use SLI but that is literally the only game I have played all year that has support for it. Should have said. My PCs have custom water loops. Using SLI in an air cooled environment is almost entirely pointless as far as I am concerned. Unless you live in a very very cold place. They just feed a heat/tdp loop and you lose much of what you gain. Though again, I would recommend the Rampage series as they support the right cpus for full 16x2 support and have a good bit of space between the cards.

[Phillyflyer]

Arioch13 wrote:
I have several machines. The best motherboard I have found for SLI is the Rampage series. Plenty of space to work.
I do move things around and currently have 2 x 1080ti in a Maximus X code but that is like sticking a V10 engine in a for fiesta chassis. Not because of the motherboard, which is nice. But because of the chipset it supports. You get a maximum of one x 16 lane pcie and 1 x 8 pcie. Of course, if you put in a NVME etc you start reducing that even further and I can visibly see the difference.

Having said that, with the almost non existent support for SLI in any new games it is less of problem either way. I have 3 PC's with SLI and I am planning to sell off the second card in all but one because it is almost never used. I sometimes play BF1 so I force it to DX11 mode so I can use SLI but that is literally the only game I have played all year that has support for it. Should have said. My PCs have custom water loops. Using SLI in an air cooled environment is almost entirely pointless as far as I am concerned. Unless you live in a very very cold place. They just feed a heat/tdp loop and you lose much of what you gain. Though again, I would recommend the Rampage series as they support the right cpus for full 16x2 support and have a good bit of space between the cards.

Would have to agree with you ....my last board was an x99 Asus Rampage V10 ...6850k paired with (2) MSI gtx 1070 EK X cards....full 16 x 2 pcie and plenty of room between the cards...even with (2) Asus gtx 1070 Strix cards that I tried at one time in the board had lots of space between them . Overall...was a fantastic board.