Hi,
I am in need for a solution that offers six full x16 pcie lanes. I need 4 slots for 4 GPUs (for deep learning purposes, for certain models and toolboxes I use, GPUs in an x8 slot perform significantly slower than in x16 slots), 1 slot for a 100gigabit Mellanox ConnextX-4 NIC, and 1 slot for my Highpoint 4x NVME pcie card. For full performance I can't do away with x8 bandwidth and need all six pcie slots to offer full x16 bandwidth.
I sense there is currently no motherboard and CPU combination out there that satisfies my need. Six x16 lanes add up to 96 lanes and unless I am mistaken currently dual Xeon solutions only offer 2x 48 lanes but I have not come across a board that makes all those lanes available to 6 pcie slots. So, the only CPU that would currently provide the bandwidth I require is the Epyc processor. While I find the base clock speed very low of all processors in the Epyc lineup I wonder how the Epyc CPUs perform in boost mode and how hot they run and for how long. But more importantly I have not found any motherboard solutions for the Epyc CPUs that satisfy my pcie slot needs.
Here my questions:
1) Is there a dual Xeon motherboard out there that provides 6 pcie slots that can concurrently run at x16 bandwidth?
2) Is there an Epyc board out there that provides 6 pcie slots that concurrently run at x16 bandwidth?
3) Is there any hope that AMD will come out with new Epyc processors at any time soon that run at higher clock speeds. With higher I mean > 3GHz sustainable clock speeds.
4) Are there OEM servers that satisfy my needs?
5) Do you know of a custom solution for an Epyc setup where I could use raisers and route the lanes to an external PCIE enclosure in case of space limitations?
Thanks for your suggestions,
Matt
I am in need for a solution that offers six full x16 pcie lanes. I need 4 slots for 4 GPUs (for deep learning purposes, for certain models and toolboxes I use, GPUs in an x8 slot perform significantly slower than in x16 slots), 1 slot for a 100gigabit Mellanox ConnextX-4 NIC, and 1 slot for my Highpoint 4x NVME pcie card. For full performance I can't do away with x8 bandwidth and need all six pcie slots to offer full x16 bandwidth.
I sense there is currently no motherboard and CPU combination out there that satisfies my need. Six x16 lanes add up to 96 lanes and unless I am mistaken currently dual Xeon solutions only offer 2x 48 lanes but I have not come across a board that makes all those lanes available to 6 pcie slots. So, the only CPU that would currently provide the bandwidth I require is the Epyc processor. While I find the base clock speed very low of all processors in the Epyc lineup I wonder how the Epyc CPUs perform in boost mode and how hot they run and for how long. But more importantly I have not found any motherboard solutions for the Epyc CPUs that satisfy my pcie slot needs.
Here my questions:
1) Is there a dual Xeon motherboard out there that provides 6 pcie slots that can concurrently run at x16 bandwidth?
2) Is there an Epyc board out there that provides 6 pcie slots that concurrently run at x16 bandwidth?
3) Is there any hope that AMD will come out with new Epyc processors at any time soon that run at higher clock speeds. With higher I mean > 3GHz sustainable clock speeds.
4) Are there OEM servers that satisfy my needs?
5) Do you know of a custom solution for an Epyc setup where I could use raisers and route the lanes to an external PCIE enclosure in case of space limitations?
Thanks for your suggestions,
Matt
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