MSI X99A Gaming 7 Motherboard Review

The Hardware Asylum Multi-GPU index is a portable set of data we can use to determine the multi-gpu potential of any motherboard.  A higher index number indicates a favorable condition for multiple graphics cards while a lower number indicates a hindrance in one of our leading indicators.  Since the Index is not dependent on system architecture it can be applied to any motherboard regardless of processor or chipset generations.

Index: 5.75
Optimized: 2x
Max Support: 4x

Index: 5
Optimized: 2x
Max Supported: 3x

NVidia SLI
AMD Crossfire

As indicated by the PCI Express layout chart there are a total of four 16x PCI Express slots on this motherboard with all four using bandwidth earmarked for video cards.  The configuration is rather unique because you are given a choice of bandwidth allocations depending on your system configuration.

The four 16x slots all use bandwidth directly from the CPU.  This configuration changes if you are using a 28-Lane processor where slot #7 is disabled completely. Slot #2 is the typical primary graphics card slot and will use 16x lanes of bandwidth provided you don’t populate slot #6.  Slot #4 is the second primary slot and will always have 16x lanes of bandwidth regardless.  Overall I found the layout to be very logical and a good use of space. 

For best video performance you will want to populate slots #2 and #4 with video cards.  For proper triple card configurations you'll populate slots #2, #4 and #6.  Slot #7 is really an extra slot on the X99A Gaming 7 since the only time it can be used is with a 40-lane processor which isn’t a bad thing and actually gave us an almost identical Multi GPU Index score for both processor platforms.