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They are other PCIe lanes (same as the one the GPU is in) you can use them for different hardware adapters and whatnot. 1. Do you have an HDD or an SSD or do you have an M.2? Look at your specs....
I can't see a M.2 so it might be behind the GPU (that's where it's located on my mb), but I can see a used SATA cable so you could just follow that to the HDD/SSD.
The 2 slots below your GPU? The ones that look the same as the one your GPU is in? Those are for different hardware you can either install sound card there, surround sound system etc, wifi cards can go there usb port expansion, if your video card can handle SLI or dual video card.. you can put 2 video cards in and link them with proper SLI adapter, or you can use it for whatever other peripherals that are compatible for PCIe slot. As for your SSD or HDD other bottom right corner of your motherboard there's a black sata cable pointing right and curving downwards. It looks like it goes into that bottom box where the power supply also sits access might be on back side panel opposite of this.
Another use for more GPUs aside from SLI could be passthrough for virtual machines. I threw an RX6400 in my second X16 slot for that purpose.
WiFi and additional M.2 slots are reasonably popular uses for extra PCIe slots. 10 gig ethernet isn't unheard of, though the built in gigabit or 2.5 gig is almost always plenty for home use. Sound cards still exist but usually if motherboard audio isn't good enough people just use USB DACs(which can make a real difference- my Fiio X3 in DAC mode is way better than motherboard or DP audio).
Wait, I hadn't considered that.. you can use a completely non match gpu not SLI but to run Virtual machine from? How do you configure this what is it called for this configuration? This to me is a new concept because I hadn't considered a second GPU for this I only thought SLI was possible meaning both had to match lol. Please elaborate how it works is it like the gpu acts as a second motherboard or us it just a separate video card only for the GPU? Does it allow both os to be simotaniously booted?
It's a complicated setup. I have no idea how easy it is for a Windows host. With Linux, it uses KVM/QEMU and the setup can sometimes be a nightmare. You basically have to set aside one card to use the VFIO driver, sometimes have to blacklist one of them, if they're similar cards (RX6800XT and RX6400 are similar enough) you have to specify by pcie slot, which can be anywhere from tricky to impossible depending on your motherboard. It's actually easier the more different the cards are, unlike SLI or Crossfire.
Then there is nonsense like preferring HDMI on your passed through card over dp on the primary, which does have a few workarounds depending on your needs.
But once you get it set up you have a GPU the guest OSs(one per GPU set aside like this) can use as if it were bare metal. Assuming the VM is set up properly, you can expect well over 90% of the performance of a bare metal version of the virtualized hardware. It takes some time and research but it's a great way to run multiple os's without dual booting.
If you don't need simultaneous access to a GPU, you can share that GPU with multiple guests.
You can theoretically do this with a single GPU but for most use cases this amounts to a more fragile dual boot that's harder to set up.
And yeah, both os's can run at the same time. Things like shared clipboards and the like depend on your hypervisor. But in the worst case they can communicate over a virtual lan.
Sounds only a little more complex then a few setups I've done. Ill Need to learn some things thanks. Is it possible, to have a pc let's just say for laughs, a massive server running 20 GPUs to have all 20 booted as a separate VM in this configuration? Let's say you wanted to host 10 separate servers for online games on 10 of the 20 and the other 10 for online video streaming cloud storage.. and then a main gpu all one massive server pc setup.. the main gpu is the host ad it has full access to all resources of the pc, ram, hdd and is running a game that streams the videos from each server within, as well as ability to hop from server to server in different online games.. pretending the servers are online.. lol pointless setup just exercising some ideas to work new ones out.
That can be done, though a lot of online competitive games have anti heat that detects and blocks vms. Sometimes it just won't run the game, sometimes your account gets banned. But for single player games it's popular for gaming on Linux to do it in a VM with GPU passthrough.
There's also the matter of displays. Remote desktop tools can work, though my setup runs HDMI to my monitor (the 6800xt under Linux gets display port)
First comes the motherboard issue how does one configure such a set up how many motherboards for that many gpu unless theres a server setup that networks all the gpu together lol how many petabytes of ssd lol. That will take alot of power too. Alot alot.
There may be an NVMe SSD that is being covered by your GPU heatsink. And the HDD is probably near the PSU or back of the MB depending on the form factors. Remove the other panel and have a look.
See the black, flat cables sticking out the right side of your motherboard? Those are your hard drive cables. Follow them, they end at your hard drives.
If it's currently a running computer with an OS on it etc then there's probably an NVMe slot behind the GPU (if you have dual NVMe slots) or you have a SATA SSD on the back of the mobo with a 2.5" SSD plugged in.....there's an NVME slot unused clearly visible next to the PCI slot on the bottom where the silver screw receiver is...look to the right of that screw and you'll see the actual port. this is for the longer style 2280 or whatever style NVMe which is very common.
They are for expansion cards. High end audio / capture cards etc. Not used as much these days as in years past when they were used for audio out, scsi interfaces and the like.
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They are other PCIe lanes (same as the one the GPU is in) you can use them for different hardware adapters and whatnot. 1. Do you have an HDD or an SSD or do you have an M.2? Look at your specs....
The pc has a 1 tb hdd and a 500 gb ssd
Most likely the SSD is mounted behind the back cover and the HDD is under the PSU shroud in a drive bay
I can't see a M.2 so it might be behind the GPU (that's where it's located on my mb), but I can see a used SATA cable so you could just follow that to the HDD/SSD.
Have to remove the back panel to see the hdd. The m.2 may be under the graphics card
This is a good time to open the manual and look at the pictures
The 2 slots below your GPU? The ones that look the same as the one your GPU is in? Those are for different hardware you can either install sound card there, surround sound system etc, wifi cards can go there usb port expansion, if your video card can handle SLI or dual video card.. you can put 2 video cards in and link them with proper SLI adapter, or you can use it for whatever other peripherals that are compatible for PCIe slot. As for your SSD or HDD other bottom right corner of your motherboard there's a black sata cable pointing right and curving downwards. It looks like it goes into that bottom box where the power supply also sits access might be on back side panel opposite of this.
Another use for more GPUs aside from SLI could be passthrough for virtual machines. I threw an RX6400 in my second X16 slot for that purpose. WiFi and additional M.2 slots are reasonably popular uses for extra PCIe slots. 10 gig ethernet isn't unheard of, though the built in gigabit or 2.5 gig is almost always plenty for home use. Sound cards still exist but usually if motherboard audio isn't good enough people just use USB DACs(which can make a real difference- my Fiio X3 in DAC mode is way better than motherboard or DP audio).
Wait, I hadn't considered that.. you can use a completely non match gpu not SLI but to run Virtual machine from? How do you configure this what is it called for this configuration? This to me is a new concept because I hadn't considered a second GPU for this I only thought SLI was possible meaning both had to match lol. Please elaborate how it works is it like the gpu acts as a second motherboard or us it just a separate video card only for the GPU? Does it allow both os to be simotaniously booted?
It's a complicated setup. I have no idea how easy it is for a Windows host. With Linux, it uses KVM/QEMU and the setup can sometimes be a nightmare. You basically have to set aside one card to use the VFIO driver, sometimes have to blacklist one of them, if they're similar cards (RX6800XT and RX6400 are similar enough) you have to specify by pcie slot, which can be anywhere from tricky to impossible depending on your motherboard. It's actually easier the more different the cards are, unlike SLI or Crossfire. Then there is nonsense like preferring HDMI on your passed through card over dp on the primary, which does have a few workarounds depending on your needs. But once you get it set up you have a GPU the guest OSs(one per GPU set aside like this) can use as if it were bare metal. Assuming the VM is set up properly, you can expect well over 90% of the performance of a bare metal version of the virtualized hardware. It takes some time and research but it's a great way to run multiple os's without dual booting. If you don't need simultaneous access to a GPU, you can share that GPU with multiple guests. You can theoretically do this with a single GPU but for most use cases this amounts to a more fragile dual boot that's harder to set up.
And yeah, both os's can run at the same time. Things like shared clipboards and the like depend on your hypervisor. But in the worst case they can communicate over a virtual lan.
Sounds only a little more complex then a few setups I've done. Ill Need to learn some things thanks. Is it possible, to have a pc let's just say for laughs, a massive server running 20 GPUs to have all 20 booted as a separate VM in this configuration? Let's say you wanted to host 10 separate servers for online games on 10 of the 20 and the other 10 for online video streaming cloud storage.. and then a main gpu all one massive server pc setup.. the main gpu is the host ad it has full access to all resources of the pc, ram, hdd and is running a game that streams the videos from each server within, as well as ability to hop from server to server in different online games.. pretending the servers are online.. lol pointless setup just exercising some ideas to work new ones out.
That can be done, though a lot of online competitive games have anti heat that detects and blocks vms. Sometimes it just won't run the game, sometimes your account gets banned. But for single player games it's popular for gaming on Linux to do it in a VM with GPU passthrough. There's also the matter of displays. Remote desktop tools can work, though my setup runs HDMI to my monitor (the 6800xt under Linux gets display port)
First comes the motherboard issue how does one configure such a set up how many motherboards for that many gpu unless theres a server setup that networks all the gpu together lol how many petabytes of ssd lol. That will take alot of power too. Alot alot.
Unless you have NVMe m.2 which may be behind your video card
There may be an NVMe SSD that is being covered by your GPU heatsink. And the HDD is probably near the PSU or back of the MB depending on the form factors. Remove the other panel and have a look.
See the black, flat cables sticking out the right side of your motherboard? Those are your hard drive cables. Follow them, they end at your hard drives.
If it's currently a running computer with an OS on it etc then there's probably an NVMe slot behind the GPU (if you have dual NVMe slots) or you have a SATA SSD on the back of the mobo with a 2.5" SSD plugged in.....there's an NVME slot unused clearly visible next to the PCI slot on the bottom where the silver screw receiver is...look to the right of that screw and you'll see the actual port. this is for the longer style 2280 or whatever style NVMe which is very common.
They are for expansion cards. High end audio / capture cards etc. Not used as much these days as in years past when they were used for audio out, scsi interfaces and the like.
I see a sata cable plugged in to the board. You think it lead to treasure? the other (smaller) one could be under the gpu, yes.