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I am planning on getting a mother board but I cant tell how many graphic cards it can hold the description says: Expansion Slots
PCI Express 2.0 x16
7 (4 x16 or 6 x8 + 1 x16)

What does that mean?

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188070
Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130655
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130751
I am not sure which card is better but I want to know how many I can fit onto the motherboard?

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Quick answer for : the spec line means the board has seven full‑length PCIe slots (mechanically x16), but the electrical lane allocation changes depending on how many slots are used. In one configuration the board can present four slots that run at full x16 electrically; in a different configuration it will present six slots at x8 plus one at x16. That split is done with PCIe switching/bridge logic on this dual‑Xeon platform — see the EVGA SR‑2 product notes and user manual for the slot map. — EVGA SR‑2 manual. ()

Important distinction: mechanical x16 versus electrical x8/x16. A x16 card will physically fit any x16 slot, but if the slot is wired as x8 it only gets eight PCIe lanes. For PCIe 2.0 a single x8 link still has plenty of bandwidth for many GPUs, but multi‑GPU setups and some workloads can show measurable differences between x8 and x16. For background on lane sizes and throughput see the PCIe specification summary and testing notes. PCI Express overview — Tom’s Hardware on slot bandwidth. (en.wikipedia.org)

Practical limits and caveats: the SR‑2 supports multi‑GPU modes (EVGA lists 2‑way, 3‑way and 4‑way SLI/CrossFireX) but driver support, case spacing, cooling, and power are the real constraints; EVGA even documents front‑panel/ECP jumpers to enable/disable PCIe slots for troubleshooting. For gaming, expect best results with 2–4 cards in SLI/CFX; for GPU compute/render farms it’s possible to populate more slots but OS/drivers and power/cooling must be planned. EVGA manual / slot details. ()

Tie‑back to earlier replies: was right that these are PCIe 2.0 x16 slots physically, and ’s point that this is a dual‑Xeon workstation platform (not a typical consumer gaming board) is also correct. Bottom line: seven full‑length cards can be installed physically, but for full x16 performance expect up to four GPUs; plan a large PSU (EVGA suggested 1200W class for extreme builds), ample airflow, and consult the SR‑2 manual for the exact slot population map before buying GPUs or a chassis. ()

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Member Avatar for khajvah

Yes, i think, GPU is PCI Express 2.0 x16, and motherboard has "seven PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots", anyway read other's ideas, or google a bit, because i am not an expert in it (you gave me idea, i will read about them)

Edited by khajvah because: n/a
Member Avatar for caperjack

no expert ,but what are you planning on using the computer for after its built .
you did notice the board uses a Intel Xeon CPU right ,which if im right would make it a good video editing and Cad type workstation ,not a gaming cpu .unless it has become one ?
i have a older xeon based computer and its a Dell Workstation ,not a gamer

from Wikipedia =The Xeon is a brand of multiprocessing- or multi-socket-capable x86 microprocessors from Intel Corporation targeted at the non-consumer server, workstation and embedded system markets.

Edited by caperjack because: n/a
Member Avatar for khajvah

no expert ,but what are you planning on using the computer for after its built .

True and seven slots for GPUs are for video editing too, i think.

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