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So I thought I try and reduce my rig system/gpu cost by going for a 8 GPU rig.

I got one of the pcie 1 to 3 pcie switches.

Sadly I picked the wrong motherboard. Msi Z97 guard pro does not boot past the bios splash screen when i connect the 8th GPU. 7 is fine.

Please post your setup if you had success of failure.


http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAwMFgxMDAw/z/cWQAAOSwNRdX2L-G/$_1.JPG

it is not about the multiplier . it is about how many resources the motherboard can allocate for i/o from external cards.

are there boards known to work with 8 cards or more?
i expect mostly server boards, no?

I'm also interested if this works with H81 PRO BTC board because I have such but missing the multiplier.

People don't want to reveal the secret to getting more than 7 gpus working. It gives them an edge that they don't want to share.  I remember reading that the motherboard's bios needs to be modded for 8+ to work.

For what it's worth,  I had a go at 8 and 9 gpus on an MSI Z87.  Board would boot woth 8 but only detect 7. With 9, the board just wouldn't boot.

Not working on H81 BTC pro with 3in 1HUb

7 gpu max, with 8 black screen not boot :(

i believe (some) server boards should work fine as they are getting used for cuda compute cards (there are models with 8 and 10 gpus iirc), it might also be a specific mobo with updated bios for this case, who knows

i think win10 works with 8gpu without any mods - just rumor, need to confirm.

I think it would work with 8, but the issue is getting the motherboard to work with 8.

the custom board of pandaminer support them, however it's quite expensive (260$) and need mobile GPUs..

Well I have a Asrock H97 Anniversary with 3 Hd7990 and 3 390x. It boots fine and all 9 shows up under window 10. One of die hd7990 gpus are buggy so I disabled it. Although I have not tried the pcie switch I am more convinced that it would work on the asrock h97 anniversary. No modifications or windows registry hack required.

Plenty of reports of 3GB 7950/7970 cards working, the issue is 4GB + cards. Your setup would be 30GB of VRAM reported to the motherboard's BIOS. 8x 4GB cards would be 32GB.

Than again, I'm running rigs with 7x 8GB GPUs without issue, so 56GB reported. So that's probably not the actual problem.

I've also tried running 2x 390 Devil 13 + 4x 290 for a total of 8 GPUs which also didn't work. Tried with both W10 Pro and W10 Enterprise.

I should have a pretty interesting announcement on this front in the next few weeks ...if I were you guys don't buy anymore of these cheap switches (they suck and are not even designed properly), or even GPU risers. I will have something that will change the way we GPU mine :)

Awesome. Can you share any more details?

spill the beans

Same, i'm interested.   maybe it's the PCIE thought USB people have discussed for a while......

I have a few boards with one 16x and one 1x slot that I plan to make into 4-5 card rigs... which would make it cheaper in the end to make the miner;  because those mobo+CPU+memory are typically coming from discarded pc's and are free to me usually =)  Even if I buy the $40 1-3 adaptor;  it's still cheaper than sourcing a newer board, etc.

If he managed to get GPUs working on USB protocols that would be quite something. If anyone can do it, it would be him.

Since mining traffic to the cards isn't all the latency/bandwidth dependent; I don't see why a software driver and protocol interpreter would be too terrible to do.  Just wrap the pcie data into a serial stream, and reverse it out the adaptor....

Yes on a technical level it should work. Sadly I can't see  gpu drivers supporting this though

if the protocol is properly coded in the driver;  the GPU driver is not a concern, as the PCIE ports added will be a system device, which would accept commands just as the driver for the physical on-board PCIE would be in windows....  They already emulated PCI/PCIE ports (in a pseudo sense) in the past with the early virtual pc emulators;  before VMx was a thing.  Pure software emulation with system level hardware control capability. (super early vmware versions for instance).

I've done something like this only once when I was about 15 years younger;  and I only did a small portion of the entire project.  We had to code a driver for a network packet protocol that was just coming out...   But for the life of me, I don't remember exactly what it was... Something about it being universal....  The main part I did was I had to write the functions that built the packets based on input source, size and type..

My friends dad did something similar designing the first PCMCIA universal docking station for laptops in the mid 90's...  so I have people to bounce ideas off of....

(sorry for skew, but we are all curious)

If it was easy it would have been done by now. But for now I am happy to just settle for 8 if I can get some idea if which MB and Os would work.

To get 9+ you'll need to use QPI links if you don't want to have to mod a bios(or if you have to not much at all) :)

Interest piqued, post followed :)

Cant spill everything yet, as im still finalizing design...but here are some teasers from my prototype system  ;D All the GPUs are 470s 4GB, would have more connected but only have one dev board built and ran out of 470s lol

https://i.imgur.com/OQKf9QN.png
https://i.imgur.com/lkLSbNr.png

Wow, cant wait to hear how it's done...

10 GPUs if I am correct?

Okay now the Hype level's over 9000 ...

TOO IMBA

8 is the limit for Windows with AMD cards.

I have tested with my AsRock H81 ProBTC 2.0, it detects by Windows, as Bridge-PCI. But GPUs does not detects and does not work.

will the software part of the solution (if not oob) be paid as well or OSS?
i suppose running this on linux is by far easier as on windows

another interesting concept i have thought of would be running linux as a base and passing through 4-6 gpus into a vm, one just needs to create multiple vms for windows and a single one for linux (or run it barebone)

Yea linux image will be part of the solution and provided with the hardware (as well as BIOSes and anything non hardware needed to run it). Definitely wont run on windows.

what are we speaking about here  exactly ?

Any updates Jstenfanop?

I should be able to make a formal announcement at the end of this week...Im still in the final stages of designing the production board, and want to be within a month of announcement to ordering/shipping.

Cant wait :)

Well, just an update what I found out so far. Without custom hardware and just using standard MB with switch/bridge there is a 7 GPU limit to RX cards. I have not tried 2 Switches with 2 cards per switch yet but I doubt it would make any difference. Except if anyone else got it right.

No, it won't make difference. Address allocation is the key.

Here another little teaser for you guys  ;D

Finished the second dev board and have 4 more GPUs coming in so should be able to test the full 16 GPU setup. I was knocked out with strep all last week so didn't have time to work on the project :(

https://i.imgur.com/fzlG9uU.png

Holy Ballsacks Batman, 16 on one board, this would be a big one. I hope you will be able to supply to small time end users, since im expecting farms to swarm all over you anytime now :D
Are you by any chance using something like this http://amfeltec.com/products/gpu-oriented-cluster/

Nope personally designed custom solution. Everything else out there was either cheap Chinese crap, or overpriced crap.

Is your solution for large scale farmers, or small scale (~few rigs) enthusiast miners?

Bookmarking to keep watch.  Very cool project.

I'm curious if this custom solution will work with 8GB cards, or only with 4GB cards?

Its a custom solution that would work with ANY card, could be future Vega 12GB cards as well.

Yes there is no theoretical limit to what my solution will work with, should be fine with Nvidia cards as well. I am specifically testing with a mix of 470s/480s with 4/8GB

I'm a really interested on the topic, as a possible future small miner to build my first rig. I have little space for a rig, so saving a mobo/psu/cpu/hdd would be perfect if I want to invest in more than 6 gpu. Congrats!

when can we expect more details :) My F5 button is almost dead. Big investors are waiting here :)

Ill post official announcement either this weekend or early next week.

It is past early next week, any update? :)

There is quite a shortage of 6x motherboards in EU, very interested in the topic.

I have a single pcie x16 port and and x1 ports  , will the chinese adapters work for me , I am hoping to get atleast 3 cards in my rig before buying a new motherboard cpu and stuff only for mining

Really looking forward to seeing this, come on, let's have some news!

jstefanop when you going to come out with this thing?
I'm curious how much it will even cost.. how much cheaper will it be than making my own system cuz like... I'm waiting to buy this but i'm wanting to just go ahead and build a new system  with the standard parts  :-\

Any further news?

i'm using gigabyte am2+ and am3 old motherboard just about 25-30usd(not new) in here
it have 5 pcie and i'm using 1 to 3 multiplier so all is 7 gpu
and it's all work fine ;D,all x4 procesor.
i have asrock btc it just can boot with 7 gpu too,cannot boot if i add 8 gpu,no mather what procesor i put on it.
i have asus rampage black edition too(expensive one),it just support i7 procesor,it has 6 pcie,using 1 to 3 multiplier it can boot 8gpu.
biostar 990fxa am3 it have 4 pcie..i can add 2x 1 to 3  ;D..but it just can boot 7 too,cannot boot if i add 8.
the most i can add gpu is in z170 asus(expensive too),if i'm using celeron it just can boot 7 gpu,if i'm using i7..i can add 2 of 1to3 multiplier and it's working all.
so until now if i build new rig,i just using the gigabyte old one,it's very cheap hahaha  ;D

This is brilliant news man. Thank you for testing it with all your motherboards. I would request everyone here to do the same, for the benefit of the community.
Can you get 8 cards to work on the Asus Rampage? Are 8 cards mining using Claymores with that combination?

For now, I can get 7 cards to work on Asrock H81 Pro BTC V2, and the Biostar TB85, but 8 GPU's do not work on either of these boards under windows.
Will be testing them on linux with 8 GPU. Then will also test it on the MSI Gaming 5/7 for 8 cards, and the several Am2+ and Am3 boards I have and report back here.

Yes let to know us about your test with 8 gpu  ;) on MSI Gaming 5/7

I have asrock H81 BTC pro and biostar T85 with 3 in 1 switch,- 7 gpu working fine (7 x RX 480 nitro+) but with 8 gpu black screen.
 I am very interesting for motherboard ang 8 gpu mining.

 asus rampage black can you mine with 8?

Im done with this snake-oil thread.

jstefanop Has not followed through with any promises of info.... which is the only reason I keep checking this thread for a honest answer.

Good troll my friend.   PM me if anything real hits the table, till then, I am done reading this garbage.

Im sure theres many others in the same boat as I am.

yea same, i pm'd him and he said "this week" that was tuesday/wednesday. id like a pm as well when its announced, even in this thread he said this weekend or early next week mid march and its almost mid april now...

Woah there...this is exactly why I don't like announcing anything until I'm ready. I simply made a few posts about what I'm working on, and ill announce when its ready. I got caught up with the whole Litecoin fiasco in the past two weeks so I fell a bit behind, and I shouldn't have posted about getting more info out.

Again;  not going out of my way to down you;  but you did say things that you simply did not follow through on:
more than once.  So yeah.  No breath being held and I chose to be vocal about it....  Usually something like that stimulated progress anyways. (in one way or another)


You should easily be able to understand our/my dismay at your postings in this thread for the reasons I have stated;  and I did unwatch this thread, but was about to scroll past it in the sub-forum and took a peek.

-Al

Please do not worry about impatient and rude individuals. You are doing something awesome for the mining community which I know I will personally very much appreciate once completed.

Yes it would have been nice to get an update that you are behind, but life happens and you also don't owe us anything. By all means I will be happy to take their spot in testing or being your customer.

Wow you are such an entitled jerk aren't you. He doesn't owe anyone anything, its not like he put it up for prebooking and now is failing to deliver.
He has been pretty clear that its something in development, and you, while of no use to the community yourself, proceed to take a piss at him for trying.
Filth like you hurts innovation and stinks up forums in general. Go crawl back into your hole and cry about it if you want, but dont bring it here.

My reply wasn't about being in a pissing match, and I am sorry that so many feelings are fragile when a simple truthful comment was made.

If someone promises an answer;  It's not being "entitled" to something owed no?

*SMH* I never once asked for anything....  Did I?

I stated that I was upset that we were being lead on, and I am through with it and I am turned off by it... especially when it happened a second time in a row.

I didn't belittle anyone;  I didn't flip off the rocker... unlike some replies above mine.

Sorry for simply speaking truth and stating facts.  Sorry for being realistic.
Yes;  I apologize for others faults as well as my own.... someone should.

I wasn't going to directly address you, but come on man there is no need for being rude, sarcastic, and not even telling the truth about your own words.


You aren't.


But not just one page earlier, you state the following:


You call the thread snake-oil.


Then you call Jstefanop a troll and that this is garbage.  That to me, is belittling, rude, and quite uncalled for.  Please move on from the thread if you aren't interested, but there isn't the need to soil the good will we have here in the community by failing to understand things happen in life and that people aren't perfect.

I for one am going to watch this thread, then just wait, and hope.
I've seen a  lot of mostly working projects that vanish because the community ends up being toxic (which I see jared is trying for), so I won't put -too- much hope in though.

@jstefanop I for one appreciate the innovation that you are trying to bring to fruition and would be interested in some form of donation address to specifically support your project. Alternatively if you have any form of pricing estimate a BTC address for a possible pre-order.

yes i can mine it with 8 with linux
in windows 10 it detect 8 gpu but 1 of them is error 43,i try multi gpu app it's still only work 7 in windows

I did state facts;  and gave a real world opinion...  you obviously did not understand the context of what was said form both parties prior to my statement that seems to have hit a sensitive nerve.  I suggest trying to understand the flavorful manner of which I write.  It's not simple 3-5 letter words and foul mouthed rants.  Do some legwork if you desire to validate.  Just a few clicks away.

Calling a thread "snake oil"; which is another way of saying "false claim": is not belittling someone.  It's literally describing a thread with a metaphor to describe the false claims that were made.   Might I suggest a link: Here (http://"https://www.google.com/search?q=snake+oil&oq=snake+oil").  It's a good way to understand these things.   (now that right there is actually belittling someone, only if I know for a fact you do know how to use google).  Please don't cut off your nose to spite your face.  It doesn't hurt the others, it just affects how they perceive you.

I called him a troll for leading people on twice... and specifically for using the term two weeks.  Do the math if you have been on this site long enough (maybe not?  I don't care to look at this point).  It should be easy for any veteran of this site to understand why it would be said: (BF public sales anyone?).  I, also in the same paragraph, describe that if anything real hits the table he can PM me if he desires.  I also didn't state that it was the opinion of everyone. (are you gonna misinterpret and try and twist the 'many people' phrase now?)  This paragraph should be blatantly understandable to the laymen veteran of this forum.

Again:
Sorry that being real, honest and upfront about the above mentioned issues was considered an attack.   Imagine if people actually followed through with what they said on this site:  The site would be perfect and everyone would be painting rainbow unicorns; as well as rich beyond their wildest dreams.  Well, nearly.

I never once downed a project that wasn't an answer to the OP.  I supported it.  
I didn't down him for his project,  I downed the method of sharing and lack of congruence (which does happen, but not usually repeatedly).  
If you can't handle bad feedback, why care about good feedback?

This is why nowadays things like this and politics go horribly bad real quick:  people get too hurt about a simple opinion; which is usually supposed to give inspiration to another viewpoint which is affecting one or many people and pointing towards a problem.  If you can't work with bad feedback in the slightest for a rudimentary action such as proper information delivery:  how can you be expected to improve or sell a product/service?

By the means of sharing it, it seems like it won't be open-source... so this concept/manner of thinking is very much applicable.  
Anyways if it is open-source;  what kind of logic is it to be secretive about something that's going to be public anyways?
Wouldn't the public help and input make a better project/product in the end?


On topic reply to the OP and others clicking here wondering about the 1-3 risers:
I have tried 1-3 splitters on many new and old boards (intel and AMD)... and they have generally worked like a charm with any PCIE capable board.  At the very least, I have always been able to get 4 cards minimum working on a board with only 2 slots and an embedded CPU in a mini-ITX lenovo format.  I haven't tried more than 5 GPU on many of those boards though, because the rigs were all smaller (4-5 gpu).  The customers didn't want to spend that much on a 6+ card machine back then... plus wattage requirements were a bit steeper. YMMV.

Total Bore-off  :D

Let's get back to topic of this thread.  Can anyone share what 1x3 multiplier they are using that works, I went back through all 4 pages and unless I scrolled to fast, I do not see any suggestions.  I tried one from Amazon a couple months ago and it didn't work, I sent it back.  Would be nice to have the ability to get these 40-60 dollar boards and use a 1x3 on it for 6 or 7 gpu's. Im not looking for 8+, really don't care about anything higher than 6 tbh.

The 1-3x expanders do work;  the way they work is in a passive sense;  like a USB hub adds more USB ports;  its just based on the PCIE archetecture instead.

AFAIK, I haven't heard of one of the readily available chinese devices that doesn't do its job.  If it doesn't add the extra PCIE "port", you probably have those system bus resources tied up in other devices (onboard devices, or add-in devices).

I know two people that have used them to expand a mini-itx board from 2 ports into 4 for miners.   No issues yet.  They are just kind of clunky how the part that plugs into the PCIE slot on the mainboard is shaped... makes you have to work around it.

Something like This (https://www.amazon.com/JIUWU-Express-Switch-Multiplier-Cable/dp/B01I2Y84TE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492654591&sr=8-1&keywords=PCIE+1+to+3)

I think you missed this one Reelen.... The simple fact is that jstefanop has multiple posts where he "has" things and "is" going to share them.  The simple fact is that he is attention seeking and has no intention of releasing anything unless it is affiliated with someone like BitWorks and a HUGE markup.   

Don't hold your breath waiting....

I have one from amazon on all my mining rigs
Rig setups
4 PCIE slot HP 775 Motherboards (Bought them in bulk for $55 each with CPU and Memory)
Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU's
4GB DDR2 Memory
60GB SSD
Windows 10 Anniversary with all windows Callback/Update features disabled after initial miner setup.
1 1x to 3 1x multiplier from amazon
I have disabled everything in the bios that I can including usb as I use ps/2 KVM's allowing me to make the 4 slot motherboard run 6 cards
If you miss disabling one item in bios then one of the cards will no longer work.

From everything I read so far, it sounds like it's easier to use a 4 PCIE slot mobo with this PCIE multiplier to run 6 cards, than it is to use a 6 PCIE mobo to run 8 cards...

Correct However I was also able to get a asus am3+ motherboard with 5 slots to work with 7 cards but the last 2 cards were less stable.

i had some experience with those switches and some old mobos for a couple of last weeks. neither g31 and g41, nor h61 and some too old chipset mobos didn't see any cards through it, but h81 works well. i don't have any amd mobo, but due to their specs it should work too. well, getting a cheap 2-pcie slot h81 mobo to build a 6 gpu rig looks like a good plan now.

I second that. I want h81 mobo switches

What happen if you reduce the frequency?

Yeah, in the end, sometimes cheaper if you use something like an x58 board/system

Dude,

Would you please tell me the exact mobo you use?

I'd like to try that.

I am using a88x-g45 and it can only boot to 5. I got to use some stuff to make it boot to 6. However, if I do so, it's less stable.

Hi all,
Did anybody had success in running 7 GPUS Nvidia with this switch on Asrock H81 Pro BTC? I have 6 GTX 1080 ti and when I try to add this hub/switch to add 7th card GTX 1070 the system don't recognize it or I can't boot the system (Windows 10).
When I try to connect 5 GPUs to mobo and 6th card to this hub it doesn't work either. It did work once but this 6th card I couldn't change any settings in MSI Afterburner then after restart stop working. I have two of these and none of them works for me.
If you have any ideas or expirience with this Switch I would appreciate any help.

Anyone used this with the gigabyte 270 d3?

PCIe 3x or 4x Splitters do not support Nvidia cards, are built primarily for AMD.

Hey, I connected a rx 480 to a PCI slot. Not pcie. It smoked! Now my card is not recognized. I've tried in different pc's. Is there a fuse or capacitor that might have blown on the cards board?

Yes if it smoked, it blew a few caps at max. But its not something you can change unfortunately, you'll have to give it in for RMA.

That's not true. I have an MSI G43-970A running 6 Nvidia 1060 (3GB) cards using a 1 to 4 splitter.

z170 Gaming M7, I use this:

https://xiongfaic.en.alibaba.com/product/60720505649-0/PCIe_1_to_4_PCI_express_16X_slots_Riser_Card_PCI_E_1X_to_External_4_PCI_e_slot_Adapter_PCIe_Port_Multiplier_Card_for_BTC_Miner.html?spm=a2700.8304367.prewdfa4cf.7.73152c54KFsPwC

Mobo supports MAX 12GPUs.

https://i.imgur.com/kUmK8D9.png

That's the first time I've heard of this..are you sure?  I can't get mine to work on my Nvidia cards, so this would make sense.

Have you tried inserting your splitter in a way that the motherboard only has as many graphics cards as could be installed without it?

For example, if you have 4 physical PCIe slots on the motherboard, try putting one card directly in the primary x16 slot, then using a splitter card for up to 3 additional cards. This can help check if the splitter card can actually function at all in that board.

Hi, im trying 1 to 3 adapter but with Nvidia 1060 it is not working, they are not found as devices , with AMD cards its working fine ... :( Anyone know if its normal for the Nvidia GPU's not to work with those adapters ?

Yes. These PCI-E spiltters only work with AMD cards.

I have one working fine (still) in an MSI 970A-G43, with Nvidia 1060s. I'm using Windows 7.

https://www.amazon.com/Ubit-Riser-Adapter-Powered-Extension/dp/B0746H1KY3
(Although, if you have a mix of cards and can connect them such that only the AMD cards go through the adapter, that would likely be a quicker workaround for your troublesthan purchasing a different riser card.)

I'm not sure if any deductive research has been done to support claims about these devices not supporting graphics cards with Nvidia GPUs. It seems this belief is only based on some number of examples.

This switch does not work with nVidia cards.