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I'm building some more rigs.... Just wanted to figure out what today's motherboard of choice was for miners using 6 or more GPUs.  I would like to get 7 or 8 on a board but wasnt sure what boards support it.  I dont think there are any boards that support 8 gpu's, but let me know if you know of one.

Thanks!

You're not going to really get past 6 GPUs with anything standard. You'll need a server rackmount to go past 6 GPUs I think. You can attempt it with the Gigabyte UD-7 motherboard and some powered riser cables for 6 GPUs. You -NEED- to make sure that the GPUs you are buying are voltage unlocked. You'll also need a 1600W PSU. The reason I say you'll need the cards voltage unlocked is that 5 7950 GPUs will use every bit of 1500W of power, so if you want to go to 6 and use 7950s, then you'll need to undervolt them to get the 6th card on.

Other GPUs may use less power and might not need to be voltage unlocked, but I don't know anything about those.

I'm not crazy knowledgeable but 6 is a lot of cards for one motherboard. Going 2 sets of 3 may be in your interest or even 2 sets of 4 if you want 8 total cards. Most PSUs just won't be able to pump out the power you need to power that many cards.

I looked at using the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7 myself but I believe it has a supplementary SATA power connector on the motherboard to adequately power 4 way SLI.

Cablesaurus states on their powered extenders:

"For use only with traditional motherboards using only a CPU/ATX motherboard power connector, and no supplementary SATA power connector on the motherboard"

The MSI Big Bang Marshal has 8 PCIE x16 slots.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130595

You don't run the cards in SLI or Crossfire modes. My UD-5 has the standard power plug plus the 8 pin adapter and it works just fine running 5 7950s on Windows 8 using the scrypt fork of GUIMiner. I just had powered riser cables come in today and am going to swap them out for the standard ones I have in there to see if it increases my kH/s as I believe the memory for the cards pulls its power from the motherboard and not the power connectors on the card. Hopefully then, I can decrease the powertune.

I have 6 cards per rig, 3 of them on powered risers... two rigs... 3 Seasonic 1250 Watt gold power supplies.  Each power supply powers 4 cards.

I have the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 and the MSI 990FXA-GD80 and they both can handle 6 GPU's I believe (still waiting on 1x risers to arrive).  It looked like they had been out for awhile so I didnt know if there was anything better on the market that most people were using or not.

Thanks, but anyone got this one working with?  And are there any out there that aren't discontinued  :P

This has 7 PCI-e x16 slots: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157327

You'll need voltage unlocked cards (try the Sapphire 7950 4L's as they should be) and a 1600W PSU. Running Ubuntu you should be able to get all cards running if undervolted. I suggest powered riser cables as the motherboard will definitely need help supplying power to these bad boys. It spreads the motherboard too thin if you try and pull all the power necessary for the memory from just the board.

If you're mining LTC, you need at least 2-3GB of RAM per card, so plan on at least 24GB of RAM (might as well do 32GB).

"If you're mining LTC, you need at least 2-3GB of RAM per card, so plan on at least 24GB of RAM (might as well do 32GB)."

I often hear people say this, but it's simply not true. I have a rig with 4 gigs of RAM mining litecoin right now with 4 7950s running at 600k each (2400k total). Perhaps it used to be a limitation, but 4 gigs of RAM works fine mining litecoin using Ubuntu 12.04 with cgminer.

You can always use multiple PSUs, too. :)

If one uses Reaper to mine LTC, you need a lot of RAM, but you are correct that cgminer does not use much RAM at all when mining LTC.  I upgraded RAM in several rigs thinking I would need it but my 5 x 7970 rig only uses just over 1 GB of RAM when scrypt mining, so the rest of the RAM I bought is wasted, lol.  It gets about 3.45 Mh/s on Scrypt with cgminer using a tad over 1GB of RAM.  It does use a lot of video memory though, but hey, that comes with the cards :)

A little on the pricey side for me, i can just buy another mobo/ram/cpu and psu for that :)  Thanks though, thats the type of stuff i was looking for.

I think the best you can do with consumer grade products will be 4 dual slot GPU's on a motherboard with 7 or more PCI-X slots.  Keep in mind every card will require the spacing of two slots.  And as someone else already pointed out, you're going to run into heat problems.  This is the motherboard I was looking at.  You'd be able to fit 4 cards in here with a large enough case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130626

If you're rich, there are server grade, rackmount solutions.  Some aren't as expensive as you'd think.

Can anyone shine in with boards that accommodate 4 cards without risers (just sitting on board)..
The ASRock 970 Extreme4 should be the most efficient after lots of searching, but i cant find it in my country..

I have the MSI 890FXA-GD70 on it's way since I got it for $59.90 after rebate. It has 6 PCIe slots. This MB has been discontinued so you will have a hard time finding it. I was lucky to find one.

If I had to choose something else I would look at:

MSI Z77A-G45   LGA 1155    7 PCIe***   $114.99  after  $10.00  rebate card at newegg

Searching the forum didn't find much on the Z77A-G45 though so I don't know how well it works for mining.

Don't know of any MBs at a reasonable price with 8 PCIe slots :(

There is little practical upshot to stuffing 8 physical cards on a single mobo rather than 2x4, except potentially a savings of 100w or so for the extra system. And if you're running 8x200w gpus, that's a fairly paltry savings.

Here's a list of motherboards from other threads that are known to work with 4 or more GPU's

known to work
-------------
5 GPU - ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ($145)
4 gpu - Asrock 970 Extreme3 ($99)
4 gpu - Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ($104)
7 gpu - MSI Big Bang-XPower II ($369)

power supply limitations and airflow/overheating are the biggest concerns in 5+ card systems.

add2psu sells a gadget to link two or more power supplies together. If space isnt an issue, two smaller power supplies may be cheaper than one big one

Thanks everyone!   I got my risers in today and got 6 7970's running on my MSI 890FXA-GD70 boards.  I have a new MSI 990 that I'll try it on next.

What kind of PSU are you using? Or are you using 2 PSUs? The 7950s use like 275W each at stock 1.25V. I've got 5 GPUs running on Windows 8 but I don't believe the 6th will go without a 2nd PSU.

My 7970 doesn't even pull 275W, and that has a high 1.256V as well. What are you doing to pull that much power per card? All 5 GPUs pull ~1400W at the wall? That's not right.

I have the Powercolor AX7950 GPUs with a 1600W LEPA PSU and the Gigabyte 990FX UD-5 motherboard. With a Kill-A-Watt hooked up to it, I see a power draw on it of about 1400W. Maybe that was when I had powertune at +20 on it though? I'm redoing that board now as we speak (bringing it up to Windows 8 instead of Windows 7) and won't be having powertune on it this next time. I'll report back once it is up and running. Swapping out standard risers for powered risers to see if the kH/s goes up some with non-powertuned settings. Then I'll attempt to add a 6th card into the PCI-e 1x slot (I have a 1x->x16 riser) if all goes well.

This milk crate is getting tight on space! :p

I'm using the ASRock 970 Extreme4 in one of my rigs, and the most you can get without risers is 3 GPU's.

Yes, and the middle card runs HOT!

Add MSI FXA-GD65 (http://msi.com/product/mb/990FXA-GD65.html) - 6GPU (without any mods) and it's for like $100

MSI Z77A-G45 is confirmed to run 6 slots easily. I own 4 of them. I have 8 GPU's populated in two of them (2 dual gpu cards) BTW, yes, 7970s really DO use that much power. 3 reference 7970 at stock volts, underclock ram, and overclocked core 1100-1220mhz used 870 watts AC on my kill-a-watt. baseline hardware uses 25 watts. I now have 5 7970 on it and the rosewill lightning 1300 powering them stinks of melting wire insulation., likely in the area of 1450 watts AC.

Why are my GPUs pulling so much power then? I have 5 Powercolor AX7950s running on the Gigabyte UD-5 motherboards. 1 of them has 4 powered risers and 1 non-powered riser and it's pulling a total of 1240W. No powertune on it. Engine at 950 and Memclock at 1490. Seems like a lot. Only getting ~537kH/s per card. I was getting 582kH/s out of them on the same rig with +10 powertune, but it was drawing so much power that it tripped the power strip because it wanted more power than the PSU could provide!

It pulls a lot of power because it pulls a lot of power. No way around it aside from undervolting and lowering frequencies and getting less hashes. Use a stronger power supply and electrical circuit or less video cards if you want fast speeds. Your choice.

Yea.... good choice, but I just really like the on-board power/reset buttons and on-board diag LED of the MSI 990FXA-GD80 V2.

Saves me from having to hook up speaker/power/reset switch on my wood-frame open-air rigs.  So saves me time and whatever cost of purchasing those items would be.... for $40 more.

Although I have yet to verify if it runs 6 cards... hopefully I will find that out tonight.

Anyone have pointers on stuffing one of the larger video cards in just one single slot rather then occupying two?  Water cooling?  Any tuts out there in the wild?

Hi everybody,

I'm getting ready to build a 6 GPU rig that I would like to upgrade to a 24 GPU rack.
The rack info can be found here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=191117.0
Here is a picture:
http://www.awtti.com/images/LTCminingrig9.png

I don't have much time to test the 6 GPU setup itself as I will have plenty of work to do on the frame. So I'm looking for a proven 6 GPU set up that will fit 6 x 7950 or 6 x 7970.
I would like to use the latest available motherboard since the older ones slowly become discontinued.
So far, here are all the post I have found on this forum that talk about 6 GPU setups.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=188334.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=169718.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=105615.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186877.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97154.20
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=142241.msg1515460#msg1515460
After reading them, I'm still not sure which Motherboard I should go with. My only restriction is the format: ATX

COOLING:
I'm planning to start with air, what the rack was originally designed for. Once it passes the test, I'm going to switch to Oil Cooling.
With the oil cooling, I will test 2 options:
1. Air cooling of the oil outside of the rack room via a large radiator and fan.
2. Water cooled heat exchanger using a cold water source (in my case, irrigation water since available).

I look forward to your feedback. Thank you Boozer, scifimike12 & ssateneth for your feedback!

For 6 GPUs, I prefer the Z77A-GD65.  No presence pins need shorted, there are power buttons on the MB, and there's a 2 digit POST debug readout.  Technically you could run 7 cards on this MB with the right processor (the bottom slot is only active when an Ivy Bridge CPU is installed).

I have 9 of these rigs running with six 7950s each.  No powered risers, 1040-1070mhz per card, and 300mhz ram clocks.  They're stable.

https://i.imgur.com/2feHArIl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2feHArI.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/2feHArI.jpg)

Very nice man.... It has the 2 digit post LED on it?  I might have to rethink things :).   No powered risers at all with 6 cards per board?  That would make me a bit nervous... how long they been running like that?

I assume at those RAM clocks its for SHA256 mining?  Have you tried Scrypt (LTC, etc)?  What hash rate do you get on average with them?

Also, as an FYI, i did get 6x7970 working on the MSI 990FXA-GD80 V2, but I had to Jumper A1 to b17 anywhere I used a 1x to 16x pci connector.   I also set pci latency to 96 from reading elsewhere but do not know if that has any effect or not.

Could you give a quick explanation of your OS setup.  I'm researching 6 gpu rigs and there's a lot of misinformation about compatibility and Win7 vs. Ubuntu/Debian.  I'd really appreciate some info or links to help my homework/research before I commit the $$.

I would also like info on your 6 gpu setup.  I have ordered 2 MSI 990FXA-GD65 V2 hoping to populate 6gpus without to many issues. If this Mobo does not work looks like the MSI Z77A-GD65 is in my near future.

Can anyone confirm the version 2 board will work I see above the normal version works with no problems. But they didnt state enviroment.

Seeing yours looks stable you mind sharing.  Also what PSU you using?

Look into the MSI Z77A-G45. It may not have that 7th card CPU limitation. It does not have a power button on the MB though :/

The third PCIe slot is gen2 on the Z77A-G45 instead of gen3 link the Z77A-GD65 which is fine for mining.

No powered risers on the Z77A-GD65 huh? I wonder if the Z77A-G45 needs powered risers.

Does the need for powered risers have anything to do with scrypt vs SHA?

The Z77A-G45 will only run 6 cards. The 4th PCIe x1 slot disables itself when the other three are active. You will also need x1 to x16 powered risers.

To run six cards on this board (at least for scrypt mining), wouldn't you need two PSUs connected to get past the 1600W max PSU size you can buy to feed them? Or just get all undervolted cards on there? Would powered risers be needed if you undervolt the cards or no?

I would use powered risers regardless just for the sake of not frying the motherboard. It also ensures you are getting the max hashpower possible, while protecting peace of mind  ;)

That mobo has a 6 pin (pcie) power connector on the board, will you use it or will you useuse powered riseres instead?

Both would be the safest route and ensure the highest hashrate, as that built in power connector still wont feed more than the motherboard would if it wasnt there.

I'm in the market for 6GPU(7950) setup as well, so what PSU are you guys recommending? I would like to use 1 PSU per rig if that is possible.

So is 4GB ram enough for scrypt mining or no? what about CPU? is crappy CPU ok? or do i need to push up a level?

Thanks

I would recommend 8 with 6 GPUs. also don't use a total shit CPU. Use a intel sandy bridge series processor at the least. doesn't have to be a good one, but i'd recommend it. With the recommended boards you've seen such as the MSI Z77A-G45, a sandy bridge processor is a must. Also, I recommend using a server power supply (1600W min). Or just ground two 1000 W PSUs together.

jaywaka - Thanks, I put together a what i think will work for me(note i switched from 7950 to 6870), could you take a look and see if it make sense?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=200684.msg2104287#msg2104287

Thank you

Replied, gave advice. Hopefully it helps.

Honest question, why do you need a Sandy Bridge?

I was under the impression that he was going to do some Scrypt mining. Sandy Bridge processors aren't crap for it from what I've heard.

The reason someone would want to use an IVY bridge CPU is if the motherboard they have disables one of the pcie slots if an IVY bridge CPU isn't being used.

All CPUs that fit in a socket 1155 board are at least sandy bridge, even the low end one core celeron g440.

OK. The board has 7 slots, but 1 pcie x1 slot is hard-disabled even with the ivy bridge if the 3 pcie x16 slots are used in conjunction with the other 3 pcie x1

I found this thread helpful on the MSI Z77A-G45

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97154.0;all

Just note when you read that thread that you can ONLY use 6 GPUs on that board. Scroll down and read a bit and it will be explained. Nice find though!

Yup, picture says it all:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9768004/z77ag45.jpg

I do wonder... if you use a x16 riser in the orange highlighted slot will you still need to PCIe presence short it?

I'm actually running this board now with two 7970s in a HAF XM until I get powered risers and a custom case. The card between the CPU and second GPU runs about 6-7c hotter.

Plan to use the MSI 890FXA-GD70 in the custom case I plan to build so wont be using more than two cards on the MSI Z77A-G45 until I build a second many months down the road.

You will need a PCIe presence short even with a x16 riser. I wouldn't recommend using an x1 riser anyways LOL.

Also, make sure you look into the power distribution of that MSI 890FXA-GD70 board. Sometimes if you occupy 6 slots one will shut down. Make sure you know which one. Also look around to try and find other rigs with that board.

I dont know about the MSI Z77A-G45, but I do know that on the MSI Z77A-G65 you can use all 7 slots with an Ivy bridge processor and no presence pin shorting is required on any slot!  I use 7 1x to 16x risers, 4 of them are powered, 3 get power from the board.

The G45 only allows 6 of the 7 slots. I haven't heard anything about the G65. Have you confirmed that all 7 cards run at full hashpower? Can you post your system config and all its hardware?

sveetsnelda made the post on the previous page and I am building rigs so I decided to try the board.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186877.msg1990544#msg1990544

I have 7950's on it.  I'm busy with the build but hopefully can find time to create a thread with the boards I have made 6 and 7 card rigs on soon as quite a few are interested.

big bang marshal b3 is my weapon of choice.

MSI Z77A-G45

It just works. lol, sort-of... has one trick-slot Middle slot 16x needs a presence jumper when used as 1x with all 6 slots full. Only 6 of the 7 are able to be populated. One 1x slot disables, when a 16x slot is filled. But they are worth every penny.

Why not? What makes 16x risers so much better? IMO they're more difficult to plug in, causing unnecessary stress to the riser and video card and possibly break. I broke all my 16x risers because they were too difficult to plug in (No I didn't break them in a fit of rage. They broke because they required too much force. The wires that were soldered on would break off)

The only issue with 1x risers, is some only plug-in to a 1x slot. You have to cut-out the hole for the unnotched 16x slot. (Not difficult to do with a razor or dremmel.)

Some will say "fits 4x, 8x, 16x" (Those have one open end notched-out.)

16x has no advantage, even for litecoins. 1x is more than fast enough to send the tiny bit of data to be processed. 16x is only for sending massive GB of data, fast, over multiple lines, all at once.

I did notice that litecoins are real specific to having "balanced" memclocks/coreclocks. Something like a ratio of 0.53:1 to get ideal processing speed. More mem = slower, less mem = slower, just-right = max processing. (Adjust voltages to accommodate the core voltage that matches the mem clock/core clock ratio. That makes an issue for cgminer, as it uses a fixed-number, not a ratio, for adjusting clocks for speeds.)

If the G65 was as cheap as the G45, it would be worth it, in the long run. That would be one less motherboard along the way, as opposed to having 2-4 cards per motherboard. That is why I use the G45's. Two mobo's handle what others use three mobo's for. (That is less memory, less cpu's, less PSU's, and less wasted fan-cooling. Lower power, less heat, greater returns, faster returns.)

I was able to detect 6 7850 cards with MSI Z77A-G45 win7 x64 but 2 of the have Code43 error. so it seems as if its a driver/os problem.

Used every slot except the 4th.

If this is the G45... you need to put the monitor on the middle 16x slot/card... that is a "mobo" issue. (Also note, mining on that slot, will send a portion to the first 16x slot too??? Seen if you disable that card in CGminer, it shows as disabled/off but shows as mining about 5-2MHs when the other slot is also mining.) Might be because those slots turn into 8x/8x/4x with all 16x slots used. Thus, shared busses and bad programming of CGminer code.

The limitations comes from the bus hardware, which is why you can only put up to 7 active slots, and only up to 8-gpu cores. (They were not designed to put 8 video cards, they are 16-lanes short of a full 8 slots. Designated for PCI and ON-BOARD crap for motherboards, like network, usb, video, sound, etc. Not an issue for servers, but servers use dual processors, and they split the bus into two halves. Yet can still only take 8-GPU cores in software.)

ALSO NOTE: You can use MAPPING to "discover" unseen hardware in CGminer. But not if windows has disabled it. (That is a catalyst/windows issue, if you can not get them all seen beyond the motherboard thing above.)

Also try adding them one at a time... rebooting and discovering them one at a time.

Yea it is the G45.
My setup:

slot1 : 1x
slot2 : 16x: 16x-->1x
slot3 : 1x
slot4 :  not used
slot5 : 16x: 16x -->1x
slot6 : 1x
slot7 : 16x: 16x

No presence short on anything.

With this setup i can see 6 cards in win7 x64 and two of them have code43. So i cannot read anything from them with like gpu-z. Error cords are on cards in slot6 and slot7.

ATM i am using slot2 with monitor and slot 3 with dummy plug.

So you say i just can keep my setup and plug the monitor in slot5? And the dummy plug in which slot ?

I thought you couldnt use an x16 riser in an x1 slot

i don't do it.

i use 1x raiser in 16x slots.

Finally i was able to get 5 cards working with win7 and cat 12.6 + SDK

From what I've read here it looks like the MSI Z77A-GD65 with an Ivy Bridge CPU is the way to go for 7 GPUs. Up to 6 GPUs the MSI Z77A-G45 look to be the better choice if you don't mind having to presence short one of the slots.

There is about a $40 difference in price and you can use a slightly cheaper Sandy Bridge CPU with the G45.

Personally I think I may use a Z77A-GD65 with Ivy Bridge in my next rig even though I have a new 890FXA-GD70 set aside for it.
Will ANY Ivy Bridge CPU activate the 7th slot on the Z77A-GD65? Thinking of using the G1610. It's listed at 10 watts less than the G550 I have in my Z77A-G45.

Fun stuff :)

Do you have proof? Or are you just guessing? Screenshot with device manager and cgminer please.

I used the Celeron G1610 and I can use all 7 slots with it.

Device manager and CGminer screenshots please.

I have the Powercolor AX7950 GPUs with a 1600W LEPA PSU and the Gigabyte 990FX UD-5 motherboard. With a Kill-A-Watt hooked up to it, I see a power draw on it of about 1400W. Maybe that was when I had powertune at +20 on it though? I'm redoing that board now as we speak (bringing it up to Windows 8 instead of Windows 7) and won't be having powertune on it this next time. I'll report back once it is up and running. Swapping out standard risers for powered risers to see if the kH/s goes up some with non-powertuned settings. Then I'll attempt to add a 6th card into the PCI-e 1x slot (I have a 1x->x16 riser) if all goes well.

This milk crate is getting tight on space! :p

I highly advise against using Windows 8. Setting up AMD Drivers on Windows 8 was hell for me and my friends on various systems. We couldn't get it to recognize 3 7950s on one system and we tried the 11.12, 12.8, 13.1, and 13.4 drivers and every time it just jacked the display and didnt work each time. We probably missed something required, but we reverted to W7 and Linux on the systems and they work fine.

Powered risers will ensure that you have the highest possible hashrate though when using a motherboard with more than 4 GPUs. My friends do out safety reasons though (fire prevention).

Doesn't power risers matter with older cards.  With current 7xxx series it pulls so little watts off the PCI-E slot.

Powered risers are good for the older cards for sure. However it isnt the card series we are talking about. These motherboards weren't designed to support 7 GPUs, and because of that, the power draw cannot be fulfilled by the motherboard when overclocking or running the 7 cards in general. It prevents issues with frying the motherboard too. With x16 slots, you usually dont need powered risers (The 7990 cards do though), but the x1 to x16 risers need to be powered because the x1 slot simply doesn't output enough energy.

From what I researched PCIE x1 slots output 25watts and from what I gather 7xxx series card use less than 15 watts off the slot.

Not sure why "powered risers" and "hashrate" are in the same sentence in so many posts. Show me proof that powered risers remotely affect hashrate. I have 53 individual GPU cores all mining and not a SINGLE riser is powered. 666.2 MHash off a single 7970 at 1110/170 (Undervolted, can do 732.2 mhash at 1220 core stock volts), 408.3 mhash off a single 5870 at 880/176 (undervolted), single 5970 core @ 800/160 pushing 371.1 mhash (also undervolted), and so on.

I purchased this board because of your comment. I currently have it working with 7 GPUs and a G1610 ivy bridge cpu. I did have to short the bottom two 16x slots with 1x risers.

https://i.imgur.com/Y0EhYT6.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/QUPQ8vZ.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/5pD4YTF.jpg?1


See above.


How many cards are in the system and what OS are you using? I've found that with Windows every card I add drops the hashrate of the other cards. Example. I have two 7970s in my desktop set at 1094mv, 1080e, 170m and they get 645mh each. One of my rigs has four 7970s and at the same settings those cards get 612mh each. I've had this issue since using 11.12, 12.6, 12.8, 13.1, and 13.3.

I assume you are mining BTC from previous posts and ltc\scrypt has major power issues compared to BTC in relation to risers and power...

I have 2 burnt out mobo's and 3 burnt out PSU ATX connectors from NOT using powered risers in rigs with 4+ cards ...also even on spin up the cards WITH powered risers are more stable and always 1-4 hash above the rest

i.e
gpu 0  620  (non)
gpu 1 622 (powered)
gpu 2 619 (non )
gpu 3 622 (powered)
gpu 4 620 (non)

I am speaking purely from results and xp..i could send a video showing the spin up with powered and non powered on the same rig\gpu's ...if needed

Can you show me your device manager and cgminer screenshot to show all 7 gpu mining please

Done.
https://i.imgur.com/T4np4RL.png?1

Please answer:

It seems I've just picked my next mobo, thanks for the pictures Beaflag.

That is awsome.... I just bought one of those boards last week so pretty happy

Also i think its official..the ZA77 GD 65 is mobo of the month :D

LOL, hope this doesn't cause the price to go up on the GD65  ;)

Still in the process of designing/building a case but will eventually try to push seven 7970's on this MB.

Restraining myself from buying the MB and additional cards now.

Damn, I misunderstood you. I thought you were using Z77A-G45 and magically got  7 GPU working, but you in fact used the Z77A-GD65. The G45 has a limitation where if PCI_E4 is populated, PCI_E3 is turned off in the manual. The G65 does not say this though, probably due to the fact that the furthest PCI-E 16x slot is driven by the CPU (noted by the PCI-E 3.0 compliance) and not the chipset. So the cheapest, TRUE 7 GPU board is the GD65.

Did you know this before you bought the GD65 instead of the G45?

[/quote]

As far as I know, I have not detected any drops in hashrate with as many cards as I am using. Many of my systems are 6 cards and 8 GPU (some are dual gpu). 5870's and 5970's. I run them all at 1 volt and core frequencies vary greatly depending on core quality and power quality. 5970's have less phases than 5870's so I usually get lower core clocks on a 5970 core versus a 5870. My 5970 cores vary from 735-860 at 1 volt, and 5870 cores vary from 775-905 at 1 volt. The core speeds sit right on the edge of causing a driver crash, within 5 MHz. I get about 0.46673 MHash per MHz on 5870/5970's. I use 11.12 driver and 2.1 SDK (Install 2.1 SDK after you install 11.12 + 2.6 SDK and have rebooted, select platform #1 in cgminer), phatk, vectors 2, worksize 128, 1:5 memory to core ratio, intensity 10.

Some of my rigs I've needed to mix 7970 and 5xxx. This is very unoptimum for the 5xxx cards as they will run about 5-10% slower with the newer SDK, and the newer driver required to drive the 7970's the fastest don't support 2.1 SDK installed along side. I opt to using 12.6 drivers, SDK from 13.1, diablo kernel, vectors 1 for 7970 and 2 for 5xxx, worksize 128, low memory, and intensity 10 for 5xxx, 11 for 7970.

I'm surprised that with all this talk of the Z77A-G45 and Z77A-GD65 boards that no one has mentioned the Z77A-GD55 board.  I bought this board instead of the G45 board b/c I wanted the power and reset buttons and I'll gladly pay an extra $15 for those features.  This board seems to be almost identical to the GD65 board.  The only differences I can see is the GD65 has a slightly newer audio chip and (3) PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots vs the GD55's (2) PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots and 1 PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot.  I really don't think that will matter since PCI-e bandwidth is not an issue.

I don't have enough cards right now to see how many it will run, but they're on order.

I had previously read your post about the GD45 and the above quoted member about the GD65. Originally, I didn't want to have to jumper anything. I only had two extra risers with more on order so I had the seven cards split across two rigs. When, I went to combine them into one I noticed the only slots that weren't detecting with risers were the full 16x slots. The issue was that I knew they previously worked as I had cards populated onboard in those slots before I combined the rigs. With that I decided to test a jumper cable on the bottom two 16x slots and it detected as soon as I started the machine it detected the extra GPUs without issue.

All of my rigs have the same type of cards in them:

2*7970s
4*7970s
4*7870s
3*6950s
7*5870s

I've noticed across every single one that the more cards I add each card loses a small amount of performance. I know it isn't power related as each system has 1000-1200 watts of 80+ gold PSU so the only thing I can figure is that it is something with the software. The first rigs I ever build were 4x5870 machines. Each card got 435mh at 950/170 with xubuntu 11.04, catalyst 11.6, and sdk 2.6. Recently, when I had to split my 5870s into two rigs. One was a windows 7 machine with 5 cards and the second an 11.04 machine with the same software listed above. Even after 16 months and completely different hardware those settings got me the exact same 435mh / card in linux, but with only 2 cards in the system versus 4. I know it has something to do with Windows 7 and I really wish I could figure out what the issue is.

Quickly adjust my desktop with 2x7970s from poclbm and worksize 64 to diablo and 128 picked up 4 MH / card. I'll give that a test on the 4x7970 rig to see if that makes a difference in the aggregate card issue.

so will i need to short anything if i get the GD65 with an ivy cpu? i will start with 5 GPU's upgrading to 6 then 7 shortly. current makeup will be all 5 via powered risers. 3 are 16x -> 16x and the other 2 are 1x - 16x. does anyone foresee a problem?? Also will any of this differ if i get the GD65 Gaming series?

I read somewhere that companies like NewEgg actually watch these boards closely.

I can confirm that you don't need to do a short on the GD65. I had to use Windows 8 to kick in the sixth GPU.

https://i.imgur.com/nfkzeH3l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QeSPawZl.png?1

I have the z77a-gd65 and i cannot get 5 cards to run.  I have tried all different combinations of slots and i always have 1 card which shows up in windows but has a code 43 problem.  Can someone please help i want to get 5 cards running on this board.  Then hopefully 6!  I am runing 7950s with win7 enterprise x64.  Please help!!!!  Thanks so much

Try Windows 8. Seriously...it has been reported to support more cards.

I have Windows 8 and can confirm at LEAST 5 cards run on it with no problem.

Nice setup! You don't have problems with cooling? Are those 7950's or 7970's?

They are MSI TW3 7950's. I believe my cooling is sufficient. However, I think I need to replace the TIM on some of them to get better cooling.
Check this out for more details of my rig https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7216.msg2220732#msg2220732

Ok i have installed windows 8 and all the cards are recognized without any errors.  Has any1 experienced problems with cgminer on win8?  I cant get it to run with my config file.  Very weird it keeps crashing and saying "cgminer has stopped working"

It is a stability issue with your config. I've had the same issue before. You have to go in and change some settings to make it stable again. It is different for every rig.

I even tried running my config without any parameters and it didnt work.  It will run if i remove the --scrypt.  It is the --scrypt that is causing the problem.  Not sure how to fix this??

uninstall catalyst control remove all.

boot into safe mode and with driver fusion remove amd graphics drivers completely.

run cccleaner and clean up all registry errors

install catalyst 12.8 and SDK 2.7.

this fixed the problems i had with this same cgminer issue

I've only heard issues regarding Windows 8. My friends and I couldnt get the G45 board to accept 5 cards on it and we even used presence shorts.

Well i got it to recognize all 5 cards without errors but now i cant get cgminer to run.  I am going to try and do a complete uninstall and try catalyst 13.1 instead of 13.4.  I will let you know how it works

I use x64 ultimate, 13.3, and it detected all seven of my 5870s right away.

Think that would work with 79xx cards as well? For Litecoin?

I have 7950s and i could not get more than 4 to be recognized without errors with win7 x64.

I had the same issue with --scrypt. Almost gave up trying to figure it out but persevered! The problem (for me) is 13.4 drivers. Uninstalling 13.4 and installing 13.1 did not work.

Had to do another clean install of W8 and then install 13.1. I use SSD's so that takes about 5 minutes for me :)

Good luck!

BTW, I use W8 x64.

Just as and FYI for anyone that is curious... I use Debian 6 x64 and can get 7 x 7950 working on it just fine without jumpers.

Try running 11.12 or 12.8. Those have been reported to work fine.

5k and likely 6k series cards detect fine up to 8 cards with, I'm assuming, all driver revisions. It's the 7k series that has problems. Reportedly you -can- do 8 7k series GPUs but only with the 7990's. You can run up to 4 GPU on win7 with driver 12.8 or higher, 5 GPU on win7 with driver 12.6 or lower OR win8 with 12.8 or higher, and 6 GPU on win8 with driver 12.6 or lower (requires special installation steps)

Thanks for the final details dude :D

In my current setups in relation to heat and other factors 5 x 7xxx seem to be an ok template for me at the moment

I am commissioning another site and will look at 6 card rigs...

Dont the 7950's and 7970's have troubles using the old drivers when trying to use conncurrecy above 8192 ???

i.e 7950 21712 ltc mining concurency setups ???

Stick to 8192 concurrency. Very few people have been lucky enough to find a number higher that ACTUALLY works as a stable variable. You may have a chance, but get ready for many system crashes, reboots, or freezes. Shouldn't do damage testing though. Values above 8192 really go wild with every single person from what I've seen.

I have 12 rigs (4 +5 cards per rig) 7950 sapphire vapor-x running 21712 concurrency with 13.1 drivers .. they have been solid for 6-7 weeks

Had about 1-2 freezes per rig in that period which is normal ..having said that I am using what I feel to be the best equipment out there

Wow you must have the magic touch man. Everyone I've talked to who runs similar rigs can't get that but they attempt to run it using 6 cards. Not 5. What mobo do you use? Might be the solution. Also, I assume you run Windows? Hopefully not.

You haven't looked very hard or tested a lot of setups then. All of my 7970s run better at 10240 TC than 8192. This is 10240:
https://i.imgur.com/YdGz7ie.png
Voltage is at 1.063 , cgminer doesn't report it correctly.

That number worked better than anything for me, on three different brands of 7970s, across three different rigs. Litecoin settings are a weird sort of black magic so it is a bad idea to make generalizations.

Have you attempted 21712 TC?

21712 at I20 / same settings got 590 KH/s
24000 at I20 / same settings got 675 KH/s

I20 made the desktop almost unusable though. The 10240 settings at I13 produce no lag or delays.

What is your hashrate with these settings?

I have a Z77A-GD55 and I can't figure out how to get 4 7970s to work on it. I was able to get 3 working without any problems. Does anyone else have this board?

I am downloading windows 8 right now and will try that, but after reading through this thread, It seems like I shouldn't need to switch from 7 to 8 with only 4 cards.

What graphics driver version are you running? What slots are you using, and are you using powered risers on the x1 slots?

I'm using 1x powered risers for all of the cards. I tried every slot combination I could, and I was using the latest driver. Right now I'm downloading the beta driver and will see if that works.

Don't use the Beta driver. Stop it and use 12.8. And are you using the x16 slots or just x1 slots? Post your mobo configuration.

I installed 12.8 instead and now CGminer just crashes after I start it.

I have a card in every other slot, so the first, third, fifth, and seventh slots are being used.

Did you just uninstall the driver or did you use the Driver Cleanup Utility available on the AMD Driver page? You need to use the cleanup utility before uninstalling the drivers (will uninstall them in the process) to do it correctly.

Yesterday I managed to get all of the cards to work, I just had to switch the third one to a 16x riser and connect my monitor to it. I used the 13.4 driver too.

Hey guys which GD65 motherboard are you using for 7 cards?  The regular blue one or the black gaming one?

Also are you using Win8 for 7 cards, or linux?  Which version of Linux is best for mining for linux noobs.

hi, get H61DEL

this have 1 x16 + 5 x1 PCI-e slots

Regular blue one is fine... Black gaming one has some extra features that are not needed for mining.  I used a self-bastardized version of 64bit BAMT... but its probably not the best for linux noobs.  There are several guides for Linux mining rigs out there (like this one https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U/edit)... I would just search and follow one of those if you decide to use linux.

That is extremely trivial to the GD65. It can hold 8 cards and your H61DEL can only hold 6, and 5 slots need powered risers. The GD65 only needs 4 powered risers for its x1 slots.

Awesome and awesome!  Many thanks :D

I highly recommend using Linux if you run 7 or more cards. I'd recommend that to anyone.

I have this board (Z77A-GD55) and am currently running (5) 7950s on it, no presence shorts, dummy plugs, or powered risers.  I just run the cards at stock clocks (925/1250) and under-volt them to prevent the need for powered risers.  My current setup is Win 7 Ultimate SP1, 12.6 drivers and cgminer 3.1.0.

I get about 565Kh/s with this config: -w 256 -I 19 -g 1 --thread-concurrency 16384

My plan now is to see if I can get 6 cards working on this board.

My favorites are the military MSI motherboards.  Seems to always take the heat well.  Have a few running for a year or so.

Those are just built with super high quality parts AFAIK. Nice boards though. Care to share what motherboard model you have?

If you know where the link to the info about the 5 GPU - ASRock 970 EXTREME4 could you post it here please?

http://www.google.com/

http://www.google.com/
[/quote]

I aint lazy jerk I'v been spending a lot of man hours just sifting through these threads and forums, so piss off

why do people still spread this powered riser FUD? I have NEVER used a powered riser, and I have never had problems. All my rigs have 6 cards (8 gpu for 5k series, or 6 7970) and use 16x and 1x slots all with 1x > 1x risers. Been mining since july 2011.

You might have found these already, but if not these "might" help:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=203326.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=201820.0

Or maybe you can hit the guy up via PM since he seems to have gotten 5 working on that board.

Do you mine SHA 256 or scrypt? If the latter then powered risers help to feed the memclock necessary to hash on scrypt. SHA 256 coins don't need this extra power for the memory.

Had to presence short the 6th card for windows to see it, but it's showing up as error code 43 in device manager.

From reading back through this thread, it seems that no one has been able to get (6) 79xx series cards working with Windows 7 or am I missing something?  Everyone running 6 or more of these cards from one board is using Windows 8 or Linux correct?

FullLife,

I had problems even getting 5 cards working on Win7 without presence shorting. Windows 8 is much nicer and cleaner for running 5+ GPUs. I suggest it highly!

If you don't want to pay for a license on it, there's some nice torrents for it around if you don't mind that sort of thing. (:

Pretty sure that the standard answer is that you can't get more than 4 cards on Win7, but 8 can do 5-6 rather easily.

Five is the max number of cards for Windows 7 apparently.  I'm running (5) 7950s on my Z77A-GD55, no presence shorts or anything.

I guess that's the route I'll have to go, thanks.

Debian Linux is free and easy to install. More stable than Windows if used correctly. A 10 minute guide on youtube can teach you how to use it, and once you do you won't regret it. Run Linux for your miners, not Windows. I don't see why people honestly use Windows at all. Run Wine on Linux and you'll be fine.

Just because you did not have issues - does not mean powered risers are FUD ; )
Yesterday my friend burnt couple of non-powered 16x-1x risers and before that mb and the same conf with powered risers have no issues.

Also using powered risers makes perfect sense technically speaking unless you have proof that all the GPUs are using no more than 10W from PCI-E slot and that all the motherboards are capable providing 10W on each PCI-E slot(or any other W combination which won't burn mb power regulator).

p.s.
I'm also running non-powered risers on all my rigs with no issues.

edit 2013/07/28: After running ~2months 24/7 my rig burned ; ) PSU ATX motherboard connector to be exact.

Is voltage regulation available on *nix?

Yes. I don't regulate voltage on my rig, but I have seen it done on youtube videos.

Because I just had to: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=voltage+regulation+linux

Overclock is so easy on Linux.

:D

I understand this opinion well.  The problem for me is that I don't know linux that well at all.  So if I have problems, it's going to drive me nuts trying to figure out what's going on and how to fix it.  Plus, I haven't seen a tool like Trixx or Afterburner in Linux, which I have to have.

No normal desktop motherboards have any more than 4 PCI-E slots for sure.

http://alternativeto.net/software/msi-afterburner/?platform=linux


http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z77A-GD65.html

7 PCI-E slots...

http://us.msi.com/product/mb/890FXA-GD70.html

6 PCI-E slots...

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Extreme4/

7 PCI-E slots...

I am convinced you use Windows for sure.

Reading through the descriptions of those software tools, it looks like those are for nvidia cards only.

http://www.linux.org/article/view/amd-graphics-card-overclocking-guide

Sorry, didn't read through it in detail. This is what you are looking for.

Nice, I might have to reconsider Linux then.  My next question is, what's the best tool to use for remote access in Linux?  With Windows for instance, I would use TeamViewer.

Give Linux a try but honestly Windows is more than fine. I wouldn't waste my time if I were you.

For access to the terminal (all you really need if you are experienced): Just SSH into your rig over your network.

For access to the GUI and Desktop Interface (more geared towards most people): http://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/linux.aspx

There is a Linux Teamviewer version. Nothing really changes for you.


I actually would. Once you learn it, Linux is so much more efficient than Windows. MUCH less issues as well, and easy support for 7 cards.

Remember, we all had to learn how to use Windows too.

Does this control voltage for voltage unlocked 7950's?  I tried using cgminer, which I thought used AMD's utilities in this link and it would not control voltage on the Sapphire 4L cards... I had to flash a different bios to lower the voltage.  But if this works for them like msi afterburner does in Windows, that would be great!

Going in for a Z77A-gd65 for my first litecoin rig. Fun fun fun!

Hey I have the GA-990FXA-UD5 and do you have to short one of the slots to get the 6th working?

SIX is the max number for windows 7.
I use windows 7 and I have 6 GPUs running on my GPU rigs.

not true.

I'm curious what kind of luck you have had getting six cards to run on this mobo.  I have two of these going each with five cards.  Four of the cards are on the 16x PCIe slots and one is on a 1x PCIe slot.  When I built the rigs I couldn't get the second 1x PCIe to work.  Just curious if you had luck maxing out the PCIe's on the GA-990FXA-UD5.

(My friend was surprised I got Gigabyte motherboards to work at all!  They don't always reboot correctly on the first try--could be the cheap SSD or anything else though--I'm no expert!)

Yes True.
I personally have multiple 5870s and 5970s.
5970s are dual GPUs.
I have motherboards with 6 PCI slots.
I can install six 5870s.
Or I can install two 5970s and two 5870s.
I cannot install more than three 5970s.
I can not install one 5870 and three 5970s.

I have personally verified that you can not install more than 6 GPUs with windows 7.
I have looked this up online to find that Windows 7 maxes out at 6 GPUs and Linux maxes out at 7 GPUs.

If you disagree, then explain.

Linux actually doesn't max out at 7 GPUs. It has no theoretical limit on the amount of cards you can load onto it. The largest motherboard out there has 8 slots I think and it supports every one.

The only thing you've personally verified is the fact that you were unable to install more than 6 GPUs with windows 7.

Windows XP 32 bit + 8 GPUs - http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=7902&start=270#p115136
Yeah.. that's two core nvidia cards, but they do count as GPUs, right ; )

I think that there is no hard coded limit or any limitation of GPUs in both Linux and Windows.
However when installing 8+ GPUs there are certain issues with BIOS unable to map all the GPUs.
Can't remember the project name right now, but guys made 10(not sure about the number but above 8 ) nvidia GPU rig, they had to use custom BIOS and custom linux kernel pathes to make it work.

Plus there is known issue with Windows ATI driver, which prevents you from n+ GPUs drivers being properly installed.
Some people claim n=4, some n=5.
For my setup(GA-990FXA-UD3 + 2x6950 + 2x7950) n=5. And in order to use 6GPUs in Windows I needed either to use 12.6 driver downloaded from AMD or 13.1 driver downloaded from techpowerup.

Also that 13.1 from techpowerup driver is different from 13.1 from AMD driver only in registry, so I assume that with some mod it is possible to use any driver version for 6GPU rigs.

So unless s1 explains why it is not possible technically to use 6+ AMD GPUs in Windows I consider it is doable.
"Windows sux"/"I was not able to use more than n GPUs in Windows"/"AMD drivers are crap" are not technical explanations.

So, to sum it all up.

5 GPUs - Win/*nix out of the box
6 GPUs - Win+12.6 / Win+13.1 techpowerup / *nix out of the box(? have not verfied myself)
8 GPUs - Win?? / *nix out of the box??
8+ GPUs - a lot of pain ; ) BIOS mods/ *nix kernel mods

So it sounds like you are saying windows XP can do 8 GPUs.
Had I known that I would have tried XP and skipped windows 7.  But XP wanted dummy plugs on the DVI ports of unused cards.
That was why I went with windows 7.
Also finding PSUs to support 7 GPUs rather than 6 ended up needing 3 PSUs rather than 2 (When you go the economy path)

I am impressed someone else got 8 to work.  Linux?

I read that windows 7 (not XP) is limited to 6 because they never imagined anyone would want more then 6 GPUs.

THIS. This is the reason I have gone with Linux and ditched Windows. With Linux, they didn't imagine ANYTHING. With Linux, you can do almost anything. Almost everything is supported, and if you know what your are doing, almost everything works.

With Windows, you can do what they expect people to do.

/me *facepalmed to death*

Explain why on a Linux server you can actually use it to pull GPU resources from multiple rigs under one application while Windows couldn't of even dream of doing such a thing.

Because Windows is and always has been the worst, poorly made operating system.  Designed for resale of updates, with intentional problems left in to help promote the next version for sale.

I disagree with you. This picture is all the explaining that is needed. Yes this is windows 7.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/miner4_3.png

Very impressive.
Modded Bios?
Modded system?
Windows 7 out of the box with The newest SDK and Catalyst drivers, 5800 and 5900 series ATI cards cannot do that.
Will you tell your secret?

Read the thread. All of the information is already posted.

How to do it is not posted.  Just vague comments like "modded kernel" etc.
No actual information, guide, tutorial, or links to what exactly is modded and how.
Perhaps that is too much to ask on a threat about Motherboards and not software setup.
Oh well.
I'm off this thread.

Thats your problem.

Use 11.12 drivers and 2.5 SDK. Nothing is "modded". Just use software that is known to work.

Yes, it is. Read:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186877.msg2222736#msg2222736
and
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186877.msg2322687#msg2322687

Or, like I said... Read the thread.

This will also help as well:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=search;advanced

Hi
I have a MSI Z77-GD65 mobo with 5 x HD7870 XT Tahiti.  1 of these cards show error 43 (although all 5 are detected) and 4 are listed correctly in device manager. Is there any solution to use 5 or even 6 cards on this mobo ? I tried powered risers etc. , but only 13.1 drivers.
Do You think there is a reason to try with 12.6 or different ? Should I use win8 instead ? :)
Please help.

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 rev. 3.0, 2x6950 + 4x7950, Enermax Revolution 85+ 1250W, all card via x16_x1 non-powered risers.

PSU ATX motherboard connector burned after running 24/7 for ~2months.

Hello,

I have problem. :) Who can help me?

I have mining rig hardware:

• 4x XFX7950 FX-795A-TDJC
• ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FXR2.0 motherboard
• 8GB RAM
• CPU AMD FX8320 8x Cores 3.51 Ghz
• PSU Lepa 1600W

Software:

• Windows 7 SP1 x64
• AMD Radeo HD drivers 13.4 x64
• AMD SDK 2.7 x64
• CGMINER 3.3.1

My cgminer.conf

With this configuration 3x GPU cards running stable. But when I connect 4 card and run cgminer works very bad and turnoff motherboard. But PSU still running.

Who can help me with this problem? Maybe not impossible run rig with 4x GPU's? Maybe my configuration is wrong? Or I forget something to install?

Than you in advance,

TDS

The info you seek has already been posted in this thread.  To use that many 7xxx series cards on one motherboard with Win 7, you need to used 12.6 drivers.  I've run (5) 7xxx cards on one board w/ Win 7 and (6) 7xxx cards on one board w/ Win 8 using those drivers.

I have decided to only use 4 GPUs (7970s) per rig.

Is there a preferred order of slots that should be used on the Z77A-GD65?

I currently have following slots populated all with 1x to 16x powered risers:

https://i.imgur.com/y7agJTf.png

The first two GPUs (closest to the CPU) run much hotter than the other two

GPU1 73.0C
GPU2 75.0C
GPU3 65.0C
GPU4 62.0C

Video is plugged into GPU2.

I using motherboard intel premium 245, it has reliable motherboard, it is longest life motherboard. Motherboard of 6 GPU have very comfortable and reliable.

Now that the MSI Z77a-GD65 GD55 are all gone... Is the Z87 the replacement?  Anyone got 7 GPU's running on it?

How about msi big bang marshal?
This one has up to 8 pcie x16 slots and is known to work for 8 cards. Current second-hand price is about 150$ in my local market.
But I also heard someone said he could only manage it to work with at most 6 cards.

Yea, thats a good board... I'm just looking for something out of the new series that will be available in large quantities if needed and will have a longer warranty.

running more than 4 gpus on a single mobo is annoying. Lots of crashes and lockups. Trust me, you will spend way to much time trying to keep it stable.

At the end of the day you just want a stable rig that needs no babysitting.

That may be your opinion, but I have many 7 card linux rigs that are stable for weeks at a time. I only have to intervene if there is a hardware failure of some sort (or to switch pools).

Im' actually trying to run 7 cards on a MSI Z87-G45 GAMING with a Pentium g3220. So far I can't get more than 5 gpus to mine together under win 8, and I cant try linux because of shitty ethernet controller... Any idea about the 5 cards limit?

Glad that works for you, I wish I had such luck.

A lot of people will be running windows, for them, running 4 cards per rig is the way to go. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you wake up and see your rig has been down all night for what ever reason its better to have 4 cards offline instead of 7. All your eggs in one basket and all that :)

Gigabyte UD-7

Has anyone succeeded to run 7 cards on Gigabyte Z87X-OC?
Do I need to do something to enable the PCI 1x on this board?

I havent used that board but did you try using a jumper on that 1x slot?

Have 4 gpu 5770, 6750, 6850, 6950 what watts should get? 600w?

I haven't tried it yet because I'm waiting for the pci risers
I hope to get them this week to try it out

Do you think I would need to use a jumper to activate that slot?

If no card is detected in that slot, but your card(s) are detected in other slots, then trying a jumper is worth a shot.  Depends on the board, but only one way to find out :P

I have the same setup, MSI Z87-G45 Gaming and Pentium G3220.

I am confined to 2 GPUs right now until I can get my hands on some risers. Any suggestions for where to buy risers fast?

BTW, did you put thermal paste on your CPU, or did the heatsink already have it pre-applied?

Cant he use 2 psu?Like 1 psu for 3 cards and other psu for other 3 cards.

all of these MOBOs save for the asrock seem to be intel, isn't AMD more power efficient, and cost effective? Which AMD boards support 4-6 GPUs?

I have 8 GPUs working on several rigs on Windows 8.

3X7990 + 2X7970 = 8 GPUs, mother board, ASUS Rampage4 extreme, This MB has 6 PCIE slots. Catalyst 13.4.
4X7990 = 8 GPUs. MB: Gigabyte XKT-1155 Z68AP-D3. This MB has 5 PCIE slots. Catalyst: 13.6 or 13.9.

I wonder if anybody can make 5X7990 work on W8.

Thank you for confirming that running 8x HD79XX gpus under windows is possible.
As far as I see, most people are limited by 6 or 7 gpus. Is there any tricks to do that?

There is no trick I think. Or W8 did the trick. I have not tried 4X7990 on W7, so I cannot say W7 does not support 8 GPUs.

I have 5 different types of MB, all can run 4X7990. One of them is Asus P55 chipset, no problem running 4X7990.

If you cannot see all 8 GPUs, just reinstall Catalyst. In my PCs, catalyst earlier than 13.4 does recognise 7990.

Does anyone know if MSI 990fxa-GD65 will works with 6 gpu without shorting the pcie?
very hard to find z77a gd65 these days.

Thanks.

I've got the Gigabyte Z87X-OC mobo (it rocks.) with ASUS R9 280X cards (4 of them) I'll share my experience -

Currently I'm having issues connecting the 3rd GPU. When running with 2, everything is fine and stable. when connecting a 3rd one, system becomes unstable.
I'm on Xubuntu, and I think it is related to two things: 1 - the PCI slots that i'm using and 2 - the drivers.

When I used the first 3 PCI slots (PCI 16x, PCI 8x and PCI1_4x) the bios kept rebooting the system. Then I changed the slots to PCI 16x, PCI 8x and PCI2_4x and the system booted correctly.
Then I tried AMD Catalyst drivers 13.11beta (which worked fine for 2 cards) but when the 3rd card was connected, the system became unstable. (GUI freezes, cgminer doesn't start, some more weird issues that sometimes solved after reboot and sometimes not).

So I tried using Xubuntu repository fglrx drivers, and it recognized my cards as Radeon HD 7900. With this I could run cgminer for few minutes before one of the cards just stop mining, but the system is very unstable. for example, if i'm closing cgminer, I would need to reboot the machine before being able to re-run it again.
I tried uninstalling these drivers and wanted to give a shot to AMD Catalyst 13.12 (not beta!) but my OS crashed after I reinstalled the fglrx drivers.

I'm using Xubuntu 13.10 btw.

Any recommendations on which PCI slots to use for it to work properly? Does anyone else had these issues? Any advice is welcome, as I'm out of ideas.
Also, is there someone here that run 3+ R9 280X cards successfuly on Linux? Which gpu drivers are you using?

Once I figure it out, i'll post my solution. thanks to whoever gives a hand to the subject  :D

4x R9 280x here. Using SMOS v1 out-of-the box with the provided drivers.

Can you please tell me which mobo do you have? And how your cards are connected (how many with risers?) to which pci-e slots?

thanks

I have an msi z77a gd80.. i thought it was supposed to be like the gd65 except with thunderbolt.

I currently cant get it to see more than two cards :/

Im at a loss.. I got powered 1x to 16x risers. 2x 1000w EVGA G series power supplies. Latest driver.. Ivy bridge Celeron.

I shoulda grabbed a gigabyte

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/motherboard/msi-z87-g45-gaming-socket-1150-chipset-z87-atx/21432621-a.html

msi-z87-g45

Anyone used this board before???

It has 7 PCIe slots, 3 x16 and 3x1.

Its fairly cheap here in the UK for a 7 slot board at around £110.

Think its worth a punt??

I am trying to build a rig using this link: http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/04/build-a-litecoin-mining-rig-hardware/ (http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/04/build-a-litecoin-mining-rig-hardware/)

It was kindly provided by a user here on my request thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=397114.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=397114.0)

Could you possibly read the thread and give me some tips I would appreciate it. I am also from the UK and found everything on Amazon but the stated graphics cards were expensive and rare.

Thanks

Is there any way of working without the dummy plug ???

I got a 7970 & 5870 laying around,bought a 850 watt PSU last night,got win7 installed & CGminer installed & my rig is mining  ;D

But I can't speed up the fan on my 2nd card  :(  It shows in CGminer that its mining,but shows idle in AFB & CCC.

I can hit radio shack tomorrow,but would like to do something tonite  :D

Thanks!!

BTW,CGminer is running with a bat file,I'm not any good at compiling & config files  :'(  Never got CGminer to work any other way...............

^^ from my understanding the newer drivers require no dummy cards. You on techpowerups 13.12 ?

 

13.11 beta.

^^ Yeah you shouldnt need dummy plugs!




Im still driver dancing and OS hopping but if i give up on the gd80 i might just use that as an extra pc and give the board you linked to a shot? Let me know if you get it rocking! I was looking to do 5-6 per board. (280x's)

Damnit!!

I made a dummy plug,now CCC shows a monitor,but still no way to control the fan speed on my second card................

AFB is the same...WTF ???  :D

They both mine,I can see the hashrate on GUIminer Alpha & at coinotron,very weird !!!

Nevermind...................  ::) ::) ::)

I had to install the vid driver a second time to "activate" the second card  :D :D :D :D  ::)

So I'm assuming you need to install the vid driver as many times as you have cards........... weird  :D

Whoa! Didnt expect you ta say that! lol

Ive just been naturally removing/disconnecting the cards, all but one ....

and then nuke the drivers and reinstall new drivers and each card one reboot at a time.

What a royal pain in the arse! Maybe someone else can chime in here..


Whats the correct way to driver dance anyone?


Remove cards? or just yank drivers and reinstall the new driver ?

Usually with Xfire setup,just go to add & remove programs,uninstall ATI suite,use driver sweeper(be careful,ATI drivers are also for chipsets.You remove them,your doing a reinstall of Windows) in safe mode,reboot,reinstall drivers.

It was a fluke that I thought about as I was posting that last post  :D

Hi!

Did you know, how setup 6 GPU (Radeon R9 290) on Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 ?  It is a week-night experiments, but for more than 4 cards can not run. Tried and Win 7-64  and Win 8.1 - 64   nothing happens

Hey there

i just bought  msi 990fxa-gd65  and 5x 7950 asus so i wonder to ask does msi 990fxa-gd65  will support 5x 7950?

btw ill run em on 1600psu so its enough for 5x gpu?


thanks

3x7950 running smoothly on 850w PSU here. 1600w should be ok for 5 :)

my experience suggests that better  2 PSU x 850 w (or 1000 w) much better than 1 x 1600, because:

1)  2 quality PSU x 850 w (or 1000 w) cost 25-30% are smaller than 1 quality 1600,

2) preferably in the settings of cgminer to set gpu-fun auto (when you run load on the power supply will be softer than if gpu-fun 80),

3) Be sure to read how to do simultaneous launch of two power units with the power key (it's very simple, you need to find the right two wires and link blocks).

4) when selecting a power supply must pay attention to the next thing!!!: in the power supply have to be auto-stabilizer (auto-correction) input voltage:
   eg 90-265 v much better than 220-240 v.

last point is often overlooked, but .... I spent two weeks searching for the causes of system instability until set external stabilizer. And all because of the fact that my power supply is not self-stabilization.

Just an FYI...my (6) 7970 GPU rig uses 1776w (at most) but they are under volted.

All my 6 cards rigs uses less than 1500w... 7970 and 7950 here

Just install the correct ethernet driver.

thanks for your advice but one more question :> i just have 5X none powered riser so does my MB will handdle that volltage from all of my Gpu?

Hello,
I am going for a rig with 7 gpus.
I know that MSI Z77A-GD65 can see 7 gpus with an Ivy Bridge cpu but I cannot find it .
Is the MSI Z77A-GD65 GAMING able to handle 7 gpus with an Ivy Bridge cpu?
What about the MSI Z87 - GD65 Gaming?
Thanks!

I tried 7 7970 with z87 g55, got 7 gpu with no error in hardware manager, but when I loaded up trixx the gpu had 0mhz core and 0mhz memory... So I couldn't get it hashing.
I Tried this setup using lbr amd modified drivers.

Have you enabled the Graphics Overdrive in the AMD CCC?
I have to deal with all three> AMD CCC, Trixx and MSI Afterburner for 3 5850 to setup as I wish...

I think my limit here is hardware related. The mobo can't get the seven pice ports populated, if it has same limitation as z77...

I can not say for sure, because the best friend, it's an experiment :)

I use 4 GPU on MB and 2 of them through the usual none powered 16x raiser and no problems.

So, are you saying that we can use an MSI Z77A G45 with, for example, 6x R9 280X with latest drivers without presence pin ?

Hey guys,

I'm contemplating this board for my 5x 280x rig: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130727

MSI Z87-G55

Has anyone successfully gotten 5+ cards to run on this board yet? Perhaps 280x cards? If yes, what slots did you populate?
I ask because an older rig of mine runs on the Z77-GD65 and needed presence pins in ALL three 16x slots for six GPUs to run properly.

Thank you in advance :)

If you're only going to be using 5 GPUs, get the 970A-D3P. It's much cheaper than the one you linked, and I can confirm it runs 5x 280x or 5x 290 just fine.

I'm running a 6 79xx cards on a z87 g55, no presence pins, but usb risers...

Why is GPU4 at I=13? Because of stability problems?

Running 7 gpu 5xxx and 6xxx is not an issue, I'd like to see a 7 x 79xx on these mobo

What 6870s are you running to get 400kh from??

I can anyone give me advice on a nice 5 or 6 slot AM3 mobo? No mods requeird.
I got the ASRock 970FX EXTREME4 but its driving me crazy never get more than 3 cards working, got x1-x16 powerd risers.

The 990fxa-UD7.

Did this board need presence pin shorts for any of the slots?

Im having problems getting more than 4 cards to run on here this mobo. I bought it because i thought it would be smooth sailing with those 6 - 16x PCIe slots. How did you are you running more than 4 cards. Please crack an egg of knowledge over my head.

2 - 850watt Corsair RM850 PSU
Gigabyte 990 FX-A UD7 MOBO AMD Athlon II X2 270 Regor 3.4 GHz 2x1 MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core
GIGABYTE GV-R929OC-4GD Radeon R9 290 graphics cards
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz
Windows 8.1
CGminer and CGwatcher

Hiya Guys,

Has anyone tried out the new H81 asrock PRO BTC mobo?
I`m using 2x 6990 and 4x 5870 on it, and currently I got 2x 6990 mining with 3x 5870 by using a GPU card as the one which supplies the monitor.
If I`m using the onboard GPU (ivy bridge) to supply the monitor, I can only recognize 6x GPU cores.

Has anyone been able to get 8 cores running?
I`m using newest drivers as 11.12 isn't compatible with the 6990's.

I do NOT use powered risers since the H81 pro btc mobo has 2 Molex connections on the board for additional power to the PCI-e slots

For the rest I use the following
H81 Pro BTC
Celeron G1820
4GB Ram
Kingston SSD
Windows 7 64bit 13.12 drivers

Edit: 0.1BTC bounty for the one who solves this!

Other question:

If the card is blowing it's fan for 100% at startup and it's not recognized, is that a driver problem or a presence problem?
So if there would be a driver issue, it would be recognized in device manager but with an exclamation mark or something?

Cheers,

anyone uses 990FXA-GD65?
can anyone confirm it runs 6 gpu?

I've just succesfully launched 4x7990 on Asrock FM2A88X Extreme6+, Win8

cant run even 5 cards on MSI MPOWER Z87 (280x cards)
only 4 are working

using BAMT 1.3
and 1x-16x power and non powered risers
g1820 cpu

do i have to shorten 32x slots to make them work?
board explorer shows that 2 x 32x slots are not present

I'll try to explain what I can since I can't make my 6 280x GPU to work with Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard.

I'm using 6x 280x + i7 3820 + P9X79PRO + Windows 8.1 Pro.

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1757/P9X79-PRO.jpg

The problem lies between X16_2 and X16_3 (white slots).

When I plug risers on both X16_2 & X16_3... system can't detect gpu plugged in X16_2.

So, I shorted X16_2 and detects the gpu but the X16_3 seems to have a problem with GPU-Z sensors.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v662/roogz/temporary_zpsa4434e29.jpg?t=1393172881

I don't think it really disables the GPU since Win8 still recognize ng GPU. Now, what might cause this issue?

I'm really close in buying new motherboard that supports 6 :(

I've read allmost the whole thread thru and would like to ask a question that has been asked around, so to speak.
Is it possible to use: MSI Z77A-G45 - Socket 1155 - Chipset Z77 - ATX
And all of it's 7 pci-e slots for mining with linux-distro (ubuntu or alike).

Thank you for your answers in advance.

Newbie question...
You have at least one PSU supplying PCIE 12V to 2 different rigs at the same time?
From my understanding, all the PSU's need to have GND tied together so that the 12V is not floating in a different spot between them. You wouldn't want to have a significant potential difference between any of the 12V legs or that could fry somthing (from my understanding).
I have spare PCIE power from a G1600, but didn't want to connect it to a second rig because I was worried about this.

Can you confirm how the 3 PSUs are shared on the 2 rigs? Thanks

I think that's not a driver issue. 100% fan is triggered by card bios so it's alive but not seen by motherboard for some reason.
Can you seed all card's with flash tool from dos?

The problem I have is that it appears that some slots are not active if another slot is in use.
When I plug a card into a slot and it's running fine, then I plug another card into another slot and the first card disappears.
Even though I have 6 slots on my mobo, I can't get more than 4 actually working at any time.

Maybe there is issue with the driver?
Check if any GPU has yellow "!" in the Device Manager.

how do I use onboard video for single use and gpu for mining? how do I set it up on sgminer or cgminer?

cheapest 8gb ram for h81 pro btc?

I'm using Asrock H81 pro with a 5870, 5970, and 3 x 280x.  I can use the onboard GPU and still see all GPU cores: onboard GPU core + 6 pci GPU cores.  

I'm using windows 8.1 and never have to load any drivers: just let windows decide what drivers to use.  I highly recommend windows 8.1.  You can get a CHEAP win 8.1 key on these boards for your rig.  

Ok I give up. I need help

I have a
MSI-Z77A-GD65
Intel G1620
4GB Ram. 
2 PSU's 1 powering the mb the other powering the cards (500w on the mb, 2000w server psu on the cards)
Sapphire r9 290x cards

I'm using usb power risers. I've tried win 7,8. I'm using all Sapphire r9 290x cards with the 13.12 drivers. I can't seem to get anything to run with more than 3 cards. I've tried every pcie slot combo possible. PCIe-Gen3 is set to auto in the bios and the pcie latency settings is set to 65 (also tried 32 and 128)

What am I missing? Why can't I get past 3 cards? Any ideas? This rig is pretty stable with 3 but I can't get it to boot with 4. ideally I'm shooting for 5.

You can set the PCEI to generation 1 or 2 if possible.
You may short the PCIE pin A1B17, the card presence pin.