Is it possible to go over 7 GPU?

[thesavoyard]

To be cost effective, the fewer setups you have to buy the better. Also, CPU and Mobo draw power, so more cards reduce system draw.

 Is it possible to go over 7 cards with 4 ways pcie 16x splitters? It creates 4x pcie 1x: http://amfeltec.com/products/flexible-x4-pci-express-4-way-splitter/

With a mobo like this:https://www.amazon.com/MSI-970-GAMING-DDR3-Motherboard/dp/B00LUY72F6/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1487713856&sr=1-3&keywords=motherboard&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A6002777011

This looks like it has four 16x slots, that would be 16 cards right trhere, plus two 1x slots, for a grand total of 18 cards! It would be tought to power all that but is it possible?

[1714004619]

1714004619

[1714004619]

1714004619

[1714004619]

1714004619

[thesavoyard]

bump?

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

7 is possible with w10 enterprise, beyond you have to rely on linux, i saw a few people doing 8 cards, but the problem is that you often have to buy very expensive motherboard (150€+) to have enough pci-lanes to make all the gpu work, so what you save you lose it on the motherboard, also the more card you have the more hard it's to get them all OCed/stable, so the more card in the rig the lower the OC goes usually. Above 7 is more than unrecommanded. But maybe other peoples can share real experiences, just speaking from what i saw in general on the forums. I also seems it's harder near impossible to make 7+ gpu rigs with nvidia cards.

[mojoxc]

Going over 7 is definitely possible with the right mobo this includes the right chipset and processor socket.  The debate is still out on which board is the next big mining board.  Just remember that adding those pcie splitters adds more connections to your rig which gives a higher chance per rig of a bad connection leading to instability.

The chipset and processor will determine the number of pcie lanes available to the entire board and sometimes to access those you have to make adjustments to the the board to free up lanes.

[kemo6600]

PCI-E splitters dont work this way , Motheboard have limitations when addressing all those GPU and all those GPU memory . 7 GPUs can be done on many mobos without adding anything extra and many more with adding splitters , 8 GPUs is more challenging . Some reported doing 8 GPUs easily with 2GB cards , but with 4Gb,8GB cards it was repoted that it needs either expensive gear or modified Bios .


7 GPUs is a waste of time and resources , you add more GPUs and lose stability . Best thing is to run 5/6 GPUs per system .

I have 4 , 7 GPU rigs  all of them have problems with Dag generation when dual mining and under voltage , i have to reduce dag intensity and serialize some of the routine , once the Dag is generated and it runs for 10 minutes without errors it is rock stable  .
1 rig is running MSI gaming 5 , 3 rigs are running H97 anniversary with splitter .

[xxcsu]

It is possible. BUT , you need a modded bios for your mobo
I asked one of the forum member here , he is selling 8 cards setup , he did not answered my questions about how to mod my mobo bios, to  work with 8 cards or more , but he give me some advice what direction i have to go to modding my mobo bios. Im still try to found out
My mobo recognized 8 or more vga cards , but i got a msg in windows device manager " Code 12: This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use " ... still working on that bios mod
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1690052.0

[reelen]

7 GPUs is a waste of time and resources , you add more GPUs and lose stability . Best thing is to run 5/6 GPUs per system .

I have 4 , 7 GPU rigs  all of them have problems with Dag generation when dual mining and under voltage , i have to reduce dag intensity and serialize some of the routine , once the Dag is generated and it runs for 10 minutes without errors it is rock stable  .
1 rig is running MSI gaming 5 , 3 rigs are running H97 anniversary with splitter .

I wouldn't completely agree with this.  I have 10+ rigs using MSI Z97 Gaming 5 with 7 GPUs and haven't experienced any of the issues you are describing.  The more GPU's you add can present challenges, yes, but for the most part, 7 seems to be the number cap for stability.

[xxcsu]

7 GPUs is a waste of time and resources , you add more GPUs and lose stability . Best thing is to run 5/6 GPUs per system .

Im completely disagree with this " 7 GPUs is a waste of time and resources "

BUT you are right ! " you add more GPUs and lose stability"  Exactly This is what happening when you have no idea what you are doing and how you have to set up your rigs correctly

Most of my rigs are 7 cards setups , built with different cards , different bioses , none of them have any stability issue ! All running with my own custom modded bioses.
Stable 6+ cards setup is a little bit more than just plug your card and ready to go
Im working on to build my rigs with 7+GPU's support , i did not get much help with that from this community. Everyone want to keep they secret about 7+ gpu system.
You can save a lot of money if you can add 1 or more gpu to your existing 6 cards rigs , and you have a few of those rigs , but you have to make sure , your psu can handle that load

If you are trying to run a 7 or 7+ cards rig , with original bioses and a 1000-1200watts psu , you definitely going to run into some stability issue.

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

7 GPUs is a waste of time and resources , you add more GPUs and lose stability . Best thing is to run 5/6 GPUs per system .

I have 4 , 7 GPU rigs  all of them have problems with Dag generation when dual mining and under voltage , i have to reduce dag intensity and serialize some of the routine , once the Dag is generated and it runs for 10 minutes without errors it is rock stable  .
1 rig is running MSI gaming 5 , 3 rigs are running H97 anniversary with splitter .

I wouldn't completely agree with this.  I have 10+ rigs using MSI Z97 Gaming 5 with 7 GPUs and haven't experienced any of the issues you are describing.  The more GPU's you add can present challenges, yes, but for the most part, 7 seems to be the number cap for stability.

Well as you say

MSI Z97 Gaming that a 130$ card at least, versus a 70$ asrock that's quite a bit more to get 7 gpus working. But for density it's to be considered if room is very important.

[Zorg33]

I even tried server mobos with 10+ pcie slots...and guess what.... it does not boot with 6+ 4GB cards. If I put in a 3GB card for 7th card it boots up fine.
Definitely memory addressing issue. It would be nice to see a mobo bios mod for this issue.

[elgi76]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1795879.msg17931787#msg17931787

on this thread we can see 10 GPU

[xxcsu]

7 GPUs is a waste of time and resources , you add more GPUs and lose stability . Best thing is to run 5/6 GPUs per system .

I have 4 , 7 GPU rigs  all of them have problems with Dag generation when dual mining and under voltage , i have to reduce dag intensity and serialize some of the routine , once the Dag is generated and it runs for 10 minutes without errors it is rock stable  .
1 rig is running MSI gaming 5 , 3 rigs are running H97 anniversary with splitter .

I wouldn't completely agree with this.  I have 10+ rigs using MSI Z97 Gaming 5 with 7 GPUs and haven't experienced any of the issues you are describing.  The more GPU's you add can present challenges, yes, but for the most part, 7 seems to be the number cap for stability.

Well as you say

MSI Z97 Gaming that a 130$ card at least, versus a 70$ asrock that's quite a bit more to get 7 gpus working. But for density it's to be considered if room is very important.

Only one of my 7 card build is with MSI z97 gaming mobo ... All another ones are asrock h97 , or h81 :-)

[emdje]

There is a topic about going to 7 GPU's: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=712228.0
I assume the same process would work for going over 7 GPU's, messing around with the driver and a lot of headache, blood and tears I think  

But try and contact the topic owner there, user: lbr

[emdje]

And here is one who is succesfully using 8, maybe contact him: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1803379.0

[mojoxc]

And here is one who is succesfully using 8, maybe contact him: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1803379.0

He's running gpus that are dual amd gpus per slot and running nvidia cards to break through the windows barrier of 8 gpus as a different drivers allows windows to use more gpus.

[BenCodie]

7 GPUs is a waste of time and resources , you add more GPUs and lose stability . Best thing is to run 5/6 GPUs per system .

Im completely disagree with this " 7 GPUs is a waste of time and resources "

BUT you are right ! " you add more GPUs and lose stability"  Exactly This is what happening when you have no idea what you are doing and how you have to set up your rigs correctly

Most of my rigs are 7 cards setups , built with different cards , different bioses , none of them have any stability issue ! All running with my own custom modded bioses.
Stable 6+ cards setup is a little bit more than just plug your card and ready to go
Im working on to build my rigs with 7+GPU's support , i did not get much help with that from this community. Everyone want to keep they secret about 7+ gpu system.
You can save a lot of money if you can add 1 or more gpu to your existing 6 cards rigs , and you have a few of those rigs , but you have to make sure , your psu can handle that load

If you are trying to run a 7 or 7+ cards rig , with original bioses and a 1000-1200watts psu , you definitely going to run into some stability issue.

1+
Well said man
I'm completely disagree with you

[thesavoyard]

Seven card doesn't seem too difficult. If the mobo was less expensive it would be worth it. France has no affordable high watt platinum PSU available, except a bunch of used Lepa P1700M. So my psu are overkill. I can expand no worries lol.

[Etherion]

AMD driver has a 8 GPU limit. you can do 8 with R9 or HD cards on windows 10 using 1-3x PCI-E switch. But not RX cards. 7 seems to be the limit. most MB will not boot past the bios splash screen with 8 RX cards installed. That is my experience and I have yet to find anyone that got it to work without custom hardware. 

If you have more PCI-E slots you can fill them with Nvidia cards in theory. I wonder if there is any limit. Let say you have a 6 PCI-E MB and 6 x 1-3PCI-E switches. Could you run 10 Nvidia GPU's and 8 AMD per rig?

if so Just need to find a cost effective Nvidia card with realistic ROI. Like that is going to happen.

[xxcsu]

On any of my rigs I tried with 8 RX 480/8GB gpu , the PC is able to boot , Windows see the card , but it can use only 7 , I got a error in windows device manager " Code 12: This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use "

[Zorg33]

I did some research on this matter and it seems that the difference between RX and previous series is that the RX cards allocates more resources for configuration space.
The only successful methode bypassing this is to modify the resource allocation in the mobo BIOS but it's not that easy.
Maybe the other way would be modding the card's BIOS disabling some unused entries in these allocation tables...