MSI B250 and 4 Graphic Cards

[skusku]

Hi

I am new to mining.
I have bought an 850W platinum PSU, MSI B250 M3 Gaming Motherboard ,SSD Drive, 1x4GB RAM and 4x Gigabyte GTX 1070 OC 8GB and 4x powered PCI risers

Installed Windows 10 64bit
Updated BIOS to latest version from website.
Installed all the drivers

In the Bios:
I have selected PEG to be 1x
Above 4G memory/Crypto mining = Enabled.

No matter what settings I change in the bios, windows only shows 2x GTX 1070 in the device manager.
Connecting GFX Card 1 and 2(with their own risers): Windows displays 2x GTX 1070
Connecting GFX Card 3 and 4(with their own risers): Windows displays 2x GTX 1070

Connecting GFX Card 1,2,3 and 4: Windows displays 2x GTX 1070

Thus the Gfx cards are working, it seems that the M/B is disabling some ports or windows is not displaying it.


I read somewhere about partioning the harddrive to GPT Boot sector. Don't know if that is required, I just did a basic install of windows 10 from USB and the setup
created the partitions.

Could anybody please help me so that windows can recognize all 4x GTX 1070 in the device manager?

[1715305270]

1715305270

[1715305270]

1715305270

[skusku]

Ok I have unplugged all my graphics cards except 1.

If I put it in the PCI-E2 slot:
Bios Hardware Monitor displays that it is plugged into slot PCI-E2 Slot and PCI-E5 slot (Even though only one slot is used)

If I put it in the PCI-E3 slot:
Bios Hardware Monitor displays that it is plugged into slot PCI-E3 Slot and PCI-E6 slot (Even though only one slot is used)

Thus the Motherboard is somehow utilizing both slots when only one card is plugged in. That is clearly incorrect.
Any way to resolve this?

[skusku]

Response from MSI:
NVidia GPU's require at a minimum a PCIe x8 connection.
As you are wanting to only use a PCIe x1 connection, it is unsupported.


So what does this mean exactly? Which motherboards are compatible for Nvidia then?
This is where I bought my Motherboard:
https://www.evetech.co.za/PC-Components/intel-motherboards-27.aspx

Was thinking of Z270-A Pro ...?

[fury420]

MSI's forum support considers mining an illicit activity, they won't provide any support. (and their answers are often outright false)

Here's what your motherboard's manual says:

2x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (supports x16/x4 mode)*
4x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots**
* The PCI_E4 slot will be unavailable when an M.2 SSD module has been
installed in the M.2_2 slot.
** The PCI_E2 slot will be unavailable when an expansion card has been
installed in the PCI_E5 slot.
** The PCI_E3 slot will be unavailable when an expansion card has been
installed in the PCI_E6 slot.

So, the PCI-E x1 slots use shared lanes and you can only use two in total, and if you use a m2 SSD it disables the second full length slot.
Getting four cards running should be possible using both full-length PCI-E x16 slots and then any two of the x1 slots.

[skusku]

Thank you for the feedback Fury.

I have unfortunately already tried using both full length slots and two PCI-E x1 slots.
If I am not mistaken Windows 10 gave an error and did not want to boot up when I tried that configuration.

The part about slots being disabled as you have mentioned is not in my manual which came with the M/B. I went to check the online manual and there it was.

I will try the configurations again just now.

I cannot find any biostar or ASROCK bitcoin motherboard in my country

If I were to get the MSI Z270-A Pro will that work for my 4x GTX 1070?
I do not see any mention in the manual about slots being disabled with that M/B.

[fury420]

4 GPUs is usually rather easy to get working, the BIOS changes you mention are usually only needed for 5-7 GPU builds with skylake/kabylake. (perhaps try with optimized defaults?)
I would start with a single GPU on riser in the main PCI-E x16 slot, verify it works, second card to the other full slot, then add the small ones.

[skusku]

I will try the configuration again one by one.

Yes that is why I am so sad, figuring that 4x GPU's should be fairly simple to set up.

It is a G4560 Pentium CPU. Doubt that the cpu will have any effect on the GPU's being not detected by the M/B?

[skusku]

Okay I have managed to get 3x cards running now.

The moment I plug anything into the PCI-E x4 slot, windows gives a blue screen of death error upon bootup and says "Machine Check Exemption".
I tried other cards going into that slot as well, and still the same error.

Currently the 3x cards are plugged into PCI-E1 (x16),PCI-E2(x1) and PCI-E3(x1)

Running PCI-Gen 1 and PCI Latency on 96 atm in the bios.

Is this a bad Mobo?

[Lobstar]

Did you ever find a solution to this?

I have the same mobo as you. trying to run 4 GPUs off of risers. One AMD rx 480 and 3 Rx 580.

Currently the 3 cards are plugged into PCI-E1 (x16),PCI-E2(x1) and PCI-E3(x1) slots however the device plugged into the PCI-E4 slot (x16) is not recognized.

Swapped around risers thinking it was a bad cable but it did not fix the issue.

If you found a solution to get all 4 GPUs working please share!

[ica7000]

Had the same problem.  Tried nvOS (18) and got all four nvidia cards running (3x70 and 1x 1060 6gb) then switched back to windows 10 pro and got two cards running.  Could never figure out why.  Running w/o interruption with linux now.  

[Lobstar]

i was able to get 4 running on windows. The PCI-e 4 slot doesnt recognize the GPU when plugged with a riser for some reason. Tried multiple risers. Plugging the GPU directly into the X16 slot worked. I then added all the other cards one by one. Have 4 cards running stable now. Don't think this board supports more than 4 though as the manual says that the pci slot 2 and 5 cannot be used at the same time and pci slot 2 and 6 cannot be used at the same time. Kind of dumb as the board has 6 slots....

[fanatic26]

Get rid of that board and buy something else. I extensively tested that specific board and it just doesnt work. I could get 3 cards stable but adding a 4th would cause all kinds of problems and it wouldnt even see card 5 or 6. I tried in linux and windows on multiple BIOS revisions. It is just a shit board.

[yunihuni]

This board doesn't support 5 and above card. You can only run with 4 card. My suggestion sell this board and buy MSI Z-170A PRO.

If you want run with 4 card unplug all card and just plug 1 card on x16 slot. And start windows, install driver and reboot. Enter bios and set 4g/gen1 and close pc. Plug other card with risers (don't unplug card on x16). Open windows and download DDU. Restart windows with safe mode. And Uninstall driver with DDU. And restart again. Install driver and done

Your windows must be UEFI.