5 GPU Miner

[TR4L]

So I have a 5 GPU rig but windows is only mining with 4. It detects the 5th card, but it doesn't show up in MSI afterburner or CGMiner.  Can anyone help? I heard someone say something about "jumping" the PCIe slot but I really have no idea how to do that. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[powdabam]

More information - Board, gpus, psu.  All 5 show up in device manager?

Reason I ask for hardware is because some Motherboards come with 5 pci x16/x1 but will shut off one of them if 4 are being used already.  sometimes with 3 and even 2.  So list your specs.

[TR4L]

Solved the problem.  Catalyst 12.6 did the trick.

[hax0red]

Catalyst 2.6  or 12.6? what was your first version you used and what OS? I'm having same issue.


 Thanks

[svenp]

I tried 12.6 and it didn't work for me.  I sure would like to know the answer...

[hax0red]

I'm about ready to jump in car and go pick this up: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2713117&CatId=7246 then install ubuntu and see how that works.

 My issue is I can't go back past 13.1 since I have 4 7950s and 1 7870 Tahiti(7950 with cores cut down). The 7870 wont install on anything earlier then 13.1.

[svenp]

I just tried ubuntu and it WILL allow you to do the fifth card but I had bad performance (compared to Win).  Specifically, I couldn't adjust the card voltage (7950 2Ls).  And that is a BIG deal on power useage and thus hash rate indirectly.  So I went back to Win...

[hax0red]

Thanks. I'm installing through wubi since I don't feel like partitioning my SSD until I'm sure Linux is my only solution.

 Btw, how do you like the 2Ls? I have a 20G which is the same I think. It gets about 20 khash less then my 2MSI's TF 7950s and Powercolor 7950 (the red one that looks like blower style but isnt and has fan in middle). The Sapphire 20G also pulls more a bit current then the other 3.

[TR4L]

I tried 12.6 and it didn't work for me.  I sure would like to know the answer...

It's 12.6

[TR4L]

I'm about ready to jump in car and go pick this up: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2713117&CatId=7246 then install ubuntu and see how that works.

 My issue is I can't go back past 13.1 since I have 4 7950s and 1 7870 Tahiti(7950 with cores cut down). The 7870 wont install on anything earlier then 13.1.

I understand that this board has enough PCIe slots, but I don't think it's a good idea to use that many 1x slots.   I don't know that much about this, but apparently you can fry the motherboard with too many cards.  16x provides more power than 1x (I assume).   You should look at this one: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga990fxaud5

That being said, it's your build to do with as you please. As for me, I'm looking into buying powered risers to be on the safer side.

[philips]

Stop screwing around with Linux if you are a Windows user. Is just another occasion to get lost in Linux and coming back crying that Linux is bad.
Bad performance in Linux my back...

Both OS will run those cards just fine.
Here is one guy running 6 cards in Windows: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=193695.0

If you people cant run 5 freaking cards in Windows then I doubt Linux is for you.

[TR4L]

Stop screwing around with Linux if you are a Windows user. Is just another occasion to get lost in Linux and coming back crying that Linux is bad.
Bad performance in Linux my back...

Both OS will run those cards just fine.
Here is one guy running 6 cards in Windows: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=193695.0

If you people cant run 5 freaking cards in Windows then I doubt Linux is for you.

Sheesh, strike a nerve? lol

[philips]

Let me put it this way:
The perfect solution for a Windows user is a Windows solution.
Lots of miners are using 5 cards in Windows.

Just use the OS you are familiar with, this way is much simpler, productive and less time consuming than learning how to use an alien operating system.

[hax0red]

Let me put it this way:
The perfect solution for a Windows user is a Windows solution.
Lots of miners are using 5 cards in Windows.

Just use the OS you are familiar with, this way is much simpler, productive and less time consuming than learning how to use an alien operating system.

 Don't be a jag off. We can obviously spend a week figuring it out systematically eliminating things one by one (which I have said I will do if needed) but a wise man knows when to ask questions. Each motherboard is different and knowing the characteristics of a few helps set parameters of understanding. I also have a slightly different configuration then most with 4 7950s and a 7870 XT which has a cut down Tahiti 7950 chip (ala cut down twice 7970). Don't act like some hard ass because you have linux and a bunch of scripts, kiddie

[philips]

I fail to see why you pass such a hard judgement on me.

[hax0red]

I'm about ready to jump in car and go pick this up: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2713117&CatId=7246 then install ubuntu and see how that works.

 My issue is I can't go back past 13.1 since I have 4 7950s and 1 7870 Tahiti(7950 with cores cut down). The 7870 wont install on anything earlier then 13.1.

I understand that this board has enough PCIe slots, but I don't think it's a good idea to use that many 1x slots.   I don't know that much about this, but apparently you can fry the motherboard with too many cards.  16x provides more power than 1x (I assume).   You should look at this one: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga990fxaud5

That being said, it's your build to do with as you please. As for me, I'm looking into buying powered risers to be on the safer side.

 The x1 and x16 have the same power configuration I believe after looking at the pinouts, that said I just cut up some molex to PCIE adapters so I can modify my risers to be powered so the motherboard power wont be a factor. Appreciate ya looking out though

[hax0red]

I fail to see why you pass such a hard judgement on me.

I felt I was responding in kind, weather it was pointed at me or not. I apologize. You seemed to be passing judgement harshly considering I'm a programmer by trade and am very familiar with windows, but knowing whats inside the dll and sys files isn't something that I can just take a peek at and see if something supports my hardware configuration. I also cannot find a damn thing about my motherboard configuration on PCIE and even posted on asrock's help forum with 50 views and no replies so it's obviously not the easiest or most common question.

[philips]

Well then, I also apologize for whatever you or anyone else might find offensive in my previous words.

Thing is, there is this myth floating sometimes around that Linux can magically solve all the issues.
Some people go there and find this unfriendly new OS and a whole lot of new issues, when sometimes the solution was in fact in their back yard (Windows).
Eventually they go back and tell everyone (for all the wrong reasons) that Linux is crap and so on.
Which is not fair and annoying.

[hax0red]

Well then, I also apologize for whatever you or anyone else might find offensive in my previous words.

Thing is, there is this myth floating sometimes around that Linux can magically solve all the issues.
Some people go there and find this unfriendly new OS and a whole lot of new issues, when sometimes the solution was in fact in their back yard (Windows).
Eventually they go back and tell everyone (for all the wrong reasons) that Linux is crap and so on.
Which is not fair and annoying.

 Except the complaint above is somewhat legitimate since tuning in Linux is widely known not to be quite the same quality as windows and I don't think anyone in there right mind would argue that windows offers much better support for gaming at this time(although that's slowly changing). I have plenty of experience running linux and had it installed(temp install) with the drivers and cgminer running in 30 minutes but found linux amd drivers didn't even support the 7870 XT with 7950's so it only made things worse. I did have luck installing without it though.


So I checked again with all the drivers that will work with the 7870 Tahiti and no joy. It installs but there are no 13.1+ drivers that support 5 gpu's it seems and like I said above the 7870 XT (Tahiti ver) came out after 12.6 so it isn't supported either. I have searched to see if the driver could be changed or the bios to reflect a 7950 but the memory seems to be the major issue since it's 2GB vs 3GB on 7950.

[philips]

Except the complaint above is somewhat legitimate since tuning in Linux is widely known not to be quite the same quality as windows and I don't think anyone in there right mind would argue that windows offers much better support for gaming at this time(although that's slowly changing).

Gaming... ?

I was strictly speaking about mining issues. What is difficult to tune?
There are two major limitations (for 7XXX): You cannot alter the voltage or set memory clock more than 150 Mhz lower compared with the GPU clock. (both issues can be fixed with a BIOS flash, although the 7xxx bios editing is not quite straightforward)
Other than that you can tune pretty much everything else I can think of.

Back to Windows, so I read about Windows 8 being able to work with 5 7XXX cards using 13.1.
Can you try that?