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Author Topic: PCI-E Question  (Read 620 times)
ekev (OP)
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May 26, 2013, 05:41:54 PM
 #1

.. okay I apologize for my lack of knowledge on this subject.  College was a looooooong time ago and PCI-E didn't exist so I'm slowly catching up.

My hardware..

motherboard is an ASRock 970 Extreme4
three 7970 video cards

My issue..

I need to order risers as my three 7970 video cards have a slight heating issue (when mining, they run at these temperatures 68, 90-95, and 82.... and this is with a small fan on top and an 18" blowing directly on it).  There is a decent space between vid 1 and 2 (thus 68 degrees), but almost no space between 2 and 3 (thus 90-95 degrees celcius).

My question...

My motherboard has two small pci-e slots and three full size (16) slots.  Does this mean I can put 5 video cards on my system by purchasing two 1x to 16x risers and three 16x to 16x risers?

Many thanks for answers
CryptoMinter
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May 26, 2013, 06:23:15 PM
 #2

Yes, you can use PCI-E x1 for the x16 video cards since the OpenCL/Mining applications aren't host<-->gpu intensive.

The caveat is that an x16 wide slot can supply up to 75W of power and the x1 slot is not designed to do that, so it's recommended you get powered risers (pulls the slot power from the PSU directly instead of through the motherboard) to prevent trace burnouts, smoke, etc.
ekev (OP)
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May 26, 2013, 07:33:59 PM
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Yes, you can use PCI-E x1 for the x16 video cards since the OpenCL/Mining applications aren't host<-->gpu intensive.

The caveat is that an x16 wide slot can supply up to 75W of power and the x1 slot is not designed to do that, so it's recommended you get powered risers (pulls the slot power from the PSU directly instead of through the motherboard) to prevent trace burnouts, smoke, etc.

... so I can drop in 5 cards (two x1 slots and three x16 slots)?  Oh this is about to become very fun.

Thanks for your response CryptoMinter
notaek
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May 26, 2013, 07:44:29 PM
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Yes, you can use PCI-E x1 for the x16 video cards since the OpenCL/Mining applications aren't host<-->gpu intensive.

The caveat is that an x16 wide slot can supply up to 75W of power and the x1 slot is not designed to do that, so it's recommended you get powered risers (pulls the slot power from the PSU directly instead of through the motherboard) to prevent trace burnouts, smoke, etc.

... so I can drop in 5 cards (two x1 slots and three x16 slots)?  Oh this is about to become very fun.

Thanks for your response CryptoMinter

You might be able to.  Physically you can install 5 cards.  That is a given.  The issue is with the motherboard.  Some motherboards shut off certain slots when other slots are occupied, or some motherboards run out of memory preventing all of the cards from working properly.  You are probably just going to have to try it.  I would recommend ordering the risers and borrowing some extra cards from a friend or something, even if they are cards that wouldn't be good for mining.  If the system boots and the cards work, then you can order some proper mining cards.

Mazakguy
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May 26, 2013, 07:50:09 PM
Last edit: May 26, 2013, 08:03:33 PM by Mazakguy
 #5

Also it will depend on the os you are running.

From what I understand win 7 will only support 4 gpus.

Win 8 and linux support as many as your motherboard will.

I have the same board running 4-7950 gpus using 2 16-16 unpowered, 1 16-16 powered, and 1 1-16 powered risers,
os is win 7, 1200 watt ps.

Works just fine, 2540 khash/sec
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