Multi-GPU mining not working, single GPU fine

[toxicavenger123]

Hi Guys,

First post and a newbie to mining but 15 odd years of building and configuring windows and linux.

I have a rig of older parts, a P5N32-SLI Premium MB, Celeron CPU, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a 30GB SSD but a brand new shiny Corsair PSU. I have been trying to run three GPU's, a GTX970 and two R7 370's. The MB has three PCIE x16 slots and the MB manual states that PCIE1 and PCIE3 are configured to run together with both at x16 and PCIE will run at x8 when both PCIE1 and PCIE3 are occupied. I am not using risers (yet).

However, no matter what software I try I cannot get multi-GPU to run. All three will run on their own in the PCIE1 using both Nicehash Legacy and Claymore Dual v10 but as soon as i put a second one in either of the other slots it will not run both. Claymore seems to give the most clues. When trying to run both I get to the point where it says SOLO/POOL and then it halts, sending the CPU to 100% for 5 minutes and then errors and restarts with the message that it is automatically restarting due to not starting correctly within 5 minutes. However, with the two AMD GPUs if I use the -di argument to only start the GPU in PCIE1 then it works and will mine. The other issue seems to be that Claymore doesnt want to recognise the GTX970 if either of the AMDs are installed (again regardless of slots, I even tried putting the GTX in PCIE1 and connecting the monitor to that GPU and then putting the others in slots 2 and 3 and Claymore only recognised the AMDs as existing when trying to start mining (although it still didnt, just stopped at SOLO/POOL again).

When using Nicehash Legacy it will benchmark the GTX but when it moves to benchmarking the AMDs, once again it just doesnt do anything and takes forever before I end up manually stopping the benchmark.

Any help is appreciated as I seem to have come to the end of knowledge!

Cheers,

Scott

[xxcsu]

-what operation system are you using ? 32/64bit ? windows/linux?
-No 32-bit support for claymore's version 10
-Did you set the Virtual Memory size in Windows at least 16 GB ? if you are using windows ?
-there is any option in your motherboard bios to change PCI Subsystem to GEN 1
-How did you installed the operation system ? UEFI installation might help with with proper bios settings ...
-go to your bios and turn off all hardware option you are not using on your mining rig

[toxicavenger123]

Thanks Kryptonite, that makes sense, I presume you only need one instance to run all AMDs and another instance to run all Nvidia's?

I am going to use risers, just waiting for them to arrive.

Hi XXCSU,

I tried using Linux but the support for r7 370's was a real pain, they arent supported by AMDGPU PRO so had to try and use ubuntu 14.04 and then everytime i tried to load flgrx drivers (including flgrx-updates) it just caused x11 to crash and i then had to use the terminal to do everything, not a problem in itself but still couldnt get it to load the drivers properly and so never got it to mine. Ended up with Windows as I lost patience with Linux.

I am now using W7 Pro 64 bit. Paging file is set to 16GB although I dont have that much space free on the SSD. The main reason for using Linux was that it wouldnt need the big paging file and so the SSD space wouldnt be such as issue. There isnt a setting on the motherboard to do that as such, there is a setting for PEG link setting but the options are 'normal' 'fast' 'faster' fastest' or 'disable'. I've tried them all tbh and nothing seems to make any difference. The OS was installed from a USB stick, motherboard is too old for UEFI. Already turned off all the possible options in the bios.

[P00P135]

It wasn't quite clear to me if you are trying to mine with all 3 cards at the same time but here is what I have to say.

You CANNOT mine with both AMD and NVIDIA cards at the same time, using the same miner. The 2 different card companies use different drivers that the mining software utilises.

You CAN however still mine all 3 cards at the same time, but you need to use different instances for different brands of GPU's. For example, Claymores latest Ethereum miner is designed for both AMD and Nvidia cards, but you need to load 1 instance for the AMD cards (and specify which PCI slots the AMD cards are using) and another instance for the NVIDIA cards (and specify which PCI slots they use).

This is incorrect. You can mine both GPU brands at the same time in the same claymore instance just fine.

[toxicavenger123]

I seem to have found something interesting, I've put two cards in and found that with both connected to a monitor Windows gets stuck on the Welcome screen. If i reboot and disconnect the monitor from the second card it will boot fine (but will not mine the second card).

I am wondering if this is pointing towards drivers being the issue as when connecting a monitor its actually asking the GPU to do something and it appears to hang. I am using the GTX970 in slot 1 and one of the R7's in slot 2.

[xxcsu]

when you said you using 2 cards , the cards are plugged in into the blue and black PCI Express x16 slot ?
First - You should try to plug in your two R7 370 into the blue and black PCI Express x16 slot , connect the monitor to the card what is plugged into the blue slot , you have to make sure if any kid of SLI option you have in your bios or in your driver settings page is is turned off.
Second , use the same two cards, leave one with monitor connected to the blue slot in place , plug the another card into the yellow middle PCI Express x16, (x8 speed)

I would use DDU to remove the drivers before each try , and reinstalling the drivers with the newly plugged in cards.

Let me know .. i also suggest try to use windows 10 enterprise edition , or another 64bit win 10 version

[Phantoms001]

My 2cents....

I am right now running the same thing.  I have 970s mixed with r7 370s.  This isn't a card problem.  It will work fine.  You have a setup problem. 

As previously posted, I think the way to go is to get the 2 370s running first.  Because its an older board you may have a few headaches.

I personally think that the problem you are having is sharing the IRQ.  Your manual specifically says you may have to assign an IRQ.  I would start by removing the drivers, reset bios to default, make sure plug n play is enabled and SLI is disabled*, enable PCIe 1 as the default video, and start by installing the cards in a "shared" PCIe slot.  The only options you have is slots 1 and 3.  Install the drivers and take it for a ride.  If windows is not seeing a card, I would move to the 2 PCIe slots that are not "shared" which would be 1 and 2.  I think one of these 2 combinations should allow you to run 2 cards.  I don't think you get past 2 cards because I think for the 3rd card you are going to need risers.  The 1x slot (which I think works) is going to be blocked by the PCIe slot 1 card. 

Basically what I'm trying to get you to do is try 2 slots that use the same IRQ with SLI disabled.  If that still creates a conflict, you are moving to 2 slots with separate IRQs.  One of these 2 has to work or you have a board problem.

(*try with SLI enabled too, but I think that needs to be off).

From there, I think you need risers.  I think you are going to end up using 2 PCIe 16/8x slots and 1 1x slot. 

[dave4925]

If you have an SLI bridge connecting the two nvidia cards remove it.  Mining doesn't work in SLI.

[joblo]

Seems like a problem with PCIe2 or PCIe3. Could be config, check the BIOS for PCIe settings. Otherwise it might be a bad slot.
Test the slots seperately.

[toxicavenger123]

I think I have found agreement with Phantom. Since my last post ive been able to get 1 x 370 and 1 x 970 working together, this works with either of the 370's and using slots 1 and 3 (shared).

I've got the PEG link in the bios set to disabled and SLI disabled too, PnP is enabled.

Interestingly if I put both 370's in the board I can still only get one to mine (although i might need to check this again).

I might have a play with the IRQs and see if I can get all three working by manually setting them.

In honesty i think i might end up with exactly what you have said, two in PCIE  x16/8 slots and another in a x1 slot. The shame is that i wanted to get five in there in total. I guess i'll buy another GTX 970 next and see what I can get working (will be after the risers arrive).

For the moment the main thing is that I am mining and started getting a return, I've started doing measurements on performance for overclocking and I'll see which R7 gives me the most for the moment.

I'll have a play with the IRQs to see if I can get all three working and post back in a couple of days.

[toxicavenger123]

Hi All,

Well the good news is that i've got all three cards mining. So after a bit of research into IRQs in Windows 7 I found that there are two methods of IRQ assignments in W7, there is the traditional line based and then message signal based. After reviewing the current assignments with the 970 and 370 both working I found the 970 on IRQ 16 and the 370 on IRQ -7. The negative number for the 370 is due to using message signal based IRQs. A little guide online had me then install the other 370 and turn off message signal IRQs for both AMD devices which then put all three cards on IRQ 16 which then got it working!

If anyone wants to do this the method of turning off MSI IRQ assignment is by altering your registry, there is a risk to doing this so only do it if you want to take the risk and I accept no liability for anyone trying it. Search the registry for MSIsupported and it will show for devices which are using it, look at the device type and make sure its the one you want, then change the DWORD value from 1 to 0. Restart the machine and you'll now have a line based IRQ.

Hopefully this helps others get their cards working if you have the same problem. I would assume that the other option would be to put the 970 into a MSI IRQ by turning it on but from my understanding the difference for video cards between MSI and Line based is negligible so I've left it as it is, it also had no difference to my hashrate when moving the card that was working to a line based IRQ.

Thanks for the help everyone, couldnt have got there without you.

S

[Ventureum_Platform]

It always got tricky to get multiple cards working, not only for mining, but also for deep learning work.

[rouzbeh]

Hi Guys,

I have some similar problem. I set up a 6 GPU rig. If I use single GPU the system works but for multiple GPU it doesn't work. Do you have any suggestions. I also tried with/without monitor connected but it didn't help. Here are my system specifications.
OS: simplemining
MotherBoard: MSI Z170 xpower
GPU: Radeon RX578
I also use risers.
Your helps is appreciated.

Thanls

[Souran]

Hi Guys,

I have some similar problem. I set up a 6 GPU rig. If I use single GPU the system works but for multiple GPU it doesn't work. Do you have any suggestions. I also tried with/without monitor connected but it didn't help. Here are my system specifications.
OS: simplemining
MotherBoard: MSI Z170 xpower
GPU: Radeon RX578
I also use risers.
Your helps is appreciated.

Thanls

"GPU: Radeon RX578"
There is your problem, that GPU doesnt exist.

on a more serious note, did you try the different gpus separately? do they all work fine when plugged alone?
Im assuming your risers are powered.
Also make sure motherboard bios is set correctly, by enabling 4G decoding, and making sure the PCIE slots are all running at either Gen1 or Gen2.

[rouzbeh]

Thanks. Sorry I meant 570.
I did all these changes in the bios still didn’t work. Is there anything else that I should change?