Having issues with adding additional GPUs to my rig...

[Aidub5]

First off, I just want to say if this doesn't belong in this particular section of the forums, I apologize and will gladly post it to appropriate section if pointed in the right direction.

Now that that is out of the way, on to the topic. I setup a mining rig a few days ago with 2 RX 480s and 1 RX 470. After modding their bios' and running the atikmdag patcher everything works as expected while running Nicehash. I received another RX 480 today but after installing it I started running into issues. Once I booted the system, I opened MSI Afterburner as I usually do however none of my GPUs were showing diagnostics. I couldn't change anything. They were all showing in the GPU list but they weren't running.

I initially thought it was the new GPU messing with something so to confirm this, I removed it's PCI adapter from the slot and booted up the system again and everything worked perfect. Being discouraged that I potentially purchased a DOA card I wanted to really confirm it was the problem. Since I knew the system was working with 3 GPUs, I unplugged one of the ones I knew was working and plugged the new GPU back in. To my surprise it worked perfect. The good news is I know my GPU was good. The bad is I can't figure out why I can't seem to get 4 or more GPUs working at the same time.

I've tried hard rebooting the system, bios flashing each card again, updating drivers, reverting drivers, etc. Nothing seems to work.

Below are my systems specs:

GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P FX Motherboard
AMD FX 6300 @ 4Ghz
2x 2gb Samsung DDR3 1333Mhz RAM
1x XFX RX 480 RS 4gb
1x Gigabyte RX 480 4gb
1x MSI RX 470 Armor 8gb
1x MSI RX 480 Armor 4gb
1x Corsair CX600M PSU (Powering the system and 2 GPUs)
1x Cooler Master 600W PSU (Powering other 2 GPUs and thats it)
1x 1TB Western Digital 7200rpm HD
Windows 10
All GPUs are connected via risers that, from what I can tell, seem to be working properly

Does anyone see any red flags in my specs that would prevent me from running more than 3 GPUs or have any suggestions that would help me get my rig up and running properly? Any help at all is much appreciated.

[1714121267]

1714121267

[1714121267]

1714121267

[bobfredarctor]

I had a similar problem with nvidia cards.
there is a setting regarding pci-express slots in bios/uefi settings, though i don't remember what it was.
there were two options, when i changed from one to other, all cards worked perfectly.
so i suggest you to check your bios if there is any settings about pci-e.
hope this helps.

[Aidub5]

Hmm, I can't seem to find any options in my bios that lets me tweak PCI-E settings unfortunately. Are you running the same Mobo as me by chance?

[MATHReX]

Did you check if the risers are posing a problem to your 4th GPU?
Try a different riser if you have some spares in hand.

[Aidub5]

Well the risers on the original 3 all work without issue. When I plugged the 4th riser and GPU in is when there was an issue however I don't think it's the riser. If I leave that one plugged in and unplug one of the original 3 risers the system works just fine.

All the risers use a 4 pin molex for what it's worth.

[Cereberus]

Well the risers on the original 3 all work without issue. When I plugged the 4th riser and GPU in is when there was an issue however I don't think it's the riser. If I leave that one plugged in and unplug one of the original 3 risers the system works just fine.

All the risers use a 4 pin molex for what it's worth.

Go to the BIOS of the motherboard and change configuration of PCIE express slots from Auto to GEN1. That solves your problem in 99% of the cases where everything else is working correctly.

Also before trying that try to lower the power limit of your GPU-s to check if maybe you have a faulty PSU which does not give the needed power to them.

I had one problem with a 3 x RX 480 board in a Thermaltake 700w gold plus which should supposedly run them pretty well, well it didn't until I turn down the power limit to -60% and from there no problem anymore.

[crocozino]

as it was said earlier in your bios there will be 3 -4 places where you can change PCI-E version - try Gen1 or Gen2 settings
then find if you have option 4G decoding - turn it on
an turn off unused devices - sound, usb, serial port

[Aidub5]

Well the risers on the original 3 all work without issue. When I plugged the 4th riser and GPU in is when there was an issue however I don't think it's the riser. If I leave that one plugged in and unplug one of the original 3 risers the system works just fine.

All the risers use a 4 pin molex for what it's worth.

Go to the BIOS of the motherboard and change configuration of PCIE express slots from Auto to GEN1. That solves your problem in 99% of the cases where everything else is working correctly.

Also before trying that try to lower the power limit of your GPU-s to check if maybe you have a faulty PSU which does not give the needed power to them.

I had one problem with a 3 x RX 480 board in a Thermaltake 700w gold plus which should supposedly run them pretty well, well it didn't until I turn down the power limit to -60% and from there no problem anymore.

Unless I'm missing something in my bios, I don't see anywhere I can make changes to my PCIE settings unfortunately. Anyone have the same board as me that might be able to point me in the right direction?

[wacko]

There's plenty of similar questions on the internet about this board, just google "GA-970A-DS3P mining" and you'll find identical topics from people not being able to run more than 3 cards. Check whether you have the latest BIOS, and if not, update to the latest version. Also check the revision of the board you have, there seems to be multiple revisions of this model. Reinstalling windows helped some people, not sure why though but might be worth a shot.

[Aidub5]

There's plenty of similar questions on the internet about this board, just google "GA-970A-DS3P mining" and you'll find identical topics from people not being able to run more than 3 cards. Check whether you have the latest BIOS, and if not, update to the latest version. Also check the revision of the board you have, there seems to be multiple revisions of this model. Reinstalling windows helped some people, not sure why though but might be worth a shot.

I did a google search and saw that others are having the same issues as me however there doesn't seem to be any concrete solutions for this particular motherboard. I have rev 2.1 (the latest version), updated to the latest bios, and enabled IOMMU. Nothing seems to be working unfortunately. There are no advanced settings to tweak PCI-E settings either as far as I can tell.

Am I better off returning the motherboard and getting a new one. If so, what are some good options that are compatible with my FX 6300?

[BrokenMiner]

I have the same motherboard and I'm running 5 RX570s.  You will need to go into the motherboard bios and enable 4G decoding then I bet it'll recognize your 4th GPU.

[Aidub5]

I have the same motherboard and I'm running 5 RX570s.  You will need to go into the motherboard bios and enable 4G decoding then I bet it'll recognize your 4th GPU.

Where in the bios would I find 4G decoding?

[wacko]

and enabled IOMMU.

That's an option for virtualization, needed for things like pci-e passthrough. Shouldn't affect the number of cards recognized in any way, if anything I'd actually disable it (and it's probably disabled by default).

Am I better off returning the motherboard and getting a new one. If so, what are some good options that are compatible with my FX 6300?

If you can return it then your probably should. Although I know some people use am3 systems for mining, I personally got rid of my amd boards a long time ago — intel is just better for mining rigs (mostly because it's a more power efficient platform consuming less power, and there's also plenty of boards with 7* pci-e slots and 2* m2 slots, where you can connect up to 9 gpus without any splitters). So I wasn't following the amd boards for quite a while, and can't really suggest anything. If the only purpose of this rig is cryptomining then you might just sell your fx6300 and switch to intel. Either to something on z97 (if you just have to keep that ddr3 ram), or to z270 (will need go to ddr4).

[Aidub5]

and enabled IOMMU.

That's an option for virtualization, needed for things like pci-e passthrough. Shouldn't affect the number of cards recognized in any way, if anything I'd actually disable it (and it's probably disabled by default).

Am I better off returning the motherboard and getting a new one. If so, what are some good options that are compatible with my FX 6300?

If you can return it then your probably should. Although I know some people use am3 systems for mining, I personally got rid of my amd boards a long time ago — intel is just better for mining rigs (mostly because it's a more power efficient platform consuming less power, and there's also plenty of boards with 7* pci-e slots and 2* m2 slots, where you can connect up to 9 gpus without any splitters). So I wasn't following the amd boards for quite a while, and can't really suggest anything. If the only purpose of this rig is cryptomining then you might just sell your fx6300 and switch to intel. Either to something on z97 (if you just have to keep that ddr3 ram), or to z270 (will need go to ddr4).

Someone had suggested the IOMMU in a forum post so I thought I'd give it a shot... Looks I may have to think about switching to Intel if I'm going to continue to have this issue. Sucks because I just bought the motherboard and processor and get everything installed over the weekend. Oh well, I didn't do my research apparently haha.

One last thing that I thought of before really calling it quits. I have one of those PCI-E splitters. Is there any reason to believe that if I unplugged 2 of the GPUs from the mobo pcie slots, plugged the splitter in and plugged those 2 GPUs into that it would work? It might seem far fetched but I'm trying to exhaust all avenues to get this thing to run with my 4 GPUs.

[bouldou]

I'm not sure your PSU draws enough power to plug more than 2 graphic cards on it

What do you think ? Are you trying to plug 3*GPU to a 600W PSU ?

[wacko]

I'm not sure your PSU draws enough power to plug more than 2 graphic cards on it

What do you think ? Are you trying to plug 3*GPU to a 600W PSU ?

PSU has nothing to do with it since his cards aren't even properly recognized. No graphics card in idle consumes more than 25-30W, most consume a lot less, so power doesn't matter at this point. It only becomes important when you apply the mining load, but not at the initialization stages.  

One last thing that I thought of before really calling it quits. I have one of those PCI-E splitters. Is there any reason to believe that if I unplugged 2 of the GPUs from the mobo pcie slots, plugged the splitter in and plugged those 2 GPUs into that it would work? It might seem far fetched but I'm trying to exhaust all avenues to get this thing to run with my 4 GPUs.

If you already have a splitter, then why not try it? Shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

[Aidub5]

I'm not sure your PSU draws enough power to plug more than 2 graphic cards on it

What do you think ? Are you trying to plug 3*GPU to a 600W PSU ?

I have 2 600w PSUs. One is running 2 GPUs and the system itself and the other is running just 2 GPUs. I've tested the PSUs to make sure they're not the issue and I have ruled them out. Both work just fine running 2 GPUs with no issues.

[baga105]

Take the battery out and reset the BIos on your MOBO. Turn On the computer without any GPU, and set the wanted settings in the bios. Shut down the computer, put all the cards in and turn it ON with the screen attached into your motherboard. If there will be a problem, you will get an option to restart the computer or go to "advance options". Choose the restart and your computer should turn on

I had the same problem when i wanted to put some new cards on the motherboard..

[Aidub5]

Take the battery out and reset the BIos on your MOBO. Turn On the computer without any GPU, and set the wanted settings in the bios. Shut down the computer, put all the cards in and turn it ON with the screen attached into your motherboard. If there will be a problem, you will get an option to restart the computer or go to "advance options". Choose the restart and your computer should turn on

I had the same problem when i wanted to put some new cards on the motherboard..

I don't think we have the same motherboard. Mine does not have a video input unfortunately so I can't do what you're suggesting.

[wacko]

Take the battery out and reset the BIos on your MOBO. Turn On the computer without any GPU, and set the wanted settings in the bios. Shut down the computer, put all the cards in and turn it ON with the screen attached into your motherboard. If there will be a problem, you will get an option to restart the computer or go to "advance options". Choose the restart and your computer should turn on

I had the same problem when i wanted to put some new cards on the motherboard..

That sounds more like some kind of voodoo ritual. I've no idea how any of that would help. All that could be just replaced with "load optimized defaults" in BIOS.