HELP! struggling to make 6 gpu R9 290 rig to run on windows 7 (SOLVED)

[Morbid]

as per title. i got MSI 990FXA-GD65. i connected 1 master card on x16 riser and other 5 on x1 risers. i did connect 6pin power onto motherboard. power is fine. all the guides mention catalyst 13.1 from techpowerup site or 12.6 from amd website make 6gpu rig happen - though none of them support new r9 290 cards. im now on 13.11 beta 9. device manager only see 4 video adapters. please advise.



edit: SOLUTION:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=712228

https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=11761.0

[SkyNet]

Get the latest beta drivers.
Do you use Linux?

[1632008]

The maximum number of gpus supported on one board also depends on the model of gpus you are running.
Since you can only see 4 cards in device manager, it might be a bios issue and not easy to fix.
I would suggest you try the method of shorting pins of A1 b17 and see if it would get more gpus to work.

as per title. i got MSI 990FXA-GD65. i connected 1 master card on x16 riser and other 5 on x1 risers. i did connect 6pin power onto motherboard. power is fine. all the guides mention catalyst 13.1 from techpowerup site or 12.6 from amd website make 6gpu rig happen - though none of them support new r9 290 cards. im now on 13.11 beta 9. device manager only see 4 video adapters. please advise.

http://pl.msi.com/pic/product/five_pictures1_2401_20110531112823.jpg

[Morbid]

Get the latest beta drivers.
Do you use Linux?

im on latest beta drivers right now.. im not really keen on linux. though will have to try as a last resort i guess.

[Morbid]

The maximum number of gpus supported on one board also depends on the model of gpus you are running.
Since you can only see 4 cards in device manager, it might be a bios issue and not easy to fix.
I would suggest you try the method of shorting pins of A1 b17 and see if it would get more gpus to work.

thx for the tip. should i only short them for cards that dont work? im running latest bios btw.

[Slander]

what psu you planning on running? Suggest you simply build another cheap rig and run 3 cards on each. Thats very easy to do and if one goes down and you dont notice it for hours and hours (yes it will happen, many times) you only have 3 cards not mining instead of 6, ie you just paid for your second rig because 3 cards mined all night while you slept

[Thyatis]

i might be wrong but i think windows 7 onky supports 4 cards u need windows 8 or linux.

[cmilliorn]

I am having similar issues but mine is only 2 of my 5 are showing. I have seen on many sites that Windows 7 only supports 4 gpus and you need windows 8 for more.

[LostDutchman]

as per title. i got MSI 990FXA-GD65. i connected 1 master card on x16 riser and other 5 on x1 risers. i did connect 6pin power onto motherboard. power is fine. all the guides mention catalyst 13.1 from techpowerup site or 12.6 from amd website make 6gpu rig happen - though none of them support new r9 290 cards. im now on 13.11 beta 9. device manager only see 4 video adapters. please advise.

What are you trying to mine?

[1632008]

Also worth a try to disable on-board pcie devices as much as possible in bios and see if it helps.
It's said 6 gpus did work on win7 x64 for some people, at least should be shown in device manager. See:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=188334.0

[ssateneth]

The problem is not with the motherboard. It is a windows / driver problem. Linux allegedly supports more GPUs easily, but I've never used it (i got out of GPU mining a long time ago). Good choice on the motherboard BTW. You won't need powered risers for this, because you will be powering the risers with the built in PCI-E power plug right on the motherboard.

[Morbid]

What are you trying to mine?

anything that is profitable or easy to mine for the timebeing.

[Morbid]

ok. little update. i had some time today to tinker with this project of mine.

i disconnected all but master card. checked all x1 risers - all working. then checked all pcie x1 ports on the motherboard one by one to see if device manager would see the cards. checked all cards - they all get recognised except when put in PCI_E1 and PCI_E5 ports. basically my motherboard dont see any card on those ports. ill google all i can but if you have any tips for me id really appreciate that. thank you.

btw im using 5 risers just like in the picture. i just cut the plastic limiter off to go into x16 cards:

[Morbid]

here is the little peek of how it looks like now. waiting for 3 140mm fans to go in front of those babies. there are three 750W corsair psus.

[Morbid]

found this msi forum thread. some dude on reply #2 mentioned that 990 chipset only allows upto 4 gpus. in my case i just cant get PCI_E1 & PCI_E5 ports working even with only one master card connected - making 2 effective gpus connected to the motherboard. could somebody please confirm that.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=170785.msg1246971#msg1246971


here in the 990fx spec sheet we have mention of upto gpu 4 cards possible to be connected, though in crossfire. will they still be recognised without crossfire?

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/chipsets/9-series-integrated/Pages/amd-990fx-chipset.aspx

[ssateneth]

The motherboard should be fully capable of utilizing all 6 cards. The problem lies in using Windows, and driver support. Windows 7 will support 4 of these cards at the max. Windows 8 may support 5 (In my experience, Windows 8 would be able to operate 1 more card than Windows 7. This was with Radeon 7970's)

There are reports of being able to use all 6 cards with Linux.

[Morbid]

The motherboard should be fully capable of utilizing all 6 cards. The problem lies in using Windows, and driver support. Windows 7 will support 4 of these cards at the max. Windows 8 may support 5 (In my experience, Windows 8 would be able to operate 1 more card than Windows 7. This was with Radeon 7970's)

There are reports of being able to use all 6 cards with Linux.

you see it would make sence if i had all cards connected at the same time. but in my case i removed all cards and just attached master x16 card and second card through PCI_E1 - device manager shows one card only. then if i attach the same gpu with same riser to PCI_E2 slot then device manager shows two cards. in this particular moment its motherboard issue. i wonder if it has 2 faulty slots..

[Olly_K]

i had this board when BTC mining "back in the day"

I'm pretty sure I had to short 2 of the pins in the PCI-E slot. Even on the x1 slots.

[Morbid]

i had this board when BTC mining "back in the day"

I'm pretty sure I had to short 2 of the pins in the PCI-E slot. Even on the x1 slots.

could you elaborate please. i never done that before.

[Olly_K]

yep. this might help:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102547.0

It's been 3 years since I GPU mined but I think it had to do with the slot not recognizing when a card was plugged into it when using a riser