HELP: 7x 7950s running on MSI Z77A-GD65? (reward for help)

[niic]

Hi all,

I am having problems trying to get 6 (or ideally 7) MSI 7950s running on my rig. At the moment I have 5 running stable on a MSI Z77A-GD65 and from looking around the boards, many people have had success getting 7 cards running on this motherboard. I have plenty of power and mem I think (tethered dual PSUs + 8gb mem). I've tried 13.1 and 12.2 drivers from TechPowerUp ...people seem to have divided opinions on the driver making a difference. I'm running Windows7 at the moment and was hoping to stay on this OS but can move if required.

I've read conflicting posts from people saying you don't need to presence short this particular board to get all 7 on there but have also read that you have to. So a little confused at why the separation in opinion.

Any advice would be much appreciated! I can swing a few LTC to anyone that can assist and help me get up and running.

Thanks,
Nick.

[nickenburg]

Hey man i found this for you maybe this can help:
Yes, this motherboard will detect and support 7 independant graphics cards. The G55 and G45 versions can only detect up to 6 independant graphics cards. This is because in the GD65 version, all 3 PCI-E 16x slots are driven by the CPU, leaving the 1x slots to the Z77 northbridge. In lower versions, the CPU only supports the upper 2 16x slots, leaving the northbridge to support the bottom 16x as well as the remaining 1x slots and whatever else that uses PCI-E lanes, but it doesn't have enough lanes to support everything at the same time, so one of the 2 pci-e 1x slots that are next to each other is turned off.
Maybe you can turn it on?

I found more:
If your motherboard isn't detecting video cards, you need PCI-E presence mod (search for it). If it still doesn't detect, it is an isolated problem with the motherboard model and you need to consult your motherboard manual or manufacturer to see if certain slots are turned off when others are populated. If you have graphics cards getting detected but have some sort of driver problem or yellow ! mark, it is a driver or OS problem and you will likely need to move to Linux to get all your GPU driver installed. Windows does not support >4x R290 or >4x R290X, or any other video card that has come out past the release of the 13.1 driver (Includes the Radeon 7790, and probably all the newer R7/R9 series. -Maybe- not the 280X since it's just a rebadged Radeon 7970). To get them all installed, you need Linux.

Oh and found this to:
The bottom PCIex16 slot on the Z77A-G65 Mobo has a sticker on it which reads: "Due to bandwidth allocation limitation, it is strongly recommended for users to install 3rd Gen Intel Core processors to enable functionality in the third PCI Express slot"

I think I misinterpreted their "recommendation" but the manual claims the 3rd generation Celeron enables it as well. The power will be split across 3 slots. If you are using 1, it acts as a 16pin PCIe, if you are using 2, it acts as 2 8pin, and if 3, the top one slot will be 8pin and bottom 2 will be 4 pin.

I just copied this but i searched google and i hope it can help you!

[niic]

Hey dude,

Really appreciate you having a look ...but unfortunately, all those I have read as well   ...I also had that sticker on my board which is why I bought a slightly more expensive cpu (ivy bridge) than what is needed for mining (Intel i3 3240 Dual Core CPU).

I was hoping to find someone who has actually done it because the posts seem very divided in if it works or not.

re your presence pin snippet ...I read this as well and also read posts from people who said it isn't necessary ....aaarg why is there a difference of opinion!

Again, thanks for the reply.

Cheers

[nickenburg]

Hey dude,

Really appreciate you having a look ...but unfortunately, all those I have read as well   ...I also had that sticker on my board which is why I bought a slightly more expensive cpu (ivy bridge) than what is needed for mining (Intel i3 3240 Dual Core CPU).

I was hoping to find someone who has actually done it because the posts seem very divided in if it works or not.

re your presence pin snippet ...I read this as well and also read posts from people who said it isn't necessary ....aaarg why is there a difference of opinion!

Again, thanks for the reply.

Cheers

Damn it didnt help , well maybe install linux to try it out ?

[niic]

I know Linux but not much to be tinkering with hardware problems as well so have been looking more for a tried and tested how to.

I'll look at a usb BAMT boot and see if I can get it working.

I'll be happy if I can get just 6 working!

Cheers

[iarsenaux]

you need to short the a1 and b17 pins of the last 16x slot. i have an msi z87 g65 mobo. go to BIOS > Advanced > PCIE config > Set all PCIE to Gen2.0 (default is auto)


Edit. I'm using windows 8, and the display driver that i am using is the one from the windows update. that's all that you need from the windows update.

[waltermot321]

How much reward you are giving

[niic]

you need to short the a1 and b17 pins of the last 16x slot. i have an msi z87 g65 mobo. go to BIOS > Advanced > PCIE config > Set all PCIE to Gen2.0 (default is auto)


Edit. I'm using windows 8, and the display driver that i am using is the one from the windows update. that's all that you need from the windows update.

I have the msi z77 g65 and that option doesn't exist in the bios. You can either set to Auto or disable.

Do I need to short the 7th pci slot to get both 6 and 7 slots working? I'm confused why you need to short because i've read allot of people saying this isn't necessary.

Cheers

[niic]

How much reward you are giving

Just what i've mined so far... few LTC. Can probably offer a couple more if it helps. There is so much division in opinion on how to do it and ive reinstalled windows7 too many times to count so rather just get some direct help from someone that has actually done it and is stable. Are you that person?

[sesko]

using Windows 7, you need absolutely modified drivers. Using windows 8 you could try just using windows update, for drivers.

No pin shorting is needed, using z77a-gd65, the problem is only OS/drivers related.

7th pcie is enabled using 3rd generation cpu.


Anyway using win7 is a bad bad choice for running 7gpu's on one MTB.

[Dimrain13]

You could just use linux...