Topic: 7 7970 on MSI Z77A-GD65 --- (Read 3860 times)

Yes, yes of course it can be done, you're getting confused with software driver limitation in windows vs your board only supporting 6 gpus. If you have gone through the process of jumping your slots like I mentioned previously and you don't have a card(s) showing up in windows it means your board is turning off that slot and its a limitation of that board, only other way to get more slots working on that board is to use the PCI to pcie bridge adapter which is around $20ish.

Only when you have 7 cards visible in windows can you then proceed to get them working by installing the two different drivers as described earlier. You said you got 6 cards working so I guess your're familiar with the install of the two separate drivers. But I'll explain again for the sake of others. We use two different driver versions to bypass (a registry limitation in the software) the 5 individual card limit in windows with driver 12.6 or earlier version, later versions only support up to 4 gpu's (for each driver). One could in theory run 4 cards off 13.1 and up to 4 cards off version 13.4 for example, but I have only used 12.6 and 13.1 together personally.

If one was comfortable with linux you could natively run 8 gpu's with one driver because it apparently doesn't have registry limitations like windows has. But it has nothing to do with the limitation of your hardware (motherboard) so you would still be limited to 6 working slots with that board.

Ive officially concluded that 7 or more cards on 1 gpu cannot be done. I hear a lot of talk but no proof.. I stand to be corrected.

For sure its possible, maybe not natively with this board without the use of pci to pcie bridge but If you dig you will find other boards that support 7 and even one supports 8 cards natively (MSI Big Bang). The truth is out there

I am really curious to see if 7 gpu's are possible. I havent heard of anyone able to doit thus far on one MB...

Its doubtful that it would be a physical problem with your board. Maybe have a look at this older thread with a similar board to your. I think I remember reading somewhere the G45 can do 6 cards, while the G65 can do up to 7...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97154.20]Gigabyte%20Z77A-G45
but might be wrong and its the higher model that can do up to 7.  I'll find out later next week when I get a G65 to play with.

I think I may need a new board. slot 5 and 7 seems to have went out...Cant get them to work in win 8

Yes, bitcoin GPU mining is long dead. But GPU's are still used (and profitable) for scrypt mining like Litecoin, Feathercoin and other altcoins. Also depends greatly on your local electricity costs.

As a followup to the ops question I was able to get 6 GPU's working on my gigabyte board with a "little" messing around in win7 x64. I'll be getting the exact same board as you next week so I will be shooting to hit 7 too. http://www.gobitgo.com/articles/1002/How-to-Mine-with-6-GPU/ has similar info that may be a helpful reference. In the link above the author is using windows 8 but the procedure is the same and works just as well in windows 7 x64.

Here's my version of how to get 7 cards working on win7x64:

1) Install 12.6 drivers. - shutdown
2) Unplug all risers, then plug in 1, boot to windows, insure the card shows up in device manager. After its detected and confirmed there, shutdown and plugin the next riser closest (left to right or right to left) and verify in device manager. If the card last plugged in does not show up it most likely means you will need to make a jumper to short the pcie pins. There is a thread on these forums outlining the procedure if needed.
3) Continue verifying all the cards and jumper the ones as needed. After you make it past card 5 you will see cards 6 and above show the yellow exclamation showing a problem. No worries on to the next step.
4) Download 13.1 drivers and double click to extract.
5) Do not install drivers after initial extraction. Click cancel to exit the installer.
6) Back to device manager and we need to update the driver on the devices with the yellow exclamation marks
7) Manually update the driver using the the 13.1 drivers which extracted to C:\amd\13.1... (you can follow the instructions in the link above if you need more specific details)
8 ) This installation/update does take a few minutes so be patient and don't try and close the device manager or updater.
9) On to the next one, same procedure if you have 7 cards.
10) DONE
10) Start Mining already!  

Won't the OP's setup be obsolete when the ACIS boxes zerg the network between now and end of October?  Seems like a lot of effort and money to end up with a loss...

...but I'm just a Noob. 

Windows 7 X64 supports up to 8 GPU's. You'll have to use 12.6 or older drivers. 12.8 and later only support up to 4 GPU's. Use the catalyst removal tool before installing the new driver. You may also need to "jumper wire" your individual PCIE slot in order for it to work.

If you cant get it to work on Linux either then I'd agree with this. I have an MSI board in my own machine and regretted it ever since but cant afford to replace it yet :p

I think something is wrong with your motherboard

Why you want so badly windows? It will probably work in linux
Btw powered risers should be powered from the same psu as motherboard. You can't run 7 7970 with one psu.
Secondly why 7970? You can have 7950 (which are much cheaper) with almost same hash rate (possible 680kh)

Only 4 cards show up in windows. I just upgraded to win8pro64 and 6 show (not 7 unfortunately) but its so unstable its even hard to get a clean boot into win8 and it crashes with slightest effort..

You'd think, but you'd be wrong 

Yay! happy to help.

Sadly I've only got 3 GPU's myself so had no experience with trying to get 5 GPU's working on win7 64.

I know that for multi GPU setups the PCIe bus latency setting can have an effect on getting multiple GPU's to play nice. Check your BIOS/UEFI settings, the most common latency settings are 32, 64 and 128.

I personally got best PCIe performance and least system lag while mining using a latency of 64. At 32 I could only get two cards to mine at the same time, the 3rd would always crap out or slow down. Different motherboard manufacturers set different defaults for this so best to have a play and see if it helps.

Good luck!

** Update. Just to check are you using Windows 7 Pro and not Home? Home edition can only address up to 16GB total memory, if I remember right GPU RAM is also addressed in the same space (if I'm wrong would be happy for someone to correct me because I can't really remember all that well) which means 5x 3GB = 15GB + your 8GB RAM could mean the GPU simply cant address enough of its RAM to be used.

Does the card even show up in the device manager? Or is it only cgminer that cant see it?



 

Your magic worked like a  charm!!! Thanks, because this was literally driving me nuts..lol..

You wouldn't happen to have some more magic to enable 5 or more cards in win 7 64??

$2900

5x7970 plus the CPU and the folks (ram, hd, heat) > 1450 w.

i saw a GPU running at 97°C... -> "Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish Ladies, Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain...

Doh' My bad

Good luck with that Rosewill. I had one, then I got this EVGA. I couldn't get the Rosewill to stay stable, and eventually it wouldn't work with any more than three cards at a time. Mining would instantly power cycle the rig, after working fine for a few weeks.

I never should have been pushing more than 1200W, so if anything it's just over rated and you might be fine.

We is using two 1300W power suplies.