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Topic: Quick question on powered risers (Read 2607 times)

member
Activity: 112
Merit: 10
February 12, 2014, 08:19:26 AM
#26
It depends on gpu, motherboard and PSU, it may be ok, if you are using all the best components.
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 250
February 12, 2014, 06:43:17 AM
#25
Well I have a decent amount of rigs and never killed a mobo due to not using powered risers.. Been Scrypt mining well over a year.  I do only run 5 gpu per rig..so maybe 6 you need a powered.

Sometimes it also depends on what GPU you using and your settings. Some settings pull more power while other take less..
legendary
Activity: 2128
Merit: 1119
February 11, 2014, 12:26:13 AM
#24
Well I have a decent amount of rigs and never killed a mobo due to not using powered risers.. Been Scrypt mining well over a year.  I do only run 5 gpu per rig..so maybe 6 you need a powered.
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1000
February 10, 2014, 09:35:36 PM
#23
I really don't need electronics lessons. I have actually measured the power draw of a number of cards. You said the powered risers power the motherboard, that is false. Most powered risers, including the USB ones I sell, do not even have any power connection to the motherboard, they only even connect to the gpu. The data signals are passed along the USB cable.

Ahh I see. Your risers have their own powered slot. The ones I'm used to seeing simply have the 12v line soldered directly into one of the 12v pcie pins on the ribbon cable.
sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
February 10, 2014, 09:21:30 PM
#22
I really don't need electronics lessons. I have actually measured the power draw of a number of cards. You said the powered risers power the motherboard, that is false. Most powered risers, including the USB ones I sell, do not even have any power connection to the motherboard, they only even connect to the gpu. The data signals are passed along the USB cable.
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1000
February 10, 2014, 09:17:15 PM
#21
You can also use EVGA's power boost. It does the same thing as powered risers: stabilizes the PCI-E bus by providing it more current. Powered risers power the motherboard, not the card.

A full sized card, even on a 1x slot, is going to want to draw 75w. Yes, they are "rated" for 25w but can use as much as 75. All the power pins are near the front of the card so there's nothing stopping it from doing so--the card doesn't care if it's in a 1x or 16x slot. This puts more stress on the motherboard, which may or may not stand up to the load. Use a power boost or powered risers for peace of mind, at least. Nobody likes the smell of burning plastic.

That's completely wrong.

The cards draw about 25-50 watts on the pcie slot. They draw from 150-300w on the pcie power connectors. I've tested this many times with a variety of cards. The powered risers power the CARD, they run the fans, and the communications side of the gpu. I haven't seen a card draw more than 45 watts at full power through the power connector on the riser cards. Power boost has nothing to do with what the capabilities of the amount of copper in a motherboard trace can handle are. Six cards trying to draw 40W each is 240 watts, through a connection probably designed to provide 100-150. That's why people have problems, and that's why the powered risers are so nice.

PCIE specs dictate that a full sized graphics card pull up to 75w from the slot. Whether they actually do, I don't know. But it's there in black and white. Do graphics cards on a riser know whether they're plugged into 16x or 1x? If not they may try to pull that from the slot. Your findings indicate that they don't, which is good.

Electricity follows the path of least resistance, so once you plug a powered riser (or power boost) into the pcie slot it simply becomes part of the circuit. In that sense it's providing power to the pcie bus which in turn powers the card, not directly powering the card. That's why the power boost and powered risers accomplish the same task, even the the power boost is a standalone product that uses an empty pcie slot.
sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
February 10, 2014, 07:13:00 PM
#20
You can also use EVGA's power boost. It does the same thing as powered risers: stabilizes the PCI-E bus by providing it more current. Powered risers power the motherboard, not the card.

A full sized card, even on a 1x slot, is going to want to draw 75w. Yes, they are "rated" for 25w but can use as much as 75. All the power pins are near the front of the card so there's nothing stopping it from doing so--the card doesn't care if it's in a 1x or 16x slot. This puts more stress on the motherboard, which may or may not stand up to the load. Use a power boost or powered risers for peace of mind, at least. Nobody likes the smell of burning plastic.

That's completely wrong.

The cards draw about 25-50 watts on the pcie slot. They draw from 150-300w on the pcie power connectors. I've tested this many times with a variety of cards. The powered risers power the CARD, they run the fans, and the communications side of the gpu. I haven't seen a card draw more than 45 watts at full power through the power connector on the riser cards. Power boost has nothing to do with what the capabilities of the amount of copper in a motherboard trace can handle are. Six cards trying to draw 40W each is 240 watts, through a connection probably designed to provide 100-150. That's why people have problems, and that's why the powered risers are so nice.
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1000
February 10, 2014, 06:29:11 PM
#19
You can also use EVGA's power boost. It does the same thing as powered risers: stabilizes the PCI-E bus by providing it more current. Powered risers power the motherboard, not the card.

A full sized card, even on a 1x slot, is going to want to draw 75w. Yes, they are "rated" for 25w but can use as much as 75. All the power pins are near the front of the card so there's nothing stopping it from doing so--the card doesn't care if it's in a 1x or 16x slot. This puts more stress on the motherboard, which may or may not stand up to the load. Use a power boost or powered risers for peace of mind, at least. Nobody likes the smell of burning plastic.
member
Activity: 119
Merit: 10
February 10, 2014, 05:29:59 PM
#18
...

That's the amount of effort you are willing to put into this? Complete dismissal? Those are examples of damage to motherboards and risers overloading without good design in systems. Don't bother responding, as it is obvious you just want to be a troll about this.
[/quote]


im not trolling or even trying to troll anyone, but that links you posted are not enough to say that unpowered risers fry your motherboard. I just hoped that you send some other links, that are more reliable, thats all! Wink

If you dont have any, its ok i will search by myself and maybe find some.

And sorry that i havent read all the text in that links, as soon as i have a free minute i will, maybe than i will better understand why you are so pissed off about me...
MZD
full member
Activity: 189
Merit: 100
February 10, 2014, 12:42:18 PM
#17
I have another question, does 1x-16x really need power riser since they only draw 25 watt?

They ESPECIALLY need it.

You might get away with unpowered 16x-16x risers because they allow enough power, 75w. Your card is expecting to be connecting to a 16x slot, so if you connect it to a 1x slot using an adapter it is going to want to draw potentially way more than 25w from that 1x slot.

In this case you'll want to use a powered 1x-16x adapter. If you're going to plug into a PSU not supplying the motherboard then you'll also want to cut the ribbon cable so it draws no power from the motherboard.
full member
Activity: 188
Merit: 100
February 10, 2014, 11:40:10 AM
#16
I have another question, does 1x-16x really need power riser since they only draw 25 watt?
sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
February 10, 2014, 11:39:09 AM
#15

Come on,
the first Link is telling that he was running this rig for a year. no one can guarantee you that after one year running your rig 24/7 probably overclocked, that it will not fry. Thats not an evidence for a cause of unpowered risers.

The second Link was even using Powered risers... So noone is safe at all?

on the third one, i can't figure out what exactly his problem is without reading all that text. But seems like he was using powered risers as well.



That's the amount of effort you are willing to put into this? Complete dismissal? Those are examples of damage to motherboards and risers overloading without good design in systems. Don't bother responding, as it is obvious you just want to be a troll about this.
sr. member
Activity: 255
Merit: 250
February 10, 2014, 09:15:51 AM
#14
It should work without a problem if you underclock. But it might not be stable if you don't
member
Activity: 119
Merit: 10
February 10, 2014, 06:03:44 AM
#13

Come on,
the first Link is telling that he was running this rig for a year. no one can guarantee you that after one year running your rig 24/7 probably overclocked, that it will not fry. Thats not an evidence for a cause of unpowered risers.

The second Link was even using Powered risers... So noone is safe at all?

on the third one, i can't figure out what exactly his problem is without reading all that text. But seems like he was using powered risers as well.

sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
February 09, 2014, 07:53:49 PM
#12
It depends on the Risers. If you are using USB risers. Most of them do not supply your GPU with power through the motherboard, not even a little bit, they only pass the signal to the GPU not more not less.

If you are using the usual risers. Than there is usually just another cable for additional power, which the GPU can pull right from the "powered connector" but it still gets enough power from the motherboard to run without additional power.

Riser which you cannot use without additional power supply, look like the USB risers in my signature. They have more than just a soldered cable. They have capacitors as well.



And guys, please show me these pictures with burned motherboards, it seems like a Forum Myth for me.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/so-this-happened-burnt-mobo-pins-what-should-i-do-102890

https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=5188.0

http://www.xodustech.com/projects/bitcoin-mining-farm

There are more, those were quick.
member
Activity: 119
Merit: 10
February 09, 2014, 07:28:02 PM
#11
It depends on the Risers. If you are using USB risers. Most of them do not supply your GPU with power through the motherboard, not even a little bit, they only pass the signal to the GPU not more not less.

If you are using the usual risers. Than there is usually just another cable for additional power, which the GPU can pull right from the "powered connector" but it still gets enough power from the motherboard to run without additional power.

Riser which you cannot use without additional power supply, look like the USB risers in my signature. They have more than just a soldered cable. They have capacitors as well.



And guys, please show me these pictures with burned motherboards, it seems like a Forum Myth for me.
legendary
Activity: 1834
Merit: 1009
February 09, 2014, 07:18:25 PM
#10
Hey there,

is it save to use powered risers without actually powering them? I have some powered risers left but there's no need for me to power them in my curent setup. In other terms, is a powered riser nothing else but a modified unpowered riser?

It really depends on your settings, a 6 pin can draw 75 watts and 8 pin draws 150 watts. If your GPU draws really low power then no problem.
sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
February 09, 2014, 06:17:32 PM
#9
Thanks a lot! I have an asrock h61 pro btc with 2 extra molex onboard. Any idea how many cards can be served by these? Just two? Or do the onboard molex draw as much extra power as needed? Since I lost confidence in powered risers (blew off 3 already) I wonder if I can run five 7950's on that board with unpowered risers (1x - 16x), using the onboard molex to provide extra power to the pcie.

Use my USB risers, and run 6 cards off each board. Don't plug anything into the motherboard molex connectors. Simple!
member
Activity: 82
Merit: 10
February 09, 2014, 06:10:29 PM
#8
Thanks a lot! I have an asrock h61 pro btc with 2 extra molex onboard. Any idea how many cards can be served by these? Just two? Or do the onboard molex draw as much extra power as needed? Since I lost confidence in powered risers (blew off 3 already) I wonder if I can run five 7950's on that board with unpowered risers (1x - 16x), using the onboard molex to provide extra power to the pcie.
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
February 09, 2014, 05:55:29 PM
#7
Yes you can run them either way... I think powered risers is a marketing scam personally.  I have mined without them with no issues.

LOL. We know that hooking up 6 gpus on non powered risers draws too much power through motherboard traces. It's been proven, with lots of pictures of burnt traces.

USB style risers are even better, as you can put the gpus up to 10 ft away or more (I've only tested 10ft cables at the max) and build racks designed just for good cooling.

Agreed, it's definitely not a marketing scam when using more than 4 high power cards.  I've seen many burned mobo pictures myself as well.

Unless of course the mobo has slots for additional pci-e power.
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