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Topic: Reducing motherboard memory usage from GPUs (10 LTC Bounty) (Read 1440 times)

full member
Activity: 294
Merit: 100
That's unfortunate, some motherboards it's completely disabled to affect any Shadow memory options.  Try removing any hardware that isn't necessary and disabling any on-board components that aren't in use like NICs/Audio controllers/Sata controllers/etc.
legendary
Activity: 1268
Merit: 1009
Let me know if you find anything in the BIOS which might be related to shadow mem, I can help identify if it's useful to you or not.  Also what hardware do you have attached to the motherboard?

There is absolutely nothing in the BIOS that relates to shadow memory or caching.  I used those as search terms to scan through the manual, and got no results.  In the BIOS itself, I looked through every section and there was nothing related. 

I messed around with some of the PCIe slot settings but none of those helped either; I'm not surprised.

At this point, I'm not sure what I should do.  I am on the latest BIOS, and I have cleared the CMOS multiple times with different configurations.

For my hardware, I have an intel i5 3570k, 2 7970's, 2 6950's, 8gb of ram, 1tb HDD, 120gb SSD, 1 750w PSU and 1 600w PSU.  For peripherals I have 1 mouse and one keyboard and 1 web cam.  I also have it plugged in to my router with an Ethernet cable. 

full member
Activity: 294
Merit: 100
Let me know if you find anything in the BIOS which might be related to shadow mem, I can help identify if it's useful to you or not.  Also what hardware do you have attached to the motherboard?
legendary
Activity: 1268
Merit: 1009
The only way to change settings related to shadow memory would be in the BIOS.  If you can't find anything directly related to it, try disabling any other ROMs being used to free up additional memory for a 4th GPU.  Have you flashed the latest BIOS revision?  It's a long shot but perhaps they added a feature that would be helpful.  Some boards allow you to turn shadow memory off, do you see anything in the BIOS related to "ISA Shared Memory"?  It may be well hidden so be through, especially through anything related to hardware.  Failing that, find any option related to memory like "caching" or "shadowing" and see if there's anything helpful there.

Some quick googling shows other people having trouble running 2x RAID controllers with that motherboard due to shadow memory issues so it seems like it's a common problem with that model.

Thanks.  I'll look into the manual first to see if I find anything about disable shadow.  If there isn't then I'll dive into the BIOS.
full member
Activity: 294
Merit: 100
The only way to change settings related to shadow memory would be in the BIOS.  If you can't find anything directly related to it, try disabling any other ROMs being used to free up additional memory for a 4th GPU.  Have you flashed the latest BIOS revision?  It's a long shot but perhaps they added a feature that would be helpful.  Some boards allow you to turn shadow memory off, do you see anything in the BIOS related to "ISA Shared Memory"?  It may be well hidden so be through, especially through anything related to hardware.  Failing that, find any option related to memory like "caching" or "shadowing" and see if there's anything helpful there.

Some quick googling shows other people having trouble running 2x RAID controllers with that motherboard due to shadow memory issues so it seems like it's a common problem with that model.
legendary
Activity: 1268
Merit: 1009
I have a z77 Gigabyte UD3H motherboard and I have been having trouble getting 4 GPUs running. 

I am trying to use two 7970's and 2 6950's.  All of the cards work fine on their own.  I can use any combination of 3 cards in the system.  Any time I try to at the fourth card, the cards no longer output any display and according to the debug LED the computer is booting into Windows Emergency Boot.  When I have three cards in the system, and I try and add a sound card the same thing happens.

I talked to their support and obviously the representative had no idea about anything.  After being able to comprehend how on earth I was fitting 4 GPU's on the board, they said it was an issue regarding how much motherboard shadow memory the GPUs were occupying which I already knew.  They did not give me a solution. 

I am wondering if there is any way to get the graphics cards to use less memory on the motherboard.  I looked through the BIOS and there didn't seem to be anything but I could be wrong.  I am limited because of Gigabyte's 3D BIOS thing, there is no option to change north bridge/south bridge configurations.

Any help would be appreciated.



Also, I have plenty of power, and the cards are all fine.  The only issue is the memory being overloaded on the motherboard.
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