New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

[wsarahan]

HI guys how are you?

I have a doubt and need some help

i just bought a MB GA-Z87X-OC Force, it`s working nice

But when i enable my 2 way SLI in something weird happen

when i concet the cable, in my cade a DP one because i use 1440p here in the top card it shows that the monitor is connectd in the VGA number 2 and not the number 1, and when i connect the cable in the botton card it shows that is the VGA one, it is wrong right? Or normal in some cases?

Take a look, this example is when i have the cable and SLI enabled in the botton card



Should this config be correct in the top card instead the botton one?

Thanks

[Acebmxer]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

In bios which is set as primary pci-e? Should be pci-e1.

[wsarahan]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

In bios which is set as primary pci-e? Should be pci-e1.

Yes, it is set to PCI-E 1, the cards are connected in the slots 1 and 3 to make a 16/16 SLI strange, i think something might be wrong or not?

[wsarahan]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

Any more idea why it is happening? The cards are plugged in the first slot and slot 3 as the manual asks to to make 16/16, i just confirmed in the GPUZ that i`m using 16/16 here, but just in Nvidia control panel it says that if i connect the video cable in the card that is in the first slot i`m using the card 2 instead the card 1

Thanks

[profJim]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

From my SLI experience, the settings in the Nvidia control panel are correct.
PhysX is assigned to the second video card and your monitor cable is connected to the first (top) video card.
The PhysX Auto-select setting defaults to the 2nd video card with a setup like you have.

A web search using nvidia control panel guide provides links that provide more information.

[wsarahan]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

From my SLI experience, the settings in the Nvidia control panel are correct.
PhysX is assigned to the second video card and your monitor cable is connected to the first (top) video card.
The PhysX Auto-select setting defaults to the 2nd video card with a setup like you have.

A web search using nvidia control panel guide provides links that provide more information.

Thanks

But the image i`ve posted in the first post in when the cable is in the bottom card and not the top one, when i connect the cable at the bottom one is when the image at the first post looks like

[wsarahan]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

Guys just to be sure, take a look at the image, i`m using the slots that i make the blue arrow, is this correct?



Thanks

[profJim]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

From page 10 in the motherboard manual:
Expansion Slots 3 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1~3)

• For optimum performance, if only one expansion card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_2 slot.
• 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1~2)
  • The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 slot and the PCIEX8_2 slot with PCIEX16_3.
    The PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_3 slot will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2 is populated.
  
  (The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
  • The PCIEX16_2 slot will become unavailable when an expansion card is installed in the orange PCI Express x16 slot.

• 2xPCI Express x1 slots

(The PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)

You are using the pciex16_1 and pciex16_3 slots.
I'm surprised that GPU-z shows both cards configured with x16 bandwidth, even with the PEX8747 switch.

Page 8 in your shows that a PEX8747 switch is used with most pci-e x16/x8 slots.
I don't know if this has something to do with the Nvidia Control Panel SLI display diagram.

From page 28 in your motherboard user manual:

3) OC_PEG (PCIe Power Connector)
The power connector provide auxiliary power to the onboard PCI Express x16 slots. When two or more graphics cards are installed, we recommend that you connect the SATA power cable from the power supply to the OC_PEG connector to ensure system stability.

Have you connected a sata power cable to this connector?

[wsarahan]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

From page 10 in the motherboard manual:
Expansion Slots 3 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1~3)

• For optimum performance, if only one expansion card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_2 slot.
• 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1~2)
  • The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 slot and the PCIEX8_2 slot with PCIEX16_3.
    The PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_3 slot will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2 is populated.
  
  (The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
  • The PCIEX16_2 slot will become unavailable when an expansion card is installed in the orange PCI Express x16 slot.

• 2xPCI Express x1 slots

(The PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)

You are using the pciex16_1 and pciex16_3 slots.
I'm surprised that GPU-z shows both cards configured with x16 bandwidth, even with the PEX8747 switch.

Page 8 in your shows that a PEX8747 switch is used with most pci-e x16/x8 slots.
I don't know if this has something to do with the Nvidia Control Panel SLI display diagram.

From page 28 in your motherboard user manual:
Have you connected a sata power cable to this connector?

Yes i plugged the sata one :)

But the manual is controverse, look at page 19



The same manual says 2 things in different pages :)

[wsarahan]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

And for OC_PEG

I do not have more sata`s power from my psu, can i use the molex one? like this?

[profJim]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

The molex to sata adapter should be fine.
Using an adapter with 2 sata male connectors will also be OK.

[wsarahan]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

The molex to sata adapter should be fine.
Using an adapter with 2 sata male connectors will also be OK.

But this boatd only have 1 Pci_peg right? Just to know to not make a mistake here

Thanks

[profJim]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

Yes, there is only one motherboard pci-e sata connector for additional graphics card power.

I posted the picture of the dual sata/molex connector because it might benefit others, especially when they want to use it to power two sata drives that are close together. The more flexible wires will make power connections more convenient and there will be less chance of damaging the power connectors on the drives.

[Vinster]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

Imo you have it configured properly, I would had used the same 2 ports to keep everything at x16/x16.

for a test I would just make sure that your performance is greatly increased when SLI is enabled regardless what Port you are using for the DP. There are a number of GPU benchmark utilities that you can use. 3DMark11 is popular.

imo as long as you get a ~60%+ performance boost when SLI is enabled then it's working (SLI doesn't scale as nicely as CF, again imo). I have used multiple SLI configs in the past and never worried about what port it was plugged in to. just as long as it works when tested.

something else you could do to test is look at the GPU Usage in the sensors tab of GPU-Z, when you run an application that supports SLI (a Game for instance) you want to see that both GPU's are engaged and that both GPU's are being used. if one of the GPU's is idling at below 5%, then either the game isn't using SLI (it happens) or there is an external issue.

Vin

[Mykola]

Re: New Mobo GAZ87X-OC Force and SLI doubt

I was wondering what the issues would be having 2-way SLI in slots pcie16_1 & _3 and installing say a hdd controller (which only requires x8) in pcie8_2 would that cause the graphics card in slot 3 to only run at x8 also? Or would I still be able to run at full x16/x16 for the graphics cards