Current motherboards that can support 6+ GPUs?

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krem1234

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Message 1692075 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 7:58:39 UTC

Hi all, I've done some searching but everything I've found is several years out-of-date, I was looking for motherboard recommendations that can support at least 6 GPUs. I've found many that have 6 or 7 PCI slots, but all I've seen only appear to support 4 GPUs. Any advice appreciated, thanks.
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Message 1692093 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 8:48:21 UTC - in response to Message 1692075.  

http://www.supermicro.co.uk/products/nfo/gpu.cfm
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Message 1692155 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 13:06:18 UTC - in response to Message 1692075.  

Most high and mid range GPUs you will find are 2 slots wide. So with a standard ATX or even an EATX motherboard you will only have 7-8 slots. So you would need to use PCIe risers to use more than 4 GPUs.
Some water cooling GPU solutions I have seen reduce the GPU width to only 1 slot, but the GPU bracket will still be 2 slots wide.
Then you have the issue of power. Running 4 or more 250-300w GPUs takes a large specialized power supply, or multiple power supplies.

It's not impossible. You just have to be really dedicated.
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Message 1692270 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 17:04:43 UTC - in response to Message 1692093.  

http://www.supermicro.co.uk/products/system/4U/4028/SYS-4028GR-TR.cfm

I'm...

I'm...

I can live in my office if I sell my house, right?

~W
~W

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Message 1692272 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 22:37:09 UTC - in response to Message 1692270.  

i expect the supermicro to be pretty loud as it needs to blow a ton of air to keep that eight pack of gpus cool
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Message 1692273 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 22:41:59 UTC - in response to Message 1692270.  

http://www.supermicro.co.uk/products/system/4U/4028/SYS-4028GR-TR.cfm
I'm expecting a quotation on something not quite that big soon. Chap in the department had an Intel box for evaluation a couple of years ago -- it had a solid row of dual-width PCI-e slots across the back of the unit.
I'm...

I'm...

I can live in my office if I sell my house, right?

~W

I'm sure it's been done...
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Message 1692290 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 23:06:09 UTC
Last modified: 16 Jun 2015, 23:07:22 UTC

The "best" way to do it:

1) Get mobo with 3 pci-e slots.

2) Get cards with 2 gpu
- Radeon R9 295X2
- GeForce GTX Titan Z

3) Install 3 of these cards. Each card has 2 gpu. 3x2=6.
You now have 6 gpu.
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Message 1692291 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 23:08:01 UTC - in response to Message 1692290.  

The "best" way to do it:

1) Get mobo with 3 pci-e slots.

2) Get cards with 2 gpu
- Radeon R9 295X2
- GeForce GTX Titan Z

3) Install 3 of these cards. Each card has 2 gpu. 3x2=6.
You now have 6 gpu.

4) Buy stock in your local electric company.
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Message 1692298 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 23:21:17 UTC

Download the source code and do Your own compilation after the inevident clarification of Your mind.
To overcome Heisenbergs:
"You can't always get what you want / but if you try sometimes you just might find / you get what you need." -- Rolling Stones
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Message 1692300 - Posted: 16 Jun 2015, 23:28:18 UTC

most motherboards don't provide good spacing for three large cards

evga z97 classified is one that does

295x2 would use a lot of power

titan z costs more
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Message 1692336 - Posted: 17 Jun 2015, 0:28:27 UTC - in response to Message 1692155.  

Most high and mid range GPUs you will find are 2 slots wide. So with a standard ATX or even an EATX motherboard you will only have 7-8 slots. So you would need to use PCIe risers to use more than 4 GPUs.
Some water cooling GPU solutions I have seen reduce the GPU width to only 1 slot, but the GPU bracket will still be 2 slots wide.
Then you have the issue of power. Running 4 or more 250-300w GPUs takes a large specialized power supply, or multiple power supplies.

It's not impossible. You just have to be really dedicated.

Dedicated?

Could be Doc, could be.

I can tell you it's not cheap, I've got 2 working 590 cards, 1 that needs replacement of the inductors on the card($149.00 max for repairs I think, this includes shipping to the repair shop) and another 590 that is used and is on its way here, now to open one up I need to buy a $6.45 Torx T6 size screwdriver, I'm still looking for a T6 wrench of course, I've got 4 Koolance 590 v1.1 waterblocks, a Corsair 950w and a 650w Tt video card psu, an Add2Psu device that allows the 650w psu to boot up without plugging the 650w psu into the main 24 pin cable, an NZXT Switch 810 Matte Black full tower case, the motherboard is an Asus Rampage III Extreme w/an i7 940 cpu, an EK Red 1366 cpu water block and an EK motherboard waterblock, the blocks on the 1st 2 590 cards are installed(the 1st needs new heatsink compound still) and the blocks are installed on the motherboard w/hose connectors installed on the motherboard, so yeah I'm dedicated, that's 8 gpus in 4 slots, or at least it will be eventually. Ignore the round filter on the case, I'd forgotten to put that away when I took the shot. My new PC is the one on the left, which needs ram I think to make it work right.

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Message 1692502 - Posted: 17 Jun 2015, 6:30:36 UTC - in response to Message 1692075.  

Also I was planning to use GTX 980s (really good GFLOP/watt ratio, only use 165 watts total) with riser cards.
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Message 1692526 - Posted: 17 Jun 2015, 7:13:32 UTC

If you were going to use risers you could try an Asus x99-e ws
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Message 1695216 - Posted: 24 Jun 2015, 17:34:00 UTC - in response to Message 1692526.  

FYI I looked into this board, and even though they advertise it as supporting 7 PCI cards, customers have been stating that it will only support a max of 3 GPUs. Ex. from Newegg.com: "Contrary to the specifications, this board DOES NOT allow for 4 GPUs to be used simultaneously. The specs say "Quad-GPU" which ASUS claims does not mean you can use 4 graphics cards, but that you can use 2 dual graphics cards."

It looks like some server MBs would work well for this though of course they're more $.
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Message 1695222 - Posted: 24 Jun 2015, 17:55:08 UTC - in response to Message 1695216.  

If you are going to use risers, then you could use almost any board as long as they have slots.

Asus x99 e ws will support 4 cards. (as did the GA-990FXA-UD7 ?)

You might be able to shove a 4th half size on the last slot. (If you use risers. Then it will definitely support 4)

The last slot tends to be too close to the bottom of the board and interferes with the wires down there.

But if you REALLY WANT and determine to do it, there are ways, lol




Good luck with your build

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Message 1695249 - Posted: 24 Jun 2015, 19:45:55 UTC - in response to Message 1695216.  

if needed a setup for seven cards i would get the x99-e ws and i would ignore those reviews
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Message 1695263 - Posted: 24 Jun 2015, 20:32:45 UTC

If these motherboard don't have a connector on the motherboard(4 or 6 pin) to supply power to the pci-e slots directly from the psu, then you will most likely need to use an EVGA Power Boost card($14.99), they don't take up much room, but this card will use 1 pci-e slot, or you could damage your motherboards power regulators, which is the reason I'm replacing a motherboard, I tried using all 3 slots in My Asus P7P55D Pro motherboard, I ended up damaging the 24pin power connector on the psu and the power regulators on the motherboard(the motherboard 24pin connector was spared cause there was a cable in between the Asus and the psu to power the case I was using at the time), this little card is all that is keeping My current PC running now and then I have to use the 266.58 whql video driver for Win7 x64 to crunch with, plus everything that could be powered by the 850w Corsair psu, is connected to the psu directly. I was trying to power 3 GTX295 cards at the time.

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Message 1695273 - Posted: 24 Jun 2015, 21:05:39 UTC

Sorry to read about your misfortune Vic, its a salutary lesson for those who overload motherboards.

That EVGA card looks like a solution, as do the various "powered risers", which do much the same without using (another) slot.
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Message 1697391 - Posted: 1 Jul 2015, 17:32:55 UTC

Can anyone recommend a good quality pci-e riser card. I have checked on Amazon and most of them have negative comments. So not sure which ones to buy without the fear of wrecking the mobo and GPU.
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Message 1697437 - Posted: 1 Jul 2015, 19:46:56 UTC - in response to Message 1697391.  

What sort of GPU will you be using with the riser? Some cards will not work with certain risers, other will. So knowing what the GPU cards is first helps
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Message boards : Number crunching : Current motherboards that can support 6+ GPUs?


 
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