• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Graphics dilemmas on the Rampage IV Extreme

danno81

danno81

danno81

Associate
Joined
15 Jan 2013
Posts
12
Location
Hampshire
I've asked this question on the ROG forums, but I thought I'd post here too. Just to spread the chance of a reply in a hope that someone knows.

Hi Everyone,

My 1st post. I have a few graphics config questions if anyone knows any answer?

I have the Rampage IV Extreme that I received yesterday and I'm in the process of putting it all together. So far I've put the board, RAM, CPU and CPU air cooler into my case (See sig for build), but the cooler is huge (I had to remove the cooling fins from closest 4 of the 8 vengeance RAM sticks to allow it to fit). Even side on the cooler sits over the 1st PCI-E slot so I can’t put any graphics card into the 16x primary slot.

My main question is: Would the 580 GTX work as a single card in the second PCI-E 16x slot, instead of the primary slot as the manual suggests. If so, if I bi/tri SLI can it work in the bottom 3 slots (8/16/8). The manual didn’t say whether it was possible or not, what it did show just really seems to be a recommendation unless I’m mistaken. A good old Google search didn’t give me a clear answer from what I found.

My guess would be that 1) single card in the second PCI-E 16 slot is fine, 2) SLI without a card in the primary PCI-E slot is not fine.

If anyone has any knowledge on this and wouldn’t mind letting me in, I would be very happy 

Many thanks,

Dan.

Main Build:
Case: Antec 1200 V3
Mobo: Asus Rampage IV Extreme
CPU: I7 3930K (C2)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS 12X
GPU: GeForce 580 GTX
RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengence 1600 CL9 (8 x 4GB)
PSU: 1500w SilverStone Strider (ST1500)
Boot Drive: 2 x Samsung 830 256GB in RAID0 (512GB)
Optical Drive: LG 10x Blu-Ray BDRW
Primary Monitor: 27" 3D Acer HN274Hbmiiid
Other: Various HDDs of various sizes and various ages
 
Last edited:
Use slot 3 for a single graphics card so that it will run @x16. Slots 2 and 4 iirc will only ever run @x8.

I don't know about using slots 2,3 and 4 for 3 way sli it may work. All three slots will run @x8. As soon as you put a card in slot 4 it will reduce slot 3 to x8.
 
Thanks Kaapstad,

You're right about the slots. 2 and 4 only have the physical pins for x8 and slot 3 is fully pinned for x16.

I'll use the 3rd slot for now at x16, it's a shame it ramps down the third slot even if only 2, 3 and 4 are used. Could be an useful BIOS feature for the future, but it's probably an edge case scenario.

I wonder if slot 2 and 3 can work for 2 card SLI (x8/x16)? I guess future trial and error will show. I'm not putting in an SLI setup until at least 780 GTX arrives (or whatever the equivalent). I'll stick with the one 580 GTX for now as it still maxes out most games at 1080p.
 
I had the same problem on a build I did someone for the ROG with their cooler (I personally now have WC). So if your running a Single Card your fine. If you want SLI/Xfire either now or later your going to have to pretty much WC either custom or closed loop, because it is such a tight squeeze on most Decent Air coolers that it will block a PCI Card being put in slot 1.
 
kitkat9933 said:
I had the same problem on a build I did someone for the ROG with their cooler (I personally now have WC). So if your running a Single Card your fine. If you want SLI/Xfire either now or later your going to have to pretty much WC either custom or closed loop, because it is such a tight squeeze on most Decent Air coolers that it will block a PCI Card being put in slot 1.
Click to expand...

In the long run its a lot better going for watercooling - lower temps, looks better, access to the memory slots if you want to use tall sticks and access to slot 1 GPU.
 
Water cooling

I think then, when I upgrade my graphics cards I'll go the WC route. At the moment it's a bit too much of a project to do with my spare time, changing boards over is not too much but putting together all the WC pads and tubing, etc would be a much longer job.

For now I'll stick with the single card in slot 3, as the case is still open and I've not finished the build yet I've not had the chance to boot anyway so I'm not sure about current system stability anyway but some mem and CPU tests will show me if I need to tweak anything at stock speeds.

Anyway, thanks again for the help. A PC build is never finished!
 
I still dont understand why you have some decent gear then a 580? I assume you have 2 or 3 of them thats why no upgrade?

Did you look into the cooler before buying it? I think swapping the cooler is the cheapest option for you if you cant Sli, or stick a better card in slot 2 and go single card?
 
There's nothing wrong with the 580 even as a single card. It's a serious bit of kit and not something to feel held back by. It's running everything I throw at it without twitching. The next gen in the range is the 680 and there's no point upgrading to that. There's no point getting a 690 really either as I'd be better off putting another 580 in SLI. No real justification for me to upgrade it until at least the 700 generation if I want it for my gaming usage.

I think water cooling is my next move, I'll do it along with my future graphics upgrade. The job's too big for the spare time I currently have.
 
danno81 said:
There's nothing wrong with the 580 even as a single card. It's a serious bit of kit and not something to feel held back by. It's running everything I throw at it without twitching. The next gen in the range is the 680 and there's no point upgrading to that. There's no point getting a 690 really either as I'd be better off putting another 580 in SLI. No real justification for me to upgrade it until at least the 700 generation if I want it for my gaming usage.

I think water cooling is my next move, I'll do it along with my future graphics upgrade. The job's too big for the spare time I currently have.
Click to expand...

Ignore WeeHamish. That 580 is a very capable card and will see you well till the 9 series probably. If I had a 580 before going for the 680's, I would still be with them.
 
weehamish said:
or stick a better card in slot 2 and go single card?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately Slots 2 and 4 are configured to run in x 8 mode on a RIVE. Slots 1 and 3 are configured to run x 16, this is to give good spacing when running xfire/sli

gregster said:
Ignore WeeHamish. That 580 is a very capable card and will see you well till the 9 series probably. If I had a 580 before going for the 680's, I would still be with them.
Click to expand...

+1

Providing its running the games you like, theres no hurry to upgrade.

The only problem with using a Rampage IV Extreme is that it is a very serious overclocking motherboard and the urge to run ever more powerful hardware in it can be very tempting.:D
 
Why ignore me greg im doing nothing wrong? Please dude its every post :\

My bro has a 580 and they are good cards but with his kit youd expect him to have a better card, the vram limets of the 580 will really start to show this year so very much doubt it will take him to the 9 series mate.

BF4, ROME 2 ect pretty beasty games coming up.
 
With tweaks ofc which will use more VRAM :P

Maybe, would be nice if he did, but still i doubt even 680s and 7970s will be any good by the 9 series arrives, they will still run games but not at their best which means everyone around here will upgrade, i bet no one has a 7970 when the 9 series is out.
 
weehamish said:
Why ignore me greg im doing nothing wrong? Please dude its every post :\

My bro has a 580 and they are good cards but with his kit youd expect him to have a better card, the vram limets of the 580 will really start to show this year so very much doubt it will take him to the 9 series mate.

BF4, ROME 2 ect pretty beasty games coming up.
Click to expand...

I say ignore you because you are being very rude and talking nonsense. The OP has a 580 and it is still a great card.

The OP is happy with it and rightly so. We are not here to judge peoples systems.

What do you mean "Please dude, it's every post"?

BF4 will still be using the Frostbite 2 engine and I have no idea what Rome 2 will require (do you?). The 580 will cope nicely. How do you know the OP doesn't have the 3GB version when you say VRAM limited? Even the 1.5GB is fine with AA trimming.

Anyways, the OP wanted to know which slot to use and slots 1-3-5 are all good for X16. You said to use slot 2, which is very bad advice, as he will be dropping from x16 to x8. Are you seeing why I say ignore WeeHamish?
 
Hi all, this is my update I added to the thread in the ROG forum:

Small update (if you're interested), as I only had about 90 minutes last night to carry on I can't confirm long term stability yet, but...

BIOS recognised all 32GB, originally as 1333mhz as XMB was not enabled. I manually entered the memory frequency and timings and it accepted it all at boot without any issues. Left everything at stock frequencies for the moment. Card works fine in the other PCI-E x16 slot so it doesn't appear to require the primary, although this will be a problem once in SLI. Installed windows 8, board software/drivers and part way through installing my usual list of programs.

Next up: BIOS update to 3404 (currently at 3204), Memtest, benchmarking and general stability checking. Completing program installs. Then I'll start seeing how far I can push the RAM clocks and the CPU on air (the cooler is flipping huge so hopefully quite a way!).

So far it's looking good, but it's early days.

In the future then, would you recommend changing to some higher clock rated Dominators? I like Corsair as I've always had good experiences with their chips, but I'm not blindly devoted if there's a much better option.

I've taken the SSDs out of RAID0. No TRIM support apparently, so will be more efficient to leave it as a single 256GB drive rather than a raided 512. Oh well.
 
Just to let you down, my 580 is just the 1.5GB version (not optimal) but so far I've not had any issues. I'm playing Skyrim at the moment and there's no issues maxed out with the HD textures DLC. I guess the VRAM will impact in the future, so maybe 780 time I will up the card to a 'double' VRAM version and SLI it. That or whatever the 880 equivalent will be.

Who knows how fast the 780 will be anyway yet? This is amusing (in my head):

http://news.softpedia.com/news/NVID...er-GPU-Is-15-Better-than-GTX-680-299153.shtml

http://news.softpedia.com/news/2013...d-55-Better-than-GeForce-GTX-680-299878.shtml
 
danno81 said:
Hi all, this is my update I added to the thread in the ROG forum:

Small update (if you're interested), as I only had about 90 minutes last night to carry on I can't confirm long term stability yet, but...

BIOS recognised all 32GB, originally as 1333mhz as XMB was not enabled. I manually entered the memory frequency and timings and it accepted it all at boot without any issues. Left everything at stock frequencies for the moment. Card works fine in the other PCI-E x16 slot so it doesn't appear to require the primary, although this will be a problem once in SLI. Installed windows 8, board software/drivers and part way through installing my usual list of programs.

Next up: BIOS update to 3404 (currently at 3204), Memtest, benchmarking and general stability checking. Completing program installs. Then I'll start seeing how far I can push the RAM clocks and the CPU on air (the cooler is flipping huge so hopefully quite a way!).

So far it's looking good, but it's early days.

In the future then, would you recommend changing to some higher clock rated Dominators? I like Corsair as I've always had good experiences with their chips, but I'm not blindly devoted if there's a much better option.

I've taken the SSDs out of RAID0. No TRIM support apparently, so will be more efficient to leave it as a single 256GB drive rather than a raided 512. Oh well.
Click to expand...

I am glad you have your system up and running

You mentioned you like Corsair memory, this is what I use in both my X79 systems.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-353-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

You really need watercooling on the CPU to use the above, the heat sinks on the memory are huge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom