SLI in 2x PCIE 16x slots running 16x/4x

[killswitch73]

Need someone in the know and what they are talking about . I have an MSI GODLIKE GAMING BOARD AND 5960x (40lanes) and 2 x 980ti .. To get 16x/16x I had to put the cards in PCIE_1 & PCIE_4 .i originally had them in slot 1&3 which only gave me 8x/8x . So I drained the whole system which was a proper balls ache as its hardlined tubed running 2x quad rads .I also had to buy a EK triple water terminal and 3 way SLI bridge as the gap between the cards are 80mm (strange I know ) but I did it all re bled and BOOM I'm now running 16x/4x wtf is this ? Checked bios and board explorer and that also says PCIE 4 which is 16x capable is only running at 4x . So after all that trouble of running 8x/8x it's now worse at 16x/4x . What do I do now I thought ? Swap cards around to test if faulty so I did this as drained and Re bled (took all weekend by the way) and Nope PCIE 4 is still running at 4x PCIE . Anybody with the know how know what's going on .

I recently changed my chip (J batch) also and that is running fine but I changed my chip while the cards were running at 8x/8x and only decided to move my cards around a couple of weeks after to get better bench scores as I wanted to have 16x/16x on my cards now I had a very good chip on the 5960x @ 4.75ghz on 1.28v stable .

My bios is showing under board explorer that the cards are in the correct slot as MSI themselves confirmed that they should be in PCIE_1 and PCIE_4 .

I have even re drained and changed the cards around and still no joy so it's not the the cards . I'm next few days I will be draining again and I've orders some soft tuning and quick disconnects to test each card on its own in slot 4 .

I'm just thinking Should I reseat the CPU first before removing the cards again and will this reset the lanes I wonder ?

As it stands at 16x/4x I'm assuming even though I can see the cards working in sl they are not as I'm losing 8000 points in Firestrike alone as it looks like I'm just getting over single card speeds at 18000 points rather than my 26k score I have on Firestrike. .



Thanks in advance

 

[VincentHanna]

Latest BIOS?

Have you set the speed in the BIOS?

▶PEGx - PCI_Ex - Gen x [Auto]
Sets PCI Express protocol for matching different installed devices.
[Auto] Enables all PCIe Gen1, Gen2 and Gen3. supports.
[Gen1] Enables PCIe Gen1 support only.
[Gen2] Enables PCIe Gen2 support only.
[Gen3] Enables PCIe Gen3 support only

 

[JediFragger]

Tbf running at 8x/8x wouldn't bother me a great deal, their's like 1fps difference!!!

 

[VincentHanna]

I guess if it's for benching though?

I don't see the appeal unless you are breaking 8Pack style World records, but each to their own.

 

[killswitch73]

Latest BIOS?

Have you set the speed in the BIOS?

▶PEGx - PCI_Ex - Gen x [Auto]
Sets PCI Express protocol for matching different installed devices.
[Auto] Enables all PCIe Gen1, Gen2 and Gen3. supports.
[Gen1] Enables PCIe Gen1 support only.
[Gen2] Enables PCIe Gen2 support only.
[Gen3] Enables PCIe Gen3 support only

It's set on auto I've also had them on gen 3 . And I've the latest bios which is 1.20 .

I've also tried the original bios as I have dual bios and still the same .

 

[killswitch73]

I guess if it's for benching though?

I don't see the appeal unless you are breaking 8Pack style World records, but each to their own.

It is for benching but not to break records . I have spent a lot of money to find that it's not running like it Should .

 

[Confused Stu]

It might be worse than you think, as I'm pretty sure Nvidia only allow SLI on 8x or 16x connections, so one of your cards running at 4x might well have disabled SLI completely (very happy to be corrected on this if I'm wrong).

I would first of all try reseating the card and making sure the PCI-E connector is free of dust/fluff. PCI-E uses the first connection pins to run 1x, then the next batch of pins as 4x, then the next as 8x and the final as 16x. This means if there's any dust or a hair blocking one of the pins the card will be limited to just the pins before that obstruction, which could be what's limiting you to 4x. Otherwise, as others have suggested, make sure you're on the latest BIOS and check the BIOS options for anything forcing/allowing PCI-E slots to run at particular speeds.

EDIT - sorry, spent so long typing you'd already replied by the time I posted.

 

[killswitch73]

It might be worse than you think, as I'm pretty sure Nvidia only allow SLI on 8x or 16x connections, so one of your cards running at 4x might well have disabled SLI completely (very happy to be corrected on this if I'm wrong).

I would first of all try reseating the card and making sure the PCI-E connector is free of dust/fluff. PCI-E uses the first connection pins to run 1x, then the next batch of pins as 4x, then the next as 8x and the final as 16x. This means if there's any dust or a hair blocking one of the pins the card will be limited to just the pins before that obstruction, which could be what's limiting you to 4x. Otherwise, as others have suggested, make sure you're on the latest BIOS and check the BIOS options for anything forcing/allowing PCI-E slots to run at particular speeds.

EDIT - sorry, spent so long typing you'd already replied by the time I posted.

No worries buddy and I know about the nvidia 16x 8x as its explains my score and gaming on 3 screens now is a Nono as the frames have dropped more than 40% in some games but SLI is still active but isn't if that makes sense .

I too believe there is dust or debris in the slot I'm convinced there is as I had builders working on our attic and had to open up our ceiling to get rid of birds nests and of course they didn't move or ask about moving my pc
So instead they opened up the ceiling with particles of dust and chunks of plaster all over my pc , it's ended Working its way through my top rad and though the fans and then into my pc ,
I used canned air to get rid of the dust so I'm thinking there could be some in that 4th slot , as cards were on slot 1 and 3 at the time .

 

[tyler_jrb]

16x/4x is very odd indeed. My cards are currently at 16x/8x with a sound card and wifi card in the other slots.

I can just manage about 26.5k on firestrike, could maybe push to 27k if i push my cpu.

You should be getting more especially with a 5960x vs my 5930k.

Only thing to suggest is to re-seat the cards. It is a pain especially with a hard line wc loop.

 

[killswitch73]

16x/4x is very odd indeed. My cards are currently at 16x/8x with a sound card and wifi card in the other slots.

I can just manage about 26.5k on firestrike, could maybe push to 27k if i push my cpu.

You should be getting more especially with a 5960x vs my 5930k.

Only thing to suggest is to re-seat the cards. It is a pain especially with a hard line wc loop.

I've ordered some soft tube fittings Tyler and will use enough soft tube to test the card that's reading 4x in slot 1 and slot 4 as it will be the case of taking it out while still hooked up to the soft tube and swapping between slots that way I can eliminate the possibility of the card being at fault , as even though both cards where running fine at 8x/8x before I swapped them over I still could have damaged the connectors on the card when fitting the triple terminal .

I'm pretty sure it's debris though .

I would have settled with 16x/8x but knowing I can get full bandwidth and a bigger score on benches is the reason I didn't want to keep 8x/8x .

Even when I upgrade to a M.2 later in the year I will still get 16x/0x/4x/16x/0x or then adding another 980ti I will be looking at 16x/0x/4x/8x/8x in slot order as the M.2 takes control of PCIE_3 slot and won't be able to use a card in that a lot because of the M.2 card . This PC really has the perfect name lol

But it's just a balls ache because I'm hardline .