Need Help with AB350 Pro4 and multi-GPUs

[Paintbb84]

I'm hoping you guys can shed some light on my issue. I've been putting together my first mining rig. Bought an ASRock AB350 Pro4, A6-9500, 8 gig of ram (finally found a compatible stick). Tried to put windows 7 on it (big old mess) and aborted. Got hive os loaded and going but this is where it gets weird. When I boot hive, the board posts and I have video through GPU1 (no other gpu's plugged in) but once hive loads, I lose all video on the monitor. I tried multiple GPUs and yes they're in the closest x16 slot to the CPU with no change in results. Thankfully hive has remote options which allow me to use it. Now here's where it all goes south. I add a second GPU and I lose ALL graphics. Board still posts and boots but no video at all. This is annoying but I can deal with it. I bought a riser kit and slowly start adding GPUs to the x1 slots. Got 3 GPUs working (no messing with OC settings). But when I add the 4th GPU (using a riser) suddenly hive doesn't recognize any of them. I've tried switching the risers out and no progress.

Also noticed that if I try to use a riser in the x16 slot, it won't recognize the video card. If I need to return this board to newegg, I should probably do it sooner rather than later. This has been a hell of a build. Any insight to my issues would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Paintbb84]

Paging VirtualLarry

 

[VirtualLarry]

Uhh, thanks, I think.

Anyways, it's not 100% clear to me what the issue is - is "Hive OS" a Linux distro? Or a mining-specific OS? I can't say that I've heard of it.

Also, the B350 chipset has limited PCI-E fan-out.

I think if you use the x4 slot, you can't use the x1 slots. Or maybe just if you have a PCI-E M.2 SSD in one of the sockets, then you can't use the x4 slot?

Btw, I have the micro-ATX model, the AB350M Pro4, but they are quite similar.

Also, I think that the video outputs on a Bristol Ridge APU piggy-back on the same signals needed by the PCI-E lanes on a Ryzen CPU. That's why Ryzen supports x16 for GPU, but Bristol Ridge only supports x8. That might be your problem too, just a general lack of PCI-E lanes on Bristol Ridge.

Another thing, are you using powered risers? Each riser should have a DEDICATED power cable for the 75W "slot power", over and above the PCI-E auxiliary power cables, which you need too.

 

[Paintbb84]

The risers are powered and each one is powered by a sata connector on the PSU. No splitters.

 

[VirtualLarry]

TBH, I wouldn't have chosen an AM4 platform for a dedicated mining rig, I would have gone for an Intel Socket 1150 (Haswell), they make H81 ATX boards that have like 5, 7, one even has 13 PCI-E slots.

I think that you're running out of PCI-E lanes, and should try dropping in a Ryzen CPU, they have more PCI-E lanes coming off of them, compared to Bristol Ridge APUs.

 

[Paintbb84]

ya, learning the hard way. wonder if new egg will let me return the board and everything.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Before buying any of the boards for AM4, always read the manual first about the pcie- lane distribution to check if your wishlist is compatible with the expansion capabilites of any board by any manufacturer.
If you use an M2 ssd to the PCIe-3.0 connection directly to the processor, some pcie slots might not be usable.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AB350 Pro4/#Manual

AMD 7th A-Series APUs
• 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (single at x8 (PCIE2); dual at x8
(PCIE2) / x2 (PCIE4))*
* Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
* If M2_1 is occupied, PCIE4 will be disabled.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm, I posted somewhere else that my AB350M Pro4, DID allow for two GPUs (one in the PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot, one in the PCI-E 2.0 x4 slot), AND a PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD.

Well, here's what I don't get - they boot / POST fine, both GPUs are detected by the drivers and Device Manager, both GPUs showed up as Crossfire-enabled, when I installed the newest drivers, and the OS is booting / running off of a PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD this whole time. So I thought everything was good.

But now NiceHash can't seem to fire up any miner program on the second GPU, and until I rebooted, it said N/A for GPU type. I really wonder, if it's some sort of PCI-E contention (but how would it boot?), or if there is a driver issue, or a NiceHash issue, or what? I'm really confused. (Or whether the second card is just plain defective?)

Edit: Seems the issue resolved itself? Now both GPUs are finally mining alongside each other. Wonder why the temporary glitch-out?

 

[Ratman6161]

Don't know what the issue is when only using one graphics card in the PCIEX16 slot closest to the CPU. But the manual specifically says that if you use the x4 slot designed for NVME drives, the second full length slot is disabled. I have verified this is true from personal experience as I have this board and a 960 EVO drive.

I've had great luck with this board for my particular uses. But its a poor choice if you need lots of PCIE connectivity...as are all B350 based motherboards.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Don't know what the issue is when only using one graphics card in the PCIEX16 slot closest to the CPU. But the manual specifically says that if you use the x4 slot designed for NVME drives, the second full length slot is disabled. I have verified this is true from personal experience as I have this board and a 960 EVO drive.

I've had great luck with this board for my particular uses. But its a poor choice if you need lots of PCIE connectivity...as are all B350 based motherboards.

Really? Ok, now I *am* confused.

What I'm doing, shouldn't work, but it does.

I've got two R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E x16 GPUs, plugged into both slots. I've also got a Plextor PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD installed into the top "Ultra M.2" socket.

If one shuts off the other, then how does it handle POST properly, and how are both cards initializing their drivers?

I did have issues, with the second GPU dropping off once, and not being recognized right away.

I wonder if the UEFI figured out a way to bifuricate the PCI-E lanes, to allow them both to work? Supposedly, you only need PCI-E x1 for mining.

 

[Ratman6161]

Really? Ok, now I *am* confused.

What I'm doing, shouldn't work, but it does.

I've got two R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E x16 GPUs, plugged into both slots. I've also got a Plextor PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD installed into the top "Ultra M.2" socket.

If one shuts off the other, then how does it handle POST properly, and how are both cards initializing their drivers?

I did have issues, with the second GPU dropping off once, and not being recognized right away.

I wonder if the UEFI figured out a way to bifuricate the PCI-E lanes, to allow them both to work? Supposedly, you only need PCI-E x1 for mining.

On page 31 of the manual it says (emphasis mine):

2.7 M.2_SSD (NGFF) Module Installation Guide (M2_1)
The M.2, also known as the Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), is a small size and
versatile card edge connector that aims to replace mPCIe and mSATA. The Ultra M.2
Socket (M2_1) supports type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32
Gb/s) (with Ryzen CPU) or Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s) (with A-Series APU).
* If M2_1 is occupied, PCIE4 will be disabled.

Before I got my 960 NVMe drive I was using SATA drives and the Ultra slot was unused. I had an old graphics card in the second slot just to power a thrid monitor (main graphics card I was using at t the time would only handle 2). Just to see if the manual was right, I left that card in there when I plugged in the NVMe drive and sure enough it quit working. The system behaved as if the second graphics card wasn't even there, which is consistent with the slot being disabled. This is on an AB350 Pro 4 by the way.

 

[LTC8K6]

AB350M Pro 4 doesn't have the limitation, apparently. I just looked through the manual.

It doesn't have a PCIE 4 either.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Uhh, thanks, I think.

You have to figure out how to get paid for this stuff.

 

[VirtualLarry]

AB350M Pro 4 doesn't have the limitation, apparently. I just looked through the manual.

It doesn't have a PCIE 4 either.

Thanks for clearing that up! Thought maybe I was going a little bit crazy for a second.

 

[Ratman6161]

AB350M Pro 4 doesn't have the limitation, apparently. I just looked through the manual.

It doesn't have a PCIE 4 either.

original post was ask8ng about the AB350 pro 4, not the M. But since the M doesn't even have the slot, obviously it can't be disabled

 

[VirtualLarry]

I thought that PCIE 4 referred to the second x16 slot, that was electrically x4, which the M does have.

 

[LTC8K6]

I thought that PCIE 4 referred to the second x16 slot, that was electrically x4, which the M does have.

I believe it is the slot number, and not the slot speed, to ID their position on the board. You have PCIE1, PCIE2, and PCIE3 on the M model.

PCIe slots:
PCIE1 (PCIe 2.0 x1 slot) is used for PCI Express x1 lane width cards.
PCIE2 (PCIe 3.0 x16 slot) is used for PCI Express x16 lane width graphics cards.*
PCIE3 (PCIe 2.0 x16 slot) is used for PCI Express x4 (AB350M Pro4) / x2 (A320M
Pro4) lane width graphics cards.
* PCIE2 will downgrade to x8 mode when A-Series APU is installed.

 

[babu2001]

All my rigs are using AB350 Pro 4 except for one H110 with 13 slots. I'm able to install 7 cards on each boards. BUT...it's a real PITA. I have to try and try and try. About 6-8 hours to get it right per rig. It doesn't have sense the way it's behaving. I can install 3 working cards, add a new one that will make the motherboard to fail to reboot. I remove it and it still refuses to reboot even with a BIOS reset. I have to do this from the start. Again... Until I got it for 5 then 6 and 7. The trick I've found is to put a 4X splitter in the second 16X slot, leaving the last 2 unused. 7 is the max I was able to install but it's about what I need. Overclocking over 8 cards is way to hard. So 8 or less is perfect and I don't want to put an extra PSU. 1000W for 7 cards (GTX 1070) is the limit. I've chose this board because I wanted to mine too Monero with the CPU. Something the 1600X is doing quite well. BTW, I've found AMD cards easier to install than nVidia. Was able to install them very fast but...driver for the blockchain gave me a lot of "Driver stuck in thread". So, yes it isn't the best board to do mining but for the price, it's good. And once it's setup, it works very well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Thanks for the feedback, babu2001, and welcome to the AnandTech Forums!

 

[Kulas29]

Hi, just bought this motherboard and kinda having the same problem. I have 4 gtx 1060 but it wont let me use all 4. 2 gpu on the board and 2 using pcie risers,currently using 1gpu. Running windows 10 64.And cant seem to find the chipset config/ gpu settings in the bios.any advice
Sorry not a techy and new to this. Thanks