Litecoin Mining with 2 7970s, not crossfire?

Master_Pain

Master_Pain

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I am curious, could I use two 7970s in my rig to mine without them being in crossfire? The reason that I ask, is that they overheat when they are slots 1/2 and in crossfire, but could I put them in slots 1/3 and mine without having crossfire on? I would imagine that would work, but I'm not sure.
 
I've not tried mining with crossfire enabled. I have read that you can have more issues if you try to mine while it is enabled.
 
Crossfire doesn't matter. You can put the card in any PCIe slot that will fit and it wouldn't effect mining as far as I know.
 
Oh, one more question, is it easy to turn off the mining on the primary card to game on while still mining on the second card?
 
The main thing you're losing when using those slots (1st + 3rd) for CF is that you're essentially running x8 and x4, whereas the top 2 slots will be x8/x8. At least, this is how nearly every 7 series Asus motherboard is, including the Z77 deluxe... You may want to look at the manual for your board, it has specific slots for maximum speed in SLI or CF. For most 7 series boards, you have to use the upper two slots for x8/x8, If you deviate from that, you'll lose PCI E speeds on one of them.

Now some say that x4 speeds are fine, but i'd personally want x8/x8. Definitely double check your mobo manual for more information on this...
 
xoleras said:
The main thing you're losing when using those slots (1st + 3rd) for CF is that you're essentially running x8 and x4, whereas the top 2 slots will be x8/x8. At least, this is how nearly every 7 series Asus motherboard is, including the Z77 deluxe... You may want to look at the manual for your board, it has specific slots for maximum speed in SLI or CF. For most 7 series boards, you have to use the upper two slots for x8/x8, If you deviate from that, you'll lose PCI E speeds on one of them.

Now some say that x4 speeds are fine, but i'd personally want x8/x8. Definitely double check your mobo manual for more information on this...
Click to expand...

I have an X79 Sabertooth. Don't think it is that way with it, but I would have to double check.
 
Master_Pain said:
I have an X79 Sabertooth. Don't think it is that way with it, but I would have to double check.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see. You should be good to go on the X79 sabertooth, the 77 and 87 series boards are more strict in terms of which slots to use (due to having fewer PCIE lanes)
 
MicroATX is best for mining, you can get microATX boards with two pci-e 3.0 x16 slots
 
xoleras said:
Now some say that x4 speeds are fine, but i'd personally want x8/x8. Definitely double check your mobo manual for more information on this...
Click to expand...

PCI-E 1x slots are fine too. I use 1x to 16x riser cables and they've been stable for 7 months. There's no effect on hashrates using a gpu in a slot that's <8x

Spazturtle said:
MicroATX is best for mining, you can get microATX boards with two pci-e 3.0 x16 slots
Click to expand...

I disagree. You want as many video cards per motherboard as possible. It's best to run at least 3-4. Some do 5-6.
 
Spazturtle said:
MicroATX is best for mining, you can get microATX boards with two pci-e 3.0 x16 slots
Click to expand...

No, microATX are terrible because there is no space between the cards resulting in overheating issues. If you use a riser it will negate that "benefit"(none) anyways.
 
J Macker said:
PCI-E 1x slots are fine too. I use 1x to 16x riser cables and they've been stable for 7 months. There's no effect on hashrates using a gpu in a slot that's <8x



I disagree. You want as many video cards per motherboard as possible. It's best to run at least 3-4. Some do 5-6.
Click to expand...

how do people run 3-4 or 5 cards on one mobo? Im assuming this isnt with cards with dual slot coolers?
 
etegv said:
how do people run 3-4 or 5 cards on one mobo? Im assuming this isnt with cards with dual slot coolers?
Click to expand...

Water-cooling is one method.

PCI-e risers are another.

I have seen one guy just put single slot passive heatsinks on his cards and use the -40C winter temps to cool them.
 
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