Vega fitment on Rampage IV Extreme

[AzzKickr]

This AMD support thread suggests that a Vega card would not physically fit the Rampage IV Extreme board due to the subzero sense connector being too tall. Is that true; can extreem lenght graphics cards not be used on a Rampage IV Extreme ?

https://community.amd.com/thread/225294

Reason is I have a Vega64 and want to upgrade but need to be sure of course that it would work/fit.

[Korth]

Reference Vega64 GPU card is apparently 11" (280mm) long x 5" (127mm) tall x 1 9/16" (40mm) thick
RIVE motherboard is EATX form factor, 12" (305mm) perpendicular-to-card x 10.7" (272mm) parallel-with-card

I don't have an RIVE but it looks like the maximum dual-slot GPU card length would be just barely over 10" (255mm) ... if the Subzero Sense block is tall enough to impede fit. If you already have any of these parts then you should be able to measure their fit more exactly (you can easily use a piece of cardboard to "mock up" an existing GPU card in the slot to 11" length).

[AzzKickr]

That is indeed the correct length for the Vega. Okay, so I'll have to stay clear of the RIVE !

[Korth]

Not sure why you'd want to buy a "new" RIVE anyhow ... it's X79, LGA1366 ... capable of running up to 64GB DDR3-1033 and i7-990X (6C/12T, 3.47GHz, 12MB L3) ... maybe capable of overclocking (with the best of the best parts) up to DDR4-2400 and up to ~4.4GHz... definitely a mighty beast circa 2011 and still a collectible enthusiast item ... but barely as fast and powerful as a mid-end modern system, not even comparable to a higher-end modern system.

More to the point, I wouldn't expect a motherboard or CPU more than twice as old as its warranty period to offer a whole lot more longevity, lol. Expect compatibility and stability issues when interfacing old tech with new tech, hardware and software, unless you're prepared to constantly tweak a lot of finicky quirks and settings.

[AzzKickr]

The answer is simple: the Vega is not fully pci-e 2 compliant and thus is incompatible with X58. That's the whole reason I'm looking to upgrade. I'm currently already on a heavily overclocked X58.

[Korth]

Ah, you want to re-use your existing CPU and DDR3, not have to buy new CPU and DDR4?

RIVE is probably your best option ... although it will build a "weak" platform which might hold peak Vega64 fps down ... but an RIVE "new in box" or "refurb" might cost as much as a modern motherboard while a cheaper "used" one will be a gamble. I wish you luck finding a good deal, but there comes a time when it doesn't pay to upgrade old tech to old tech and I'm of the opinion that RIVE (which is old enough that it might even need recapping) has passed that time.

[AzzKickr]

Obviously you're not very knowledgeable on RIII vs RIV 🙂
And clearly not on "old" hardware 🙂

1. You're mixing up Rampage 3 and 4 specs all over the place
2. My Firestrike score of 17600 tells me I'm doing just fine performance wise on my "too old" platform. So does the 4K gameplay I have up on YT 🙂
3. I only would consider upgrading because the Vega has compatibility issues on my current X58 platform under Windows 10.

[Korth]

lol, sorry, I did mix up specs, I personally skipped straight over R4E/X79, from R3E/X58 to R5E/X99 ... almost 5 years ago.

Why upgrade to R4E instead of R6E? R4E is, in the context of computers, definitely an "old" platform ... yes it's still impressive enough but it's been discontinued for years.

[AzzKickr]

Well price/performance ratio. That is also why I'm still on X58. I wad a bit naive though because you're right about the compatibility part; mixing old and new causes heaps of problems that need sorting. One of which is the non-win10 compatibility of my Vega and my motherboard. I'm stuck at 7/8.1 for now. But on the other hand; the whole platform cost me 150 over 2 years ago: second hand motherboard, cpu (hexa xeon) and 12gigs of ram. It cannot be beat in the cost over fps ratio. Was hoping to do it again, but then making sure I'm good again for Win10 (and thus dx12)

[Korth]

Will Win10 even work properly on stuff older than Skylake? I thought it wasn't supporting microcode or something.

(I dunno - lol, I've got some laptops with Win10 preinstalled but most of my machines are Win7 and/or linux.)