Graphics dilemmas on the Rampage IV Extreme

[danno81]

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.

[Zka17]

Welcome, danno81, on the ROG Forum!

Looking at your specs and question, I'm sorry, but have to say: NO...

First, I have to say that the Vengeance series of RAM have a long history of causing trouble on the RIVE board (X79 platform in general)... hope that you have a sigle kit and you didn't mixed two of them... - before you proceed with installation of the OS, it would be advisable to test your memories with Memtest86+...

Second, if you want the best out of your graphics card, you have to insert it as it's recommended by the manual... and that's the first PCIe slot...
I have never tried that CPU cooler, but you must find a way to fit the graphics card in the first slot...

[danno81]

Thanks for the info, shame I didn't pick up on this before buying.

It's 2 16GB kits. I've put each kit into the seperate channels (1 kit in red one in black). I checked before I bought the RAM and it was in the Asus memory compatibility list for this board. The exact model is CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9.

I'm going to go ahead and boot up, see how stable it is and then run some memory tests. I hope it's ok as I ripped the heat fins off 4 of the RAM modules to allow it to fit. No more returning the item for me! I'd just have to buy more and store them in a drawer for all time if they generally fail! Prehaps a BIOS update has fixed compatibility issues, but I guess it's all down to my exact chip.

It looks like the card will work in either PCI-E x16 slot as long as it's not SLId without any problems.

[Baalberith_NL]

Hi,

As for the mem, i use almost similar modules, exept its the 1866 variant. Altho i read lots of posts regarding
unstable systems, i cant find myself into it. Im using with full joy 2 16GB sets as shown in my sig without any
problems on a overclocked system at 4.4GHz.

I dont use the XMP settings tho, just set it in BIOS at 1866 with default voltages.

As an option u could have a look at a closed waterloop maybe?

[Zka17]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your memories to work...

Regarding the VGA, as you can see on page 2-16 of your board's manual, a single card is suggested to be used in the first PCIe slot... the second PCIe 16X slot is actually the fourth PCIe slot on RIVE (the others are only 8X) - so, you could try...

[RonanC]

the card will still work,

I have had my 680 in the third slot for testing and it worked no problem..

[danno81]

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.

EDIT: Oh yes, one more thing. 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.

[danno81]

Pics of my rig as of last night (I hate cables and can never get them right!):

[idwelltvbag]

yeah,It looks like the card will work in either PCI-E x16 slot as long as it's not SLId without any problems.thanks

[danno81]

ok. I ran Memtest86 and it went mental and filled with artifacts. I assume it's not yet compatible with x79? So now I'm running memtest86+ and at 56% without issue so far. It seems to take a while so i'll run it again overnight to get a few cycles in.

Do you think I should just swap them out for these:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/32gb-%284x8gb%29-corsair-ddr3-dominator-platinum-pc3-19200-%282400%29...
?

I may just do it and add the closed loop watercooler. I cant return the vengeance as I ripped off the heat sinks though! 😞