Two double-width video cards on GA-890FXA-UD5

[Smitty]

I'm considering installing a 2nd HD 5770 or just getting two HD 6850/70 for this MB.  My question is whether they'll fit. Well, I know they'll physically fit--what I mean is, will they work OK.  My current card is double-width and installed on the upper PCIe x16 slot.  A 2nd card will barely squeeze onto the lower PCIe x16 slot, but will also cover the fan on the upper card.  All of the hd 6850/70 cards I've seen are also double-width and all have fans on the front, so the fan on the upper card would be blocked by the lower card.  Anybody else with this board running two double-width video cards successfully?  Any problems with the upper card overheating?  I could use the x8 or x4 slots for the 2nd card--that'd eliminate the blocked fan issue.  But that'd also defeat the purpose of having a MB with 2 PCIe x16 slots.  I suppose a really radical idea would be to remove the cards' covers and fans, and install an alternate cooling method--like water cooling.  But I'm not crazy enough, skilled enough, or rich enough, to try that.

[Christoph]

I have to video cards with this same motherboard

and yes the upper card will overheat a little bit, basically depends on the air flow of the case...

I have my upper card with the fan in auto, and the card overheats just 2-3 degrees with the fan running with 200-250 rpm more than when I have no lower card blocking the fan air intake

but of course is winter over here where I live, so the values should increase at least in 5 degrees more or so


but even then, I see no problem at all working with the 2 video cards together,


or you can use the second card in the 8x pci and be done with the problems

[Dark Mantis]

As Christoph has already told you it isn't an insurmountable problem but if you use the two x16 slots the top card will get a bit hotter than the bottom one. It is possible to remove the outer casing on the card as it is just like a shroud but bear in mind that anything like that you do will technically void the warranty.

[Smitty]

Thanks for the replies Christoph and DM.  My case does have OK airflow.  I guess I could increase airflow inside the case even further by adding a fan to the side which would blow air directly down onto both video cards.  But it'd greatly reduce the aesthetics of my case as I'd have to cut the plexiglass to mount it.  Christoph, I know installing the 2nd video card in a an x8 or x4 slot would improve the airflow, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having two x16 slots if I can't crossfire them together?  This is where my ignorance really shows--I didn't know you could monitor the fan speed on your video card, much less control it.

[absic]

?  This is where my ignorance really shows--I didn't know you could monitor the fan speed on your video card, much less control it.

If you are running ATI Cards then you can manually adjust the fan speeds via the Overdrive section of the Catalyst Control Panel. There is a red key symbol that you have to click first and then you get a warning dialogue about overclocking. Click OK and then it opens up the controls so you can adjust the Fan speed and also tweak the GPU Clock settings.

[Smitty]

Thanks absic, but severe problems with getting Catalyst to install properly and the nightmare it caused was the reason I had to reinstall my OS last week.  If I was confident that I could get the latest version to install without any issues, I'd do it.  I'll probably take another stab at it in the future, but that'll be another thread.

[Dark Mantis]

They have just released a new updated version of CCC. I haven't tried it yet but it is supposed to be much better and more user friendly.

[absic]

I understand as the previous 2 updates from ATI have been pretty poor.

However I am now running the 10.11 version and it is back to what I would expect from ATI. The drivers installed painlessly and have been working fine since I updated.

[Smitty]

I just successfully installed Catalyst 10.12 Preview (Beta?).  I'm not sure what caused my issues with the previous version, but this version installed OK.  Yeah!  I had already installed AMD OverDrive separately last week to monitor temperatures.  The version that came with CCC2 is very different from the standalone version I already had.  Anyway, I adjusted the fan speed (using the CCC2 version of OverDrive) on my single video card to 100 percent.  WOW!  Is it loud!  It had been running at 50 percent--no wonder my machine was so quiet.  Thanks absic.   

[absic]

No worries and pleased to help.

There have been problems with recent ATI Drivers, which is why I had updated recently so understand your concerns. PLeased you have not got the GPU's under your control!