P67A-UD7 PCIe x16 crossfire 6970 airflow issue and my fix to the problem

[TimmyT]

Hi All,

I previously had the GA-890FXA-UD7 with both 6970's in crossfire on 2 PCIe x16 slots. The spacing on the board was great for airflow to the first card.

Now that i've jumped ship from AMD to Intel to the P67A-UD7 I thought I'd have similar spacing, but no. The 2 PCIe x 16 slots are closer together and the cards when installed are side by side. The first card can't breath! I ended up moving the second card to the first x8 slot. Everything worked just fine in the move and my Benchmark score in PerformanceTest 64 on 3D graphics was exactly the same. I haven't noticed any performance changes at all!

Just a heads up for those who want to let their cards breath a bit better, suggest you benchmark in SLI and Crossfire using both 16's and also using 1 x 16 and 1 x 8 to see if it helps with cooling.

Cheers,

Tim

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and thanks for your insight. However it is no surprise as graphics cards can't normally use more than x8 bandwidth anyway so there is no requirement to have them on x16 bus only.

[TimmyT]

Agreed

It's unfortunate that the manual suggests using both x16 slots for SLI and Crossfire, considering the size of todays graphics cards. They got the GA-890FXA-UD7 spacing correct for AMD. I was surprised they didn't take this into consideration on the P67A.

[Dark Mantis]

The thing is they did, but wanted to make it possible for people to have the opportunity to use more than two cards if they wished. If you have three cards or more then you have this problem anyway and there is no way around it.

[WarYur]

The thing is they did, but wanted to make it possible for people to have the opportunity to use more than two cards if they wished. If you have three cards or more then you have this problem anyway and there is no way around it.

Well luckily for me since I still have 2 of those hot old GTX 480's and they are both going to be overclocked as far as I can take them, that I have koolance water blocks for both so it won't be such an issue with space for me. 

[Dark Mantis]

Yes I watercool my system and it is surprising how much less room the waterblocks take up than the aircoolers. They make for quite a slim setup for each card and quieter too! 

[WarYur]

Yes I watercool my system and it is surprising how much less room the waterblocks take up than the aircoolers. They make for quite a slim setup for each card and quieter too! 

True but then there are the fans over my radiator that aren't so quiet.  And I am thinking about making that a push/pull system as well so I probably need to find some quiet yet powerful fans.  I am currently using a Koolance Exos I believe 2.0 external 3 fan radiator/pump/reservoir system which I am now wishing I hadn't bought so many years ago but it's working so far although one of the reason I took my now older system apart was to do something about having those two cards and the CPU all on one line.  I had (have) an Intel QX9650 that I had somewhat overclocked along with the two GTX 480's that were already running hot out of the box and then had them both overclocked and began to have some system shut downs due to the motherboard I believe getting too hot so I was tearing it all down to install one of the Corsair H-70's to the CPU and run the graphics cards all by themselves when I said the heck with it and ordered the Gigabyte board and of course an Intel 2600k.  Since RAM is so dirt cheap right now I did overkill and got 4 x 4GB sticks of that new Vengeance RAM to go along with it.  I remember when I bought the RAM in 2008 for the last system that I am talking about only 2 x 2GB kits of dual channel DDR3 was over $600US.  I still can't believe I paid that much now.  Anyway this system ought to rock once it is done.  AND, the GTX 480's are why I want to do the push/pull with the Koolance system as well.  I am just going to throw three fans at the top of the Corsair 800D I already had and put the Koolance Exos on top of that and call it good I think.  For now anyway.  I think I have learned enough now about water cooling that I need to buy each part separately from now on though and then make it all internal as well.  Have any ideas for the fans?  Good ones are pretty expensive now though.  I believe they should all be 120mm.  Sorry I "talk" too much.... 

[Dark Mantis]

For the fans the best on the market in my opinion is the Scythe Gentle Typhoons. They are almost silent but still shift a good amount of air. They are not cheap but when you have to sit and listen to half a dozen fans screaming round I think it would be worth those extra few dollars! Failing them I have just use some new ones (to me) the Xigmatek XLF fans (mine were 140mm) but they were very quiet for the amount of air shifted. You can see my review of them here:

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,4917.0.html

I used some of the Vengeance RAM and must admit to being impressed with it.

[RatsAss]

I agree on the spacing between the x16 lanes. They couyld have been wider.

My last board was a 790 FXT and there was plenty of space between them.

My cards are in the x16 lanes. Not much daylight between them.

The top card is 10 degrees warmer than the bottom card. 40c v 30 c.

I'm not too worried about temps just yet.

If there is no noticable difference in speed,maybe i will move the bottom card to the x 8 lane and see what happens.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes a good idea if you can. I think we would all like to see more space between the PCIE slots and more room between the memory slots and the CPU socket etc but we would end up with a board twice the size. Personally...I don't think that would be a bad thing but I don't think it would suit everyone.

[TimmyT]

The GA-890FXA-UD7 was an extended ATX board. When I bought it I didn't realise it wouldn't fit my nicely sized mid tower. Had to go to a full tower as a result, so you're right about increasing the size to get good spacing.

that being said, the board can accept 4 graphics cards.

Everthing seems to rob Peter to pay Paul. Just the way iit is.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes there is always a playoff between the different benefits and losses involved. They just make the best choice they can I suppose.