How to configure Asus maximus IV extreme using 4 video card

[Tom_Lee]

Hi All,
I am building a PC using Asus Maximus IV Extreme board. Here's the info.:

ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard.
PCI Express 2.0 x164 (x16 or dual x8 or x8, x16, x16).

Please advise me how I can configure it to use 4 video cards, no crossfired , no sli. I just want to use 4 video cards with 2-dvi on each cards, so the total 8 monitors.

Thank you for any comments..

 

[technomax]

Hi All,
I am building a PC using Asus Maximus IV Extreme board. Here's the info.:

ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard.
PCI Express 2.0 x164 (x16 or dual x8 or x8, x16, x16).

Please advise me how I can configure it to use 4 video cards, no crossfired , no sli. I just want to use 4 video cards with 2-dvi on each cards, so the total 8 monitors.

Thank you for any comments..

Hi there,

I discovered that, unlike some older ASUS boards with 4 x16 slots, the maximus refuses to "scale down" the number of lanes it will use per slot when all 4 slots (the x16 ones) are filled. In other words, because the board (chipset) doesn't have 64 PCIe lanes available (4 x 16), rather than give each card less lanes - which b.t.w. is specifically what PCIe was designed to do - it will just ignore an ENTIRE slot.

But, there is a workaround, and I have verified it works:
Plug 3 of the video cards into 3 of the x16 full length slots. Plug the 4th video card into the smaller, x4 slot (NOT the x1 slot!). Don't worry about the fact that the card edge connector of your video card will "hang off the back" of the slot, unconnected. It may look strange but PCIe allows for this; it's why the plastic on the card slot is left open in the back.

Don't count on that x4 slotted video card to provide much performance with respect to 3D rendering, but at least you'll have a usable 4th video card.

I have this working with one nvidia 9800GTX and 3 nvidia 8600 GTs....8 monitors, very acceptable performance.

hope this helps.