Asus ROG Zenith Extreme doesn't think it needs to be compatible with RTX 2080Ti's BUYERS BEWARE

[amelius]

Asus seems to think that supporting new hardware isn't important. 

 

After numerous others and I encountered an issue where two RTX 2080Ti's or RTX 2080's together fail to POST when both are enabled. 

 

Several forum threads have found the same issue, to no response other than "clear your CMOS" and "check your psu" from Asus which had no effect for anyone, in the last several weeks. 

 

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1074074/asus-zeneth-extreme-x399-rtx2080-sli-not-working/?offset=10

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?96162-Zenith-Extreme-bug-report-form

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?105105-Code-0E-Load-VGA-Bios

 

One of their support agents went as far as to say that it's not supported because it's not on https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socketTR4/ROG_ZENITH_EXTREME/RZE_Devices.pdf?_ga=2.162430392.527285745.1539026443-891392033.1492966352 saying: 

"There is no listed stability with two 2080ti cards"

"You can visit the support page to confirm when the BIOS is released."

"I regret that you spent that amount of money [name]. Please await our confirmation to ensure that this works. You could've contacted us before hand to check but I sincerely regret the experience."

 

Other users have had similar issues, where Asus support is entirely uninterested in helping with this issue, with no resolution whatsoever. It seems the ROG Zenith Extreme (and specifically that board) is incompatible with Turing or Volta multi-GPU configurations, with Asus uninterested in resolving this. People building HEDT systems or upgrading should be careful and avoid this platform, both due to the incompatibility and the horrible customer support. 

 

[Shimejii]

Never understood why people love using SLI/nvlink so much. spending 2x as much for 20-80% performance gains (Heavily dependent on the game devs at this point)so there is that.

 

2nd thing is that the cards came out and most boards should be fine that support regular SLI. There could be a bug with your card, the NVLink bridge, or your ports on the board. It just comes down to what exactly the issue is and they cant tell you what the exact issue is because they dont have the board. Each issue can be slightly different, one could be a PSU issue where the customer is using too low of a PSU wattage and it wont boot, another could be a faulty card, another could be a faulty slot, another could be faulty cabling.

 

ASUS itself has a shitty reputation for RMA and customer support Generally, as well as AURA sync almost never working properly for extended periods of time

[amelius]

3 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Never understood why people love using SLI/nvlink so much. spending 2x as much for 20-80% performance gains (Heavily dependent on the game devs at this point)so there is that.

 

2nd thing is that the cards came out and most boards should be fine that support regular SLI. There could be a bug with your card, the NVLink bridge, or your ports on the board. It just comes down to what exactly the issue is and they cant tell you what the exact issue is because they dont have the board. Each issue can be slightly different, one could be a PSU issue where the customer is using too low of a PSU wattage and it wont boot, another could be a faulty card, another could be a faulty slot, another could be faulty cabling.

 

ASUS itself has a shitty reputation for RMA and customer support Generally, as well as AURA sync almost never working properly for extended periods of time

Well, in this case, a fair number of users on different forums had the exact same, reproducible issue, and all of them had sufficient PSUs. This also occurs with Titan V's in combination with RTX cards. 

 

Also, several tests by techtubers have shown that SLI scaling with the new nvlink bridge is substantially better than old SLI bridges, resulting to 80% or higher scaling in quite a few things, which seems worth it. 

 

Additionally, I'm guessing that people who had this issue with RTX + Titan V configurations (like myself) are using these cards as budget machine learning cards, since they have tensor cores. That's a good reason to have a multi-gpu setup, however, in this case, even having the GPUs plugged in, with no bridge, results in the motherboard failing to post, with an error "OE Load VGA Bios". While each GPU separately works fine, when the others are disabled. 

[Shimejii]

1 minute ago, amelius said:

Well, in this case, a fair number of users on different forums had the exact same, reproducible issue, and all of them had sufficient PSUs. This also occurs with Titan V's in combination with RTX cards. 

 

Also, several tests by techtubers have shown that SLI scaling with the new nvlink bridge is substantially better than old SLI bridges, resulting to 80% or higher scaling in quite a few things, which seems worth it. 

 

Additionally, I'm guessing that people who had this issue with RTX + Titan V configurations (like myself) are using these cards as budget machine learning cards, since they have tensor cores. That's a good reason to have a multi-gpu setup, however, in this case, even having the GPUs plugged in, with no bridge, results in the motherboard failing to post, with an error "OE Load VGA Bios". While each GPU separately works fine, when the others are disabled. 

Again this HEAVILY depends on the games, some tech tubers test like 2-5 games, which can heavily skew results. Look at hardware unboxed testing of 30+ games. Its a wide range of benefit. It certainly SHOULD be better then sli, but my point still stands. your paying 2x, in this case $2400+ for 20-80% performance depending on someone elses ability to code and willingness to code. 

 

It very well could be a shitty board setup, Just from a Tech repair and service guy it can be a bit finicky with new hardware and drivers, what is wrong with each board etc. Wouldnt be the first time

[amelius]

3 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Again this HEAVILY depends on the games, some tech tubers test like 2-5 games, which can heavily skew results. Look at hardware unboxed testing of 30+ games. Its a wide range of benefit. It certainly SHOULD be better then sli, but my point still stands. your paying 2x, in this case $2400+ for 20-80% performance depending on someone elses ability to code and willingness to code. 

  

It very well could be a shitty board setup, Just from a Tech repair and service guy it can be a bit finicky with new hardware and drivers, what is wrong with each board etc. Wouldnt be the first time

Mostly, i'm concerned with Asus's seeming lack of interest in compatibility, and helping, just brushing it off and saying we should contact support to check if our parts are compatible with them. 

[Trik'Stari]

28 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Never understood why people love using SLI/nvlink so much. spending 2x as much for 20-80% performance gains (Heavily dependent on the game devs at this point)so there is that.

 

2nd thing is that the cards came out and most boards should be fine that support regular SLI. There could be a bug with your card, the NVLink bridge, or your ports on the board. It just comes down to what exactly the issue is and they cant tell you what the exact issue is because they dont have the board. Each issue can be slightly different, one could be a PSU issue where the customer is using too low of a PSU wattage and it wont boot, another could be a faulty card, another could be a faulty slot, another could be faulty cabling.

 

ASUS itself has a shitty reputation for RMA and customer support Generally, as well as AURA sync almost never working properly for extended periods of time

I know that I want an SLI build because it looks better aesthetically.

 

Seriously, my 1080ti look so lonely atop my Asrock Supercarrier Z270 board.

 

It's dumb I know, but SLI config's just look better aesthetically.

[Shimejii]

2 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

I know that I want an SLI build because it looks better aesthetically.

 

Seriously, my 1080ti look so lonely atop my Asrock Supercarrier Z270 board.

 

It's dumb I know, but SLI config's just look better aesthetically.

Thats just so wasteful for just aesthetics.... But do what you will  

[Trik'Stari]

4 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Thats just so wasteful for just aesthetics.... But do what you will  

Never said it wasn't.

 

It just looks badass.

[amelius]

Just now, Trik'Stari said:

Never said it wasn't.

 

It just looks badass.

Agreed, especially in a custom water cooling loop like I have it, with UV reactive fluid. 

[mynameisjuan]

1 hour ago, Shimejii said:

Never understood why people love using SLI/nvlink so much. spending 2x as much for 20-80% performance gains (Heavily dependent on the game devs at this point)so there is that.

Twice the cost for the experience of:

-screen tearing

-stuttering

-game not launching

-driver problems

-little performance gain

-one card tanking performance because the other is literally suffocating it. 

 

Good times, good times. 

[amelius]

8 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Twice the cost for the experience of:

-screen tearing

-stuttering

-game not launching

-driver problems

-little performance gain

 -one card tanking performance because the other is literally suffocating it. 

  

Good times, good times. 

I've never had screen tearing issues, nor stuttering, nor game not launching. I've had a few times where performance games weren't great, but supposedly the new nvlink sli bridge helps with that a lot and most games scale at least 50%, which is good enough for me. 

Is it cost effective? Only if you can't upgrade any further. given how my system's specs are

TR 2990WX, Titan V, 2x 2080Ti, i really don't have anywhere else to make performance gains. 

[mynameisjuan]

1 minute ago, amelius said:

s it cost effective? Only if you can't upgrade any further. given how my system's specs are

TR 2990WX, Titan V, 2x 2080Ti, i really don't have anywhere else to make performance gains. 

Most people cant afford to spend another $1200+ on a second GPU. 

 

I honestly can justify $2400 on just GPUs alone and then $500 on a CPU to get full performance along with mobo, RAM, possible water cooling, $2000 4k 120 GSYNC monitor.... I mean that is in $5000+ bare minimum range.

 

I dont think you know what cost effective means unless you are fine with blowing that much money. 

[Master Disaster]

Holy shit, what's baffling about this is Der8auer used the ROG Zenith Apex to beat Jay & GN in the 3D Mark HOF so it's obviously supported on other boards in the range, just not the most expensive one.

[mynameisjuan]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Holy shit, what's baffling about this is Der8auer used the ROG Zenith Apex to beat Jay & GN in the 3D Mark HOF so it's obviously supported on other boards in the range, just not the most expensive one.

"here is a special bios update that gives you the features needed to show our mobo is the fastest in benchmarks"

-Asus

[Tellos]

Were All cards ASUS cards? if not they also could be  setting up Demark for their own stuff. Most ocmpanies dont like dealing with other companies shit because they dont got perfect data on it and get in trouble if they screw it up. So easiest way to protect company? Say hey it aint my shit go to the guy who made it.

[markwrc]

22 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Holy shit, what's baffling about this is Der8auer used the ROG Zenith Apex to beat Jay & GN in the 3D Mark HOF so it's obviously supported on other boards in the range, just not the most expensive one.

No such thing as the Zenith Apex, der8auer used a Rampage VI Apex which is X299 based (Intel) completely different platform. You won't really find TR or Ryzen being used to break benching records cause it has issues being validated for the scores to be uploaded onto HWBot, plus TR sucks to be put on cold, sadly. 

Also Timespy Extreme has a core count limit of 24, so if you were using a 2990WX you'd be better off disabling 8 cores it also is AVX based so it favors Intel anyway 

[givingtnt]

Eh, likely a bios update will fix it when its ready. the cards are barely out it makes sense that not all hardware is ready and compatible from day 1.

"Doesn't think it needs to be compatible" is a ridiculous statement. It takes time to update product software to make sure that the compatibility is at its maximum and won't cause any other issues. And it seems as though you are underestimating that fact.

[amelius]

45 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Most people cant afford to spend another $1200+ on a second GPU. 

 

I honestly can justify $2400 on just GPUs alone and then $500 on a CPU to get full performance along with mobo, RAM, possible water cooling, $2000 4k 120 GSYNC monitor.... I mean that is in $5000+ bare minimum range.

 

I dont think you know what cost effective means unless you are fine with blowing that much money. 

I didn't say it's cost effective... i said that the only case in which it's cost effective is when there's no other option for improvement... It's got low marginal improvement per dollar, but if you run out of other upgrades to make, it's cost effective because there's no other options. But yes, agreed, it's not a common issue, and it's definitely not for everyone.

 

My rig:

ROG Zenith Extreme

Threadripper 2990WX

128gb Trident Z DDR4-2933

2x 2080Ti

1x Titan V

3x 960 Evo

All water cooled custom loop with CPU(monoblock) and all 3 GPUs in it, 3 radiators, and quick disconnects everywhere. 

Acer Predator 1440p 165hz IPS GSync

 

So yeah, in my case, moving from 2x 1080Ti's to 2x 2080Ti's was the only reasonably upgrade left. 

 

Now, if only my damn GPUs worked with my motherboard, instead of having some bizarre error, I'd be very happy. 

[Guest]

It's a little unfair to bring up the amount of threads made about it. It's across multiple sites and the amount of threads really doesn't make a difference. Turing GPUs just came out. Who is to say engineering staff working on Zenith boards has access to two Turing cards? You can't assume the GPU dept is in the same location. They have to confirm the issue and work on a BIOS. This takes time and they are likely working on a BIOS with more than 1 fix for more than 1 issue. This means they can't just push it out in days.... Give them a chance to work. I don't see anywhere in anyone's warranty that says BIOS patches guaranteed in less than a month.

[mr moose]

Am I the only one who has a problem with companies giving a product more than one branding?  Just wait a few years and you be looking at the ROG Zenith extreme apex pro warrior V2.0 elite edition. 

 

 

[ZacoAttaco]

2 hours ago, givingtnt said:

Eh, likely a bios update will fix it when its ready. the cards are barely out it makes sense that not all hardware is ready and compatible from day 1.

"Doesn't think it needs to be compatible" is a ridiculous statement. It takes time to update product software to make sure that the compatibility is at its maximum and won't cause any other issues. And it seems as though you are underestimating that fact.

4 hours ago, amelius said:

One of their support agents went as far as to say that it's not supported

Yeah I think it's just one support agent speaking out of line, it's clearly not supported right now but a company like Asus wouldn't just not support a configuration, especially when it's the latest hardware. Asus have generally been my go to for the motherboards, but I certainly haven't heard great things from their support team. 

[Derangel]

4 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

Twice the cost for the experience of:

-screen tearing

-stuttering

-game not launching

-driver problems

-little performance gain

-one card tanking performance because the other is literally suffocating it. 

 

Good times, good times. 

I'm not a big fan of SLI, but some of those are pretty false.

 

SLI does not introduce screen-tearing.

 

Full on stuttering is rare with SLI. Micro-stutter can happen, but nowhere near as much of a problem these days as it used to be.

 

Game not launching? I suppose it happens sometimes, but don't pretend it's common.

 

Driver problems? Nvidia's drivers these days are garbage no matter how many cards you're using. SLI doesn't seem to have more driver issues than single-card solutions.

 

Performance is heavily dependent on the game. There are some games with near perfect scaling, others with less so.

 

Where have you been the last several years? Unless they're complete idiots (*cough*MSI*cough*) mobo manufacturers design their gaming boards with proper spacing so that multiple cards don't cause the bottom card to suffocate the top. Might be more of an issue now with the stupidly big coolers on some of the RTX cards, but since a lot of them seem to be 2.5 or 2.75 slots instead of a full 3 it might not be as much of a concern.

[leadeater]

5 hours ago, Shimejii said:

Never understood why people love using SLI/nvlink so much. spending 2x as much for 20-80% performance gains (Heavily dependent on the game devs at this point)so there is that.

I went with crossfire because I have a large case and two looked nicer, with water blocks and hardline tubes. Sadly not joking, this was back when GPU prices weren't insane so now I'm kinda screwed lol.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, leadeater said:

I went with crossfire because I have a large case and two looked nicer, with water blocks and hardline tubes. Sadly not joking, this was back when GPU prices weren't insane so now I'm kinda screwed lol.

Yeah, that's why so many people are going vertical despite the temps now. Can't beat the aesthetic of full case.

[Shally]

5 hours ago, amelius said:

 

My rig:

 

That's a crazy ass rig, whats the Titan V for?