Triple PCIE devices + M.2 on Asus B450-F

[Mr Technician]

I have an Asus B450-F in a computer I use for streaming. I currently have a GTX 1660 Super, an M.2 ssd, and two Intensity Pro 4k capture cards installed. I added a third capture card today, this time a x1 Intensity Pro, but it was not detected by the drivers or in the device manager. I have tested the Intensity Pro card on its own and confirmed that it is working. Am I using too many Pcie devices? Counting the SSD, I'm using a total of five.

[emosun]

Does your machine require 3 capture cards running at once?

this is typically where people just use two computers

[Mr Technician]

The computer is dedicated to streaming with a camera on each capture card, and I'm hoping to add a third input from a different PC, hence the third card.

[Moonzy]

Spoiler

 

depending on where you plugged them in, they may share the pcie lanes on the chipset, which is pcie 3.0 x4 to the CPU

your capture card have x4 lane each, but they may not necessarily require that bandwidth

 

try plugging 1 capture card and 1 GPU into CPU PCIE (refer to manual which ones are from the CPU)

while plugging 2 other capture card into the chipset, you may run into bottleneck on both of these if they are operating at the same, or if there are sata drives transfering data at the same time.

i missed the part where your chipset only supports pcie 2.0 x1 beyond the first expansion... so you may have issues there bandwidth wise

 

your m.2 should have their own lane to the CPU, refer to your manual which slot to use to connect it to the CPU

 

an x570 board have higher bandwidth to the chipset, so you may want to consider those

 

4 minutes ago, ThatFlashCat said:

The computer is dedicated to streaming with a camera on each capture card, and I'm hoping to add a third input from a different PC, hence the third card.

also remember to quote or mention the person you're replying to so that they'll get a notification

 

@emosun

[Mr Technician]

2 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

  Hide contents

 

depending on where you plugged them in, they may share the pcie lanes on the chipset, which is pcie 3.0 x4 to the CPU

your capture card have x4 lane each, but they may not necessarily require that bandwidth

 

try plugging 1 capture card and 1 GPU into CPU PCIE (refer to manual which ones are from the CPU)

while plugging 2 other capture card into the chipset, you may run into bottleneck on both of these if they are operating at the same, or if there are sata drives transfering data at the same time.

 

your m.2 should have their own lane to the CPU, refer to your manual which slot to use to connect it to the CPU

 

an x570 board have higher bandwidth to the chipset, so you may want to consider those

 

also remember to quote or mention the person you're replying to so that they'll get a notification

 

@emosun

I looked at that chart and there weren't any immediate red flags. Currently all of my x16 slots are filled with the two x4 capture cards and the graphics card, so my only option is to swap the x1 capture card into the top slot. The other x1 slot is covered by the graphics card.

 

The *1 says this, though: *1 PCIe x16_3 slot shares bandwidth with PCIe x1_2 and PCIe x1_3.

[Moonzy]

Just now, ThatFlashCat said:

I looked at that chart and there weren't any immediate red flags. Currently all of my x16 slots are filled with the two x4 capture cards and the graphics card, so my only option is to swap the x1 capture card into the top slot. The other x1 slot is covered by the graphics card.

 

The *1 says this, though: *1 PCIe x16_3 slot shares bandwidth with PCIe x1_2 and PCIe x1_3.

i edited my post

 

i missed the part where your chipset only supports pcie 2.0 x1 beyond the first expansion... so you may have issues there bandwidth wise, because your capture card is pcie 3.0 x4

[Mr Technician]

4 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

i edited my post

 

i missed the part where your chipset only supports pcie 2.0 x1 beyond the first expansion... so you may have issues there bandwidth wise, because your capture card is pcie 3.0 x4

yeah, the two pro 4k cards currently are working fine (tested in obs), although I would note that the 3.0 x4 requirement exists because the cards are capable of 4k input. I have been using 1080p59.94 at most, so I doubt I need a full 3.0 at 4 lanes. My hope is that I could fit another 1080p30 input from the Intensity Pro and not run into bandwidth limits. Bandwidth aside, it's odd that the last card doesn't even show up.

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, ThatFlashCat said:

yeah, the two pro 4k cards currently are working fine (tested in obs), although I would note that the 3.0 x4 requirement exists because the cards are capable of 4k input. I have been using 1080p59.94 at most, so I doubt I need a full 3.0 at 4 lanes. My hope is that I could fit another 1080p30 input from the Intensity Pro and not run into bandwidth limits.

did you try it at pcie 2.0 x1 speed?

it's real slow

[Mr Technician]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

did you try it at pcie 2.0 x1 speed?

it's real slow

Which card are you referring to? The pro 4k in the bottom slot is working fine at whatever it's running at, and I tested the standard intensity pro in a different system that only has pcie 2.0 slots, and it worked fine at x1.

[Moonzy]

Just now, ThatFlashCat said:

I tested the standard intensity pro in a different system that only has pcie 2.0 slots, and it worked fine at x1.

then it should be fine, as long as the card physically fits in the slot (not all slot have the rear cut out)

[Mr Technician]

5 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

then it should be fine, as long as the card physically fits in the slot (not all slot have the rear cut out)

The intensity pro is x1 physicially, the pro 4k is x4 actually

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, ThatFlashCat said:

The intensity pro is x1 physicially, the pro 4k is x4 actually

oh so it's a different card

 

you can test the pro 4k in the pcie 2.0 x1 slot, see if it does 1080p30 fine as you wanted

[Mr Technician]

4 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

oh so it's a different card

 

you can test the pro 4k in the pcie 2.0 x1 slot, see if it does 1080p30 fine as you wanted

The pro 4k is a x4, so that one is stuck in the x16 slot

[Moonzy]

Just now, ThatFlashCat said:

The pro 4k is a x4, so that one is stuck in the x16 slot

oh geez im confused now _{my bad}

so it's 1 gpu, 1 m.2, 2x pro 4k and 1x intensity pro?

 

as long as they physically fit, and you tested the intensity pro at pcie 2.0 1x, then it should be fine

[-rascal-]

The B450-F board layout, and chipset could a limitation.

 

The bottom PCI-E 2.0 X16 (X16 physical size, X4 electrically) shares bandwidth with the second and third PCI-E X1 slots.

How it works for this board

1) Bottom PCI-E X16 slot is in x4 mode, 2nd and 3rd PCI-E X1 slots are disabled

2) Bottom PCI-E X16 slot is in x2 mode, 2nd and 3rd PCI-E X1 slots are both enabled

 

Top PCI-E X1 slot should be independent, and unaffected when other PCI-E slots are occupied.

 

As for the PCI-E X16 3.0 slots, they are tied to the 2nd M.2 slot on the board.

If you use the 1st M.2 slot, it should not affect the PCI-E X16 3.0 slots.

 

What slots you should be using, optimally

• Top PCI-E X16 3.0 slot (PCIEX16_1) for Graphics Card -- running at PCI-E 3.0 X8 mode (because second slot is occupied)
• First 4K PCI-E 4x card in the second PCI-E X16 3.0 slot (PCIEX16_2) -- PCI-E 3.0  running at X8
• Second 4K PCI-E 4x card in the third PCI-E X16 2.0 slot (PCIEX16_3) -- running at PCI-E 2.0 X4
• Third PCI-E 1x card in the top PCI-E X1 slot (PCIEX1_1) -- running at PCI-E 2.0 X1
• M.2 SSD in top-most socket (M.2_1)

[Mr Technician]

20 hours ago, Moonzy said:

oh geez im confused now _{my bad}

so it's 1 gpu, 1 m.2, 2x pro 4k and 1x intensity pro?

 

as long as they physically fit, and you tested the intensity pro at pcie 2.0 1x, then it should be fine

Sorry, my bad, I thought I explained in the original post.

 

20 hours ago, -rascal- said:

The B450-F board layout, and chipset could a limitation.

 

The bottom PCI-E 2.0 X16 (X16 physical size, X4 electrically) shares bandwidth with the second and third PCI-E X1 slots.

How it works for this board

1) Bottom PCI-E X16 slot is in x4 mode, 2nd and 3rd PCI-E X1 slots are disabled

2) Bottom PCI-E X16 slot is in x2 mode, 2nd and 3rd PCI-E X1 slots are both enabled

Ok, that explains it. I will test later this evening. Thanks, moving to a different slot fixed the issue! All three cards worked!