Thursday, June 21st 2012
NVIDIA Releases PCI-Express Gen 3.0 Enabling Patch for Sandy Bridge-E HEDT Platform
Although pre-launch drivers of the GeForce GTX 680 let the GPU run in PCI-Express Gen 3.0 mode on Intel's Sandy Bridge-E HEDT (X79) platforms, the release drivers limited the GPU to PCI-Express Gen 2.0 on the platform. The issue carried on with GeForce GTX 670, and other graphics cards with "Kepler" family of GPUs. NVIDIA cited reasons such as the platform not being PCI-Expres Gen 3.0 "certified" although it supports the 8 GT/s mode. The company assured users that it was working on getting its hardware to work on the Sandy Bridge-E HEDT platform in Gen 3.0 mode, and until it's absolutely certain about reliability, it is forcing PCI-Express Gen 2.0 mode.
NVIDIA released a patch that enables PCI-Express Gen 3.0 mode on Intel Sandy Bridge-E HEDT (X79) platforms, which lets graphics cards based on GeForce Kepler GPUs, such as GeForce GTX 680, GTX 670, etc., take advantage of 8 GT/s per lane system interface bandwidth. The mode could come particularly handy for graphics cards that are installed on electrical PCI-Express 3.0 x8 slots, as they could end up with bandwidth comparable to that of PCI-Express 2.0 x16. The patch should be installed along with the latest stable drivers. To enable the patch, run the executable and reboot the system. To undo the patch later, run the same executable with "-revert" argument in Command Prompt. Use only if stability is not absolutely paramount, or if the hardware is not operating in a mission-critical environment.
DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Kepler PCIe 3.0 mode-enabling patch for Sandy Bridge-E systems
Source:
NVIDIA
NVIDIA released a patch that enables PCI-Express Gen 3.0 mode on Intel Sandy Bridge-E HEDT (X79) platforms, which lets graphics cards based on GeForce Kepler GPUs, such as GeForce GTX 680, GTX 670, etc., take advantage of 8 GT/s per lane system interface bandwidth. The mode could come particularly handy for graphics cards that are installed on electrical PCI-Express 3.0 x8 slots, as they could end up with bandwidth comparable to that of PCI-Express 2.0 x16. The patch should be installed along with the latest stable drivers. To enable the patch, run the executable and reboot the system. To undo the patch later, run the same executable with "-revert" argument in Command Prompt. Use only if stability is not absolutely paramount, or if the hardware is not operating in a mission-critical environment.
DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Kepler PCIe 3.0 mode-enabling patch for Sandy Bridge-E systems
26 Comments on NVIDIA Releases PCI-Express Gen 3.0 Enabling Patch for Sandy Bridge-E HEDT Platform
Or just tweaking chip from fermi and indeed still use Pciex 2.0 technology?
The story goes that the loss of scaling when adding third/fourth cards is due to lack of bandwidth to the GPUs, and between them. But it was done on SB-E, which is not exactly "certified" for PCIe 3.0, so noone knows exactly what the story is here, and what is going on.
www.overclock.net/t/1220962/vegas-heavyweight-display-and-computer-edition-2012/370#post_16915399
So, I wonder if this still holds true, or if that was part of the hack to get PCIe 3.0 as it was driver disabled...
(I saw his post on XS).
Need someone with 4 cards and 3 monitors to do some testing, or someone to loan me 4 cards of GTX680, and 4 of HD7970!
:roll:
Why wouldnt stability be paramount in any machine?
See, the story is that not all Intel SB-e CPUs are actually capable of running the PCIe domain at PCIe 3.0 speeds. They are all capable of running the encoding method, just not the frequency.
Because of this, it is impossible for nVidia to guarantee that a user's CPU is capable. There is a good chance that it will be, but without Intel confirming PCIe 3.0 for all CPUs(and Intel does not, specifically stating that all amy not run proper speed), there is no way nVidia could provide this "fix" without that little disclaimer.
Now, if the above posted info aobut PCIe 3.0 and multi-GPU has any rel merit, it would really make some sense for nV to provide this patch ASAP, and this really seems to have been what they have done.
Both Nvidia and AMD AIBs just slap the PCI-Express (Basic) logo somewhere on the box (Side or Back). Just look at Wizzard reviews for packaging screenshots.
Motherboards are different. Each motherboard maker has their own take on the PCI-E logo. Usually its the official PCI Express (Grey Frame) logo with a gen # added to it on the side or bottom.
There is no mention of numeric PCI Express logo on the site nor on there guildline use of logos
Guidelines and usage says basic logo is acceptable for compliance with 1.0 spec and higher. So according to them thats there only PCI Express logo.
PCISIG Log and Guildelines
If a company chooses to add a number seperate from the logo thats just not part of the certification.
The consumer would have to look them up on the list for 3.0 certification not look for a logo on the box.