PCI Express x16 Flex riser for GPU

JosiahBradley

JosiahBradley

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 19, 2006
Messages
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Does anyone have experience using riser cards for higher end GPUs? I am planning on building another custom case and wanted to know if there is a downside to using an extended flexible riser card/cable.

My biggest concern would be that the increased length from the PCIe slot would create some sort of latency or interference issue. Also being an add on to the motherboard I can not be sure of the quality of the competent, so if anyone could recommend a seller that would also be helpful.

The reason that I wish to use an extended flexible riser is because it would allow me to place the GPU under the motherboard or mount it sideways with the backplane facing the motherboard.

Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful. If this is a bad idea, please tell me why and I will rethink my build.
 
Bump? Did I post this is the wrong section of the Forum, or is my idea just too crazy?
 
JosiahBradley said:
Bump? Did I post this is the wrong section of the Forum, or is my idea just too crazy?
Click to expand...

Wrong section probably as this idea has been done before.

I've moved this thread to the Video Cards Subforum. See if your luck is better here.
 
Danny Bui said:
Wrong section probably as this idea has been done before.

I've moved this thread to the Video Cards Subforum. See if your luck is better here.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help.

SILVR 6 said:
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/pelx16_c11 This is probably what you are looking for. I don't have any experience with them so i'm not sure how well they work.


*edit* apparently they are discontinued from that vendor, sorry.
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That is actually the place I was looking at for the part. I know they work well for servers that need to add an extra video card, perhaps for a second display or terminal, and are cramped up in a 1U enclosure, but my main concern is using one on a higher performance card, like a 6970 or equivalent.
 
I'd be a little leery on using a ribbon type cable on a high end card. To me it seems like it would be highly susceptible to interference, but I'm not well versed on the subject.
 
This place has them! They're usually used in Bitcoin mining, but I've never used them on a primary card so...
But, I've bought from him a few times in the past, never a problem!
 
tangoseal said:
Trying to mine whats going to fail sigh ...

Yeah I trolled.
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miners do not need 16x pci a 16x pci card is just as powerful fo mining on 1x interface if i remember.

As for the original poster, i would seem they might have issues for gaming, you are adding length to the pcix and causing signal loss, that's why they try to limit connect length on pcbs. I would like to see somebody benchmark a card on the slot then one with an extender, wonder if there would be a difference.
 
Pitbull said:
miners do not need 16x pci a 16x pci card is just as powerful fo mining on 1x interface if i remember.

As for the original poster, i would seem they might have issues for gaming, you are adding length to the pcix and causing signal loss, that's why they try to limit connect length on pcbs. I would like to see somebody benchmark a card on the slot then one with an extender, wonder if there would be a difference.
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Actually you are quite right. Mining is not bandwidth intensive. It is OPS/sec intensive. How many operations can those little GPUs crunch per/sec.

Here ya go OP....

There would be no latency issues. Electrons are moving along at the speed of light. The added distance of a few MM are incalculable in lag time for the electrons to travel from the mobo slot to the riser slot.

http://www.soarland.com/PCI-Express_1U_16X_Riser_Card-product-220.html
 
Pitbull said:
miners do not need 16x pci a 16x pci card is just as powerful fo mining on 1x interface if i remember.

As for the original poster, i would seem they might have issues for gaming, you are adding length to the pcix and causing signal loss, that's why they try to limit connect length on pcbs. I would like to see somebody benchmark a card on the slot then one with an extender, wonder if there would be a difference.
Click to expand...

Seeing as the prices aren't to drastically high and it dosen't catch my card on fire (Guess I should call up the manufacturer first to see if it's covered under warranty), I think I'll give it a try using my old GPU (X1900XT).

I'll run a couple of standard benchmarks like 3DMark06 / 01 with and without the cable and see what happens. Then I'll run furmark and see if it catches fire.

The only reason I even wanted to use one of these is so I could have a smaller custom case. I'm getting tired of the massive tower cases, but they do serve a good purpose.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Seeing as the prices aren't to drastically high and it dosen't catch my card on fire (Guess I should call up the manufacturer first to see if it's covered under warranty), I think I'll give it a try using my old GPU (X1900XT).

I'll run a couple of standard benchmarks like 3DMark06 / 01 with and without the cable and see what happens. Then I'll run furmark and see if it catches fire.

The only reason I even wanted to use one of these is so I could have a smaller custom case. I'm getting tired of the massive tower cases, but they do serve a good purpose.
Click to expand...

I found this thread searching the web for relevant info on this subject and decided to join. I know this thread is a little old, but did you buy a riser cable ribbon and if so, what were the results? I'm looking to install a full sized card (maybe a HD 6870 or something) into a a slim HTPC case. TIA.
 
ryanl2299 said:
I found this thread searching the web for relevant info on this subject and decided to join. I know this thread is a little old, but did you buy a riser cable ribbon and if so, what were the results? I'm looking to install a full sized card (maybe a HD 6870 or something) into a a slim HTPC case. TIA.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I had some issues at work pop-up and I have once again postponed my next build. Hopefully things will settle out in a few months and I can get around to test this. I haven't even turned on my PC in months...

I've been using my workstations at work to surf the web and I play Skyrim on my coworkers computer. I'll update this post when I actually get around to testing. Sorry to disappoint.
 
I understand, I'm the king of procrastination myself! Anyway, it looks like I'll beat you to it. I just ordered this off of Amazon. I think that it was something like $12.10 shipped and I'll have it in a week. Much better than going through eBay with the uncertainty of when you'll actually get it (much of that kind of stuff comes directly from China these days) or what you'll actually get. I hope that it works so I can get rid of my screaming low profile Palit GTS450 (it sounds like it has a dremel tool for a cooling fan) in that slim case. Unfortunately that is the most powerful card that I have right now so it will have to do for the test. If it bottlenecks with that then there's no way that a real graphics card will work. I'll keep you updated.
 
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lostinseganet said:
I remember some company was going to build something like that using light peak as the transmission medium. I do not know if they built it yet or the performance, but I do remember fans of their asking for it to be done, and they said they would do it. It was also talked about in this forum.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1529200&highlight=light+peak+gpu
http://www.mactrast.com/2011/08/vidock-may-be-the-ultimate-thunderbolt-dock-for-your-mac/

There is more out there. Hope this helps.
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Interesting stuff, but I don't really see any of it being practical or taking off. As others have mentioned in that thread; everything PC is getting faster, smaller, using less power (less heat) so I really don't seeing it going anywhere. I'm even going to venture and say that we wont even be using graphics cards 10 years from now. Some people knock AMD down by saying that they're not really keeping up with the times, but I think the opposite. Sure they don't have anything with high horsepower which compares to the i7, but their APU tech with onboard video is a step in the right direction. I believe that they currently are on par with GT430 which doesn't sound like a whole lot, but what if AMD/ATI took it to the next level by ditching the whole PCI interface and implemented a replaceable/upgradeable socket(s) on motherboards (similar to those of the CPU) and shared some motherboard resources such as RAM. It can have snap on coolers just like CPU ones and the 6 pin PCIe power cable could plug directly into the board just like the 8 pin CPU ones. The whole thing could very well be faster, run cooler, and use less power. One could only dream.
 
ryanl2299 said:
I understand, I'm the king of procrastination myself! Anyway, it looks like I'll beat you to it. I just ordered this off of Amazon. I think that it was something like $12.10 shipped and I'll have it in a week. Much better than going through eBay with the uncertainty of when you'll actually get it (much of that kind of stuff comes directly from China these days) or what you'll actually get. I hope that it works so I can get rid of my screaming low profile Palit GTS450 (it sounds like it has a dremel tool for a cooling fan) in that slim case. Unfortunately that is the most powerful card that I have right now so it will have to do for the test. If it bottlenecks with that then there's no way that a real graphics card will work. I'll keep you updated.
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Your Video card is PCI? not PCI-express? The link you posted was to a PCI riser not a PCI-e Resier. Anyway if it works out, please post back here, I'm still inching to take a break and build a tiny PC.
 
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JosiahBradley said:
Your Video card is PCI? not PCI-express? The link you posted was to a PCI riser not a PCI-e Resier. Anyway if it works out, please post back here, I'm still inching to take a break and build a tiny PC.
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Oops! Oh well. What the hell is the 32X represent? No one would ever need that sort of bandwidth for PCI.
 
if light can circle the earth 7 times in one second -- a few extra inches on your PCIx lane won't kill you.

Interference on the other hand? who knows how it would function in x16 mode.

I like the concept -- if I was doing some sort of exotic build this sort of thing would be perfect for "odd" GPU placement.
 
collegeboy69us said:
if light can circle the earth 7 times in one second -- a few extra inches on your PCIx lane won't kill you.

Interference on the other hand? who knows how it would function in x16 mode.

I like the concept -- if I was doing some sort of exotic build this sort of thing would be perfect for "odd" GPU placement.
Click to expand...

Interference I could probably deal with one way or another. What worries me the most is how much current a video card draws from the PCI bus (it doesn't get all of its power from the 6 pin connectors) and how much current can be carried over a thin ribbon cable. I believe that video cards can draw up to about 60 watts from the PCIe slot.

I went back and ordered the right one! That's what I get for ordering crap real late on night.
 
I got the right one in the mail and got it hooked up temporarily. Here's the rundown: I hooked up my GTS 450 to it and booted up. I got into windows fine, but as soon as I fired up Furmark the fan spun up and I got a black screen. Did a hard reset and it would post the BIOS screen, but would not make it all the way into windows again. I figured it was some sort of power related issue like I was suggesting. I was moving around the ribbon to make sure that it wasn't close to anything to even cause some sort of interference and then started thinking of why they had the ribbon split into 3 sections (probably signal, power, signal I imagine). I figured that maybe they had to be separated and/or shielded from each other a little better than just a split. I was thinking of getting some copper tape for a music store or something (they use it to insulate the inside of guitars where the pots and switches are), but remembered that I had some foil tape laying around (looks something like duct tape but is like aluminum foil and is used to insulate flue ducts and crap). I used that tape to insulate all three strips in the ribbon individually and gave it a whirl. I haven't had a chance to test it fully, but it seems fine now. I'm getting the exact same FPS with furmark as before so that's a good sign.
 
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Thanks for the data, I'll make sure to get a well insulated one and perhaps I will put some more money towards it.
 
I kept the video card like that and it was fine, for a while. And then the audio started cutting in and out and also got the error message "display driver has stopped responding". I tried moving the cable and card around some but that made things worse. It could be that it's not making good contact in the motherboard pci slot. It seems to have a decent lock on the video card side of the ribbon (nice touch), but nothing on the motherboard side (there's no way to lock it in place). I don't even know if that's the issue, just something to note. It could still be some sort of interference issue for all I know, but at least there doesn't seem to be any kind of bandwidth bottleneck with a ribbon extension (at least none that I can tell using a GTS450). I may look around for something a little better, or even try to get some of that copper shield tape that I mentioned before since that's what it's designed for. Maybe that foil tape I used isn't even conductive enough to serve as a decent shield or maybe I just have to ground it. There's myriad of possibilities of what could be happening. To be continued at a later date...
 
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