Is this bad for a GPU?...

Dawelio

Active member
Hey guys,

So a short background, I rebuilt my PC yesterday and right up when I was done with it and all that was left was the GPU to be installed.

Only to find out that the RAM modules locking thingy is too close to the PCI-E 16x slot and since my 980 Strix has a backplate, that locky thingy interferences with the GPU, making it sagg a little...

Here are a few pictures I tried getting in order to show you guys and ask you, is this bad or can it be run like this?... ie, what are the long term side effects etc by this?...

IMG_9816_zpsb0czf4gu.jpg


IMG_9818_zpszogxh0vn.jpg


IMG_9820_zps73tk0hdm.jpg


IMG_9823_zpsoahco5qm.jpg

I'm a bit worried that this isn't good at all for the graphics card, hence asking you guys now... so any inputs are appreciate regarding this matter, thank you!

Regards,
Chrazey
 
Probably won't be too bad for the GPU, but it may damage the PCI-E slot. You could consider asking if a company like ColdZero could make you a backplate with a small cutout for the RAM locking mechanism.
 
Take the back plate off for now or mark the back plate up and cut it out, unless your worried about warranty then I'd go with MaddenShadows idea, the sag isnt bad really it would bother me personally and I would be a tad concerned about splitting the PCIe slot.
 
Are you sure the memory tabs are touching it?

Yes, as when I was installing the GPU, I couldn't install it "straight", cause of the locking module being in the way... I got kinda surprised to be honest.

Why?, what were you thinking about?...
 
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this is a bit of an oversight on either Asus or MSI's part... that backplate doesn't seem to be TOO high off the pcb, in which case i'd blame msi.

If you're going to assign your 16x slot to the top one, give it some freakin' room!!!!

+1 to this, although i have a m8 who recently built his first rig and put his GFX card in the 1x slot lol

Um how? most x1 slots are capped as such that you can't fit anything bigger in them?
 
this is a bit of an oversight on either Asus or MSI's part... that backplate doesn't seem to be TOO high off the pcb, in which case i'd blame msi.

If you're going to assign your 16x slot to the top one, give it some freakin' room!!!!



Um how? most x1 slots are capped as such that you can't fit anything bigger in them?

Yeah you would think but the 1x part of most gpu's is separated so it will fit, ran OK for the most part was about 60% down on performance
 
Yeah you would think but the 1x part of most gpu's is separated so it will fit, ran OK for the most part was about 60% down on performance
no they arent...

-=edit=-
originally this was all just text, but i decided to go steal some pictures from google to get the point across.
Hope that this puts an end to the madness/confusion.

the 1st part of all gpu's is seperate but the main bulk is one long piece. and that part is never seperated.
you get 1x cards with that part cut down.. so they will only run in 1x speed regardless of what speed slot they are inserted in, and they will fit in to a 1x slot..
His-Intros-New-HTPC-Graphics-Card-the-HIS-5450-Silence-1GB-2.jpg


but the only way to fit a pcie x 16 card in a 1x slot is to have a open ended pci-e 1x slot.

a 1x slot is varey rarely open. "if ever"
pcie-slots.jpg



I have had a media center pc or 2 in the past that only had a 1x slot. and yes you can cut the back end open so a card will fit and it will work. and some boards could come with a open ended pci-e 1x slot (but usually do not and its more likely for a 4x slot to be open ended)
to make it fit you would get a dremmel and cut the end open, or my prefered method is to heat up a stanley knife/box cutter and then simply slice through it.
2dv03rb.jpg



basically if the 1x pcie connector on the card was seperated then there would not be enough contacts on the card for it to be 16x when inserted in a 16 times slot. so what you are saying is impossible..

The speed a card can run at is in a multiple. this can be easily changed by preventing the contacts from making contact with the pcie slot.
pci-e_adj.png
pci-e_adj.png

pci-e_adj.png


so like i said if the card had the 1x portion seperated from the rest of the board "we have to assume this would need to be something like a 4mm gap" then you would lose 2-3 contacts which are essential for the card to be able to run at full speed. and possibly would render the card totally in operable.
 

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this is a bit of an oversight on either Asus or MSI's part... that backplate doesn't seem to be TOO high off the pcb, in which case i'd blame msi.

If you're going to assign your 16x slot to the top one, give it some freakin' room!!!!

Blame MSI for this... as I got an ASUS Gryphon Z97 Armor Edition and it works perfectly :)
So it was MSI's motherboard, Z97M-G43 which had RAM slots incompatibility with the graphics card.

Btw, have you recieved/read my PM that I sent a while back?...
 
Stuff like this is why my paranoid arse never strays from Asus boards. That's a thin back plate too, so I say MSI's fault.
 
Stuff like this is why my paranoid arse never strays from Asus boards. That's a thin back plate too, so I say MSI's fault.

^+1 on this my friend... I actually went for the MSI one due to it had some blue accents on it, which would've gone well with the black and blue theme of my PC, plus it was cheaper.

But glad I finally went with the ASUS Gryphone one though, never doubt ASUS as you said! :)
 
In the past small oversights like that may have been considered acceptable on a mid-range board where people would mostly use graphics cards without backplates. Now even MSI are sticking plates on 960's and such it's totally not cool.

Having said that EVGA did the same thing with their IO covers which is odd as they love selling people backplates after they have bought a hugely expensive graphics card.


Those MSI boards look good for the money it's a shame they derped like that. It won't hurt the card at all and you could mod it to clear but that's not really acceptable.

JR
 
If you were going to mod anything I'd say slice some plastic off the ram tabs!! will only need a few mm to sort it I'd say and it'l be much MUCH less traumatic than taking chunks out of the backplate ;)

Could probably do it with an exacto knife too :) less mess
 
In the past small oversights like that may have been considered acceptable on a mid-range board where people would mostly use graphics cards without backplates. Now even MSI are sticking plates on 960's and such it's totally not cool.

Having said that EVGA did the same thing with their IO covers which is odd as they love selling people backplates after they have bought a hugely expensive graphics card.


Those MSI boards look good for the money it's a shame they derped like that. It won't hurt the card at all and you could mod it to clear but that's not really acceptable.

JR

TBH i don't even mind that EVGA are selling after market back plates cause at least you can get them for the EVGA GTX970 in the world of MSI people don't want back plates but we will put it on our GTX960 a low end card IMO very stupid move done bye MSI
 
+1 SuB's mod, I would fiddle with the memory slots first too.

TBH i don't even mind that EVGA are selling after market back plates cause at least you can get them for the EVGA GTX970 in the world of MSI people don't want back plates but we will put it on our GTX960 a low end card IMO very stupid move done bye MSI

The 970 was a price war thing and MSI did ok out of it, everything about the card looks cheap IMO, but that's nVidia's fault. There should have been a reference card to keep quality and pricing consistent. I prefer the old TwinFrozr, you can't blame MSI for listening and sticking them on the 960 but they should make them available for anyone like EVGA do.

I genuinely like MSI, I really should get round to owning some of their stuff. They do listen and they do a lot of things right.

JR
 
+1 SuB's mod, I would fiddle with the memory slots first too.



The 970 was a price war thing and MSI did ok out of it, everything about the card looks cheap IMO, but that's nVidia's fault. There should have been a reference card to keep quality and pricing consistent. I prefer the old TwinFrozr, you can't blame MSI for listening and sticking them on the 960 but they should make them available for anyone like EVGA do.

I genuinely like MSI, I really should get round to owning some of their stuff. They do listen and they do a lot of things right.

JR

Fair enough, IMO MSI should be selling after market back plates
 
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