Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-09-08, 20:49:

Anyone know why a GTX 770 would simply not work in an X79 motherboard in Windows 10? […]
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Anyone know why a GTX 770 would simply not work in an X79 motherboard in Windows 10?

I have two different EVGA 770s and I have tried different driver packages (475.14 is the latest), tried DVI and DisplayPort...

With the default Windows 10 drivers from 2020 I was just getting a black screen during startup (not no signal, an actual black screen). Switching to 475.14 (the latest with 770 support) it will crash during the driver install with a garbled screen, and when I reboot the system it will hang with a garbled screen or slowly load a sad face blue screen, where it then hangs indefinitely.

Very odd issue though since it happens with two different cards. I am not familiar with the X79 platform and I haven't used a Kepler based card in Windows 10 in years, so I don't know if there are some hoops I have to jump through to make these work together happily. Any ideas?

BTW, I know this is probably not retro to a lot of people, but none of this 12+ year old hardware is supported by Windows or the manufacturers anymore. If I ask anywhere but VOGONS I'm going to get harassed... 😀

EDIT: Hmm... seems to work if I switch the PCI-E slots to Gen2 in the BIOS? Man... that'd put a damper on my plan to run SLI on this thing...

I am running a 4930K so it should work. Also, a Quadro K2200 (Maxwell based... basically a 4GB GTX 750) works fine without touching PCI-E gen settings.

Googling it I'm not coming up with any reason why an X79 system with a 4930K would not work with a GTX 770 in a Gen3 slot. The motherboard BIOS is fully up to date as well. The board is an ASUS P9X79-E WS.

On a similar note, I'm still trying to understand why I had this issue with a pair of GeForce FX 5500s.

Two FX 5500s but only one works in my 440EX

X79/GTX770/Win10 : should work.
Although I don't have an X79 machine, the GTX770 was fine in X99.
Currently it runs in AM4.

DarthSun wrote on Yesterday, 22:23:

X79/GTX770/Win10 : should work.
Although I don't have an X79 machine, the GTX770 was fine in X99.
Currently it runs in AM4.

It's very odd that it works perfectly if I force PCI-E Gen2 in the BIOS.

I thought maybe a CPU socket pin was damaged, but a Quadro K2200 works fine and it also uses PCI-E 3.0 x16, so I don't believe it's that. I already had the cooler off to repaste and it's a pain in the butt to remove and reinstall, so I will save a socket check as a last resort. 😮

Anyway... I searched on Google and the AI slop answer said this:

The Intel X79 platform is known to have compatibility issues with PCIe 3.0 (Gen3), making it unstable in this mode while often s […]
Show full quote

The Intel X79 platform is known to have compatibility issues with PCIe 3.0 (Gen3), making it unstable in this mode while often stable in PCIe 2.0 (Gen2) mode
. This problem stemmed from the early and non-native nature of PCIe 3.0 support on these motherboards.
Reasons for X79 instability with PCIe 3.0

Non-native Gen3 support: The original Intel X79 chipset only natively supported PCIe 2.0. To enable PCIe 3.0, motherboard manufacturers had to implement workarounds using different clock generators or signal re-drivers. This "hack" was inconsistent across motherboard brands and CPUs, and was never officially certified by Intel.
Variable signal timing: NVIDIA noted in 2021 that on X79 platforms running at Gen3 speeds, they observed "significant variation in signal timing across different motherboards and CPUs". This variation could cause instability, especially with early PCIe 3.0 graphics cards like the GTX 600 series.
CPU and motherboard "hit or miss": Whether a system could achieve stable PCIe 3.0 performance was often a gamble, even with compatible Ivy Bridge-E CPUs, as stability depended on a combination of the specific CPU and motherboard.
Overclocking issues: Users who overclocked the Base Clock (BCLK) on X79 systems found that doing so also overclocked the PCIe bus, further increasing instability and forcing them to revert to Gen2.

How to resolve the instability
If you are running an X79 system, you can enforce PCIe 2.0 speeds for stability.

Check your BIOS: The most reliable method is to enter your motherboard's BIOS settings. Look for the PCIe configuration options under "Advanced," "Peripherals," or "OC Tweaker."
Manually set the PCIe speed: In the BIOS, find the setting for "PCIe Link Speed" or a similar option and manually set it to "Gen2," "PCIe 2.0," or "5 GT/s".
Use a software patch (not recommended): Early on, some users attempted to force PCIe 3.0 using software tools and registry hacks, particularly for NVIDIA cards. This method was notoriously unreliable and could create more problems.

Note: For most single-GPU configurations, the performance difference between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 is negligible and not noticeable in real-world use. Sticking with PCIe 2.0 on an X79 platform is a practical solution that ensures maximum stability.

I have no idea if any of that is true or not. I feel like using an Ivy Bridge CPU in such a high end board with the latest BIOS should be fine, but according to this, early Gen3 cards may have issues with early Gen3 boards. That might explain why the Maxwell-based K2200 works...

Though this system came with a 770. Maybe the newer BIOS version I put on it broke that compatibility...

Bleh... anyway. I have no idea what I'm even going to do with this monstrosity, so I should probably just put a note on it about GTX 770 compatibility and not worry about it for now.

If I came across three or four 980 Ti cards it'd be funny to turn this system into a space heater that trades blows with modern mid-range systems (as long as 6GB of VRAM is enough).

Ozzuneoj wrote on Today, 00:07:

It's very odd that it works perfectly if I force PCI-E Gen2 in the BIOS. […]
Show full quote

DarthSun wrote on Yesterday, 22:23:

X79/GTX770/Win10 : should work.
Although I don't have an X79 machine, the GTX770 was fine in X99.
Currently it runs in AM4.

It's very odd that it works perfectly if I force PCI-E Gen2 in the BIOS.

I thought maybe a CPU socket pin was damaged, but a Quadro K2200 works fine and it also uses PCI-E 3.0 x16, so I don't believe it's that. I already had the cooler off to repaste and it's a pain in the butt to remove and reinstall, so I will save a socket check as a last resort. 😮

Anyway... I searched on Google and the AI slop answer said this:

The Intel X79 platform is known to have compatibility issues with PCIe 3.0 (Gen3), making it unstable in this mode while often s […]
Show full quote

The Intel X79 platform is known to have compatibility issues with PCIe 3.0 (Gen3), making it unstable in this mode while often stable in PCIe 2.0 (Gen2) mode
. This problem stemmed from the early and non-native nature of PCIe 3.0 support on these motherboards.
Reasons for X79 instability with PCIe 3.0

Non-native Gen3 support: The original Intel X79 chipset only natively supported PCIe 2.0. To enable PCIe 3.0, motherboard manufacturers had to implement workarounds using different clock generators or signal re-drivers. This "hack" was inconsistent across motherboard brands and CPUs, and was never officially certified by Intel.
Variable signal timing: NVIDIA noted in 2021 that on X79 platforms running at Gen3 speeds, they observed "significant variation in signal timing across different motherboards and CPUs". This variation could cause instability, especially with early PCIe 3.0 graphics cards like the GTX 600 series.
CPU and motherboard "hit or miss": Whether a system could achieve stable PCIe 3.0 performance was often a gamble, even with compatible Ivy Bridge-E CPUs, as stability depended on a combination of the specific CPU and motherboard.
Overclocking issues: Users who overclocked the Base Clock (BCLK) on X79 systems found that doing so also overclocked the PCIe bus, further increasing instability and forcing them to revert to Gen2.

How to resolve the instability
If you are running an X79 system, you can enforce PCIe 2.0 speeds for stability.

Check your BIOS: The most reliable method is to enter your motherboard's BIOS settings. Look for the PCIe configuration options under "Advanced," "Peripherals," or "OC Tweaker."
Manually set the PCIe speed: In the BIOS, find the setting for "PCIe Link Speed" or a similar option and manually set it to "Gen2," "PCIe 2.0," or "5 GT/s".
Use a software patch (not recommended): Early on, some users attempted to force PCIe 3.0 using software tools and registry hacks, particularly for NVIDIA cards. This method was notoriously unreliable and could create more problems.

Note: For most single-GPU configurations, the performance difference between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 is negligible and not noticeable in real-world use. Sticking with PCIe 2.0 on an X79 platform is a practical solution that ensures maximum stability.

I have no idea if any of that is true or not. I feel like using an Ivy Bridge CPU in such a high end board with the latest BIOS should be fine, but according to this, early Gen3 cards may have issues with early Gen3 boards. That might explain why the Maxwell-based K2200 works...

Though this system came with a 770. Maybe the newer BIOS version I put on it broke that compatibility...

Bleh... anyway. I have no idea what I'm even going to do with this monstrosity, so I should probably just put a note on it about GTX 770 compatibility and not worry about it for now.

If I came across three or four 980 Ti cards it'd be funny to turn this system into a space heater that trades blows with modern mid-range systems (as long as 6GB of VRAM is enough).

On X99/AM4 I didn't have to configure the cards either, GenX was the same in the UEFI.
In the case of X299, however, I had to configure: 7900GTX/7800GTX - Gen1, HD6870 - Gen2, in this case it is really the only stable one. Luckily, on the Taichi board, you can configure per slot, because there is now a GTX1650 in it in addition to the 7800GTX.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Today, 00:07:

It's very odd that it works perfectly if I force PCI-E Gen2 in the BIOS. […]
Show full quote

DarthSun wrote on Yesterday, 22:23:

X79/GTX770/Win10 : should work.
Although I don't have an X79 machine, the GTX770 was fine in X99.
Currently it runs in AM4.

It's very odd that it works perfectly if I force PCI-E Gen2 in the BIOS.

I thought maybe a CPU socket pin was damaged, but a Quadro K2200 works fine and it also uses PCI-E 3.0 x16, so I don't believe it's that. I already had the cooler off to repaste and it's a pain in the butt to remove and reinstall, so I will save a socket check as a last resort. 😮

Anyway... I searched on Google and the AI slop answer said this:

The Intel X79 platform is known to have compatibility issues with PCIe 3.0 (Gen3), making it unstable in this mode while often s […]
Show full quote

The Intel X79 platform is known to have compatibility issues with PCIe 3.0 (Gen3), making it unstable in this mode while often stable in PCIe 2.0 (Gen2) mode
. This problem stemmed from the early and non-native nature of PCIe 3.0 support on these motherboards.
Reasons for X79 instability with PCIe 3.0

Non-native Gen3 support: The original Intel X79 chipset only natively supported PCIe 2.0. To enable PCIe 3.0, motherboard manufacturers had to implement workarounds using different clock generators or signal re-drivers. This "hack" was inconsistent across motherboard brands and CPUs, and was never officially certified by Intel.
Variable signal timing: NVIDIA noted in 2021 that on X79 platforms running at Gen3 speeds, they observed "significant variation in signal timing across different motherboards and CPUs". This variation could cause instability, especially with early PCIe 3.0 graphics cards like the GTX 600 series.
CPU and motherboard "hit or miss": Whether a system could achieve stable PCIe 3.0 performance was often a gamble, even with compatible Ivy Bridge-E CPUs, as stability depended on a combination of the specific CPU and motherboard.
Overclocking issues: Users who overclocked the Base Clock (BCLK) on X79 systems found that doing so also overclocked the PCIe bus, further increasing instability and forcing them to revert to Gen2.

How to resolve the instability
If you are running an X79 system, you can enforce PCIe 2.0 speeds for stability.

Check your BIOS: The most reliable method is to enter your motherboard's BIOS settings. Look for the PCIe configuration options under "Advanced," "Peripherals," or "OC Tweaker."
Manually set the PCIe speed: In the BIOS, find the setting for "PCIe Link Speed" or a similar option and manually set it to "Gen2," "PCIe 2.0," or "5 GT/s".
Use a software patch (not recommended): Early on, some users attempted to force PCIe 3.0 using software tools and registry hacks, particularly for NVIDIA cards. This method was notoriously unreliable and could create more problems.

Note: For most single-GPU configurations, the performance difference between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 is negligible and not noticeable in real-world use. Sticking with PCIe 2.0 on an X79 platform is a practical solution that ensures maximum stability.

I have no idea if any of that is true or not. I feel like using an Ivy Bridge CPU in such a high end board with the latest BIOS should be fine, but according to this, early Gen3 cards may have issues with early Gen3 boards. That might explain why the Maxwell-based K2200 works...

Though this system came with a 770. Maybe the newer BIOS version I put on it broke that compatibility...

Bleh... anyway. I have no idea what I'm even going to do with this monstrosity, so I should probably just put a note on it about GTX 770 compatibility and not worry about it for now.

If I came across three or four 980 Ti cards it'd be funny to turn this system into a space heater that trades blows with modern mid-range systems (as long as 6GB of VRAM is enough).

If it works on 2. Forget about 3. It makes next to zero difference.
I have a gen 4 ssd that, with the dodgy aliexpress special wifi m2 1:4 adapter I use wasn't stable and also very slow in gen 3.
I had to mod the bios to unlock the speed settings.
Set it to 2 and its fine. It's 4x faster too.

16 lanes of gen 2 has about 8 gigabytes per second. I'm assuming without looking that a 770 is probably a 2gb card.
So you can fill the board 4x per second.

That's plenty, mate.

myne wrote on Today, 03:17:

If it works on 2. Forget about 3. It makes next to zero difference. I have a gen 4 ssd that, with the dodgy aliexpress special w […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on Today, 00:07:

It's very odd that it works perfectly if I force PCI-E Gen2 in the BIOS. […]
Show full quote

DarthSun wrote on Yesterday, 22:23:

X79/GTX770/Win10 : should work.
Although I don't have an X79 machine, the GTX770 was fine in X99.
Currently it runs in AM4.

It's very odd that it works perfectly if I force PCI-E Gen2 in the BIOS.

I thought maybe a CPU socket pin was damaged, but a Quadro K2200 works fine and it also uses PCI-E 3.0 x16, so I don't believe it's that. I already had the cooler off to repaste and it's a pain in the butt to remove and reinstall, so I will save a socket check as a last resort. 😮

Anyway... I searched on Google and the AI slop answer said this:

The Intel X79 platform is known to have compatibility issues with PCIe 3.0 (Gen3), making it unstable in this mode while often s […]
Show full quote

The Intel X79 platform is known to have compatibility issues with PCIe 3.0 (Gen3), making it unstable in this mode while often stable in PCIe 2.0 (Gen2) mode
. This problem stemmed from the early and non-native nature of PCIe 3.0 support on these motherboards.
Reasons for X79 instability with PCIe 3.0

Non-native Gen3 support: The original Intel X79 chipset only natively supported PCIe 2.0. To enable PCIe 3.0, motherboard manufacturers had to implement workarounds using different clock generators or signal re-drivers. This "hack" was inconsistent across motherboard brands and CPUs, and was never officially certified by Intel.
Variable signal timing: NVIDIA noted in 2021 that on X79 platforms running at Gen3 speeds, they observed "significant variation in signal timing across different motherboards and CPUs". This variation could cause instability, especially with early PCIe 3.0 graphics cards like the GTX 600 series.
CPU and motherboard "hit or miss": Whether a system could achieve stable PCIe 3.0 performance was often a gamble, even with compatible Ivy Bridge-E CPUs, as stability depended on a combination of the specific CPU and motherboard.
Overclocking issues: Users who overclocked the Base Clock (BCLK) on X79 systems found that doing so also overclocked the PCIe bus, further increasing instability and forcing them to revert to Gen2.

How to resolve the instability
If you are running an X79 system, you can enforce PCIe 2.0 speeds for stability.

Check your BIOS: The most reliable method is to enter your motherboard's BIOS settings. Look for the PCIe configuration options under "Advanced," "Peripherals," or "OC Tweaker."
Manually set the PCIe speed: In the BIOS, find the setting for "PCIe Link Speed" or a similar option and manually set it to "Gen2," "PCIe 2.0," or "5 GT/s".
Use a software patch (not recommended): Early on, some users attempted to force PCIe 3.0 using software tools and registry hacks, particularly for NVIDIA cards. This method was notoriously unreliable and could create more problems.

Note: For most single-GPU configurations, the performance difference between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 is negligible and not noticeable in real-world use. Sticking with PCIe 2.0 on an X79 platform is a practical solution that ensures maximum stability.

I have no idea if any of that is true or not. I feel like using an Ivy Bridge CPU in such a high end board with the latest BIOS should be fine, but according to this, early Gen3 cards may have issues with early Gen3 boards. That might explain why the Maxwell-based K2200 works...

Though this system came with a 770. Maybe the newer BIOS version I put on it broke that compatibility...

Bleh... anyway. I have no idea what I'm even going to do with this monstrosity, so I should probably just put a note on it about GTX 770 compatibility and not worry about it for now.

If I came across three or four 980 Ti cards it'd be funny to turn this system into a space heater that trades blows with modern mid-range systems (as long as 6GB of VRAM is enough).

If it works on 2. Forget about 3. It makes next to zero difference.
I have a gen 4 ssd that, with the dodgy aliexpress special wifi m2 1:4 adapter I use wasn't stable and also very slow in gen 3.
I had to mod the bios to unlock the speed settings.
Set it to 2 and its fine. It's 4x faster too.

16 lanes of gen 2 has about 8 gigabytes per second. I'm assuming without looking that a 770 is probably a 2gb card.
So you can fill the board 4x per second.

That's plenty, mate.

Right, for a single GTX 770 there is definitely no difference. My hope was to use the board to dabble in SLI since that's how the system was originally used. I have basically no experience with SLI (beyond the PTSD I suffer from the 7950GX2), so I assumed that having the additional PCI bandwidth was a big deal... but maybe it isn't? I've Googled it a bit, and the few answers I'm finding seem to indicate it won't make much of a difference, assuming the board can provide at least x8 lanes to each slot, which this one should for up to four GPUs.

At this point, I don't even have two identical GPUs from this time period on hand to mess with SLI so this is just a future project.

Maybe I could run four way 8800 GTX SLI to see how far that'd stretch the performance of nearly 20 year old GPUs... I'm pretty sure I actually have those on hand, though I haven't tested them yet.

I doubt there's any real difference in sli.