Instability when running tri-SLI

I just set up this build last week, but am having a heck of a time trying to get tri-SLI working. Here's my setup:

Windows 7 Pro 64bit
ASRock X99 Extreme11
Intel Core i7 5930K@stock
32GB G.Skill DDR4 2400 @ 2133 (just in case)
2x Crucial M550's in RAID0 (boot/OS drive)
2x Seagate 3TB drives in RAID0 (data drive)
3x EVGA GTX980 SuperClocked
SoundBlaster ZXR
ASUS DVD-RW
ASUS BD-RE
Corsair AX1200i PSU

When I have all 3 video cards in, when I attempt to doing anything graphics intesive, I get a BSOD. The system seems to be stable for a while, but if I start, say, 3DMark, a few seconds after the benchmark starts, I get the BSOD with WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR. If I install the sound card, I get the same BSOD upon logon to Windows.

Removing two of the video cards fixes the errors, but really isn't a long term solution for me.

I've installed all the latest drives for everything (chipset, vga, etc). as well as the latest 1.10 BIOS. I've also tested all three cards (one at a time) in each PCIE slot with no issues. I've done things like only run on 1 DRAM stick, removed all SATA drives except one of the SSD's, unplugged everything from the back except KB/mouse/display. I have a 1200W PSU, and I have all power connected (including the additional PCIE power on the bottom.  I've also tested with two GPU's and have the same problem. The only way this thing is stable is if I have 1 GPU. With that, I can also plug in the sound card and everything is still rock solid. This isn't my first time around the block in building my own system, so all the "well duh" troubleshooting has been done.

 I've been doing a little research online and have seen other people with X99-based boards (not just the Extreme11) that are having the same issues. It seems as if it *may* be a problem with X99, but who knows.

My question is this, is this a problem with x99 or is there a problem with my board? I can still RMA the board to my vendor, so if going through that hassle will help I will. I just don't want to go through that if this is an x99 problem and I'll have the exact same issue.

Secondly, if this is related to x99, will this be fixed in a future BIOS update. And if so, is this BIOS update on the horizon or am I stuck with a single GPU for the foreseeable future?

chosin wrote: have tested out with another bridge ? Do you have paging files on or off? have you monitored temps of the cards? Have you tried in the bios set PCI-e slots to gen 3? i'm having issues with the 970s in sli not the same as you. I experience video corruption. just a couple things to try.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried with three different bridges. Temps are nominal (ambient on card is ~36C, care never goes about 40-45C before the bsod. A suggestion elsewhere was to run the cards in gen1. I have tried running in gen1, gen2 and gen3 (aka auto in the BIOS) and all give the same result.

another thing ive read about your error message is sometimes the voltage of the processor can't come up fast enough, trying adding some extra voltage to vcore. My 5820k is at 4.0 cpu input is 1.8 and vcore is 1.178 my g.skill ram is 2400 @1.3 volts


Edited by chosin - 25 Apr 2015 at 11:03am

strange indeed i believe it has something to with the direct connect to the processor. I have my sound blaster z card plugged into a pci-1 slot on my mobo. Maybe your chipset is allocating your lanes  to the sound card instead of to the graphics cards. After you plugged in the third card don't know what to do with it. on my mobo if i plug into any other slot but x1 slot. doses weird stuff as you describe. My times one slot goes to northbridge instead of going straight to proc. Looking at your manual, you don't have a process tree to show which slot goes where.


Edited by chosin - 26 Apr 2015 at 1:33am