Remember when EVGA decided to leave the GPU market in 2022? Beyond its once thriving GPU business, the company has since been forced to downsize itself by staff reductions, which has led to being large unable to provide support for other PC components and, in this case, to its Intel 600 Series motherboards.
Recently, a Redditor by the handle MurkyIncident vented their frustration on Reddit over how NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU just wasn’t compatible with their EVGA Z690 Classified motherboard. The issue here was the SMBUS pins on the motherboard’s PCIe slot. Typically, most motherboards don’t use them but in this case, the brand does, and those pins were causing boot-up failures with the Redditor’s RTX 50 Series GPUs.
Workaround/FIX for 50-series GPUs on EVGA Z690 motherboards
byu/MurkyIncident inTEAMEVGA
Their solution? Cover up the affected pins with electrically-insulating tape, also known as Capton tape. By taping over the pins – pins 5 and 6 on the RTX 50 Series’ PCIe connector – the issue goes away after reinstalling the GPU.
What you need to do: Cut a 2mm-wide strip of electrically-insulating tape (Kapton strongly recommended). Then, apply over pins #5 and #6 on the front side of the GPU’s PCIe connector. Thermal Grizzly sells the tape on plastic sheets, which are easy to cut to size. Make sure that only the two SMBUS pins are covered, nothing else. That’s it. Reinstall the card and enjoy.
Why this works: The PCIe SMBUS pins are completely optional and have no defined standard for usage. Most consumer motherboards don’t even bother to wire them up. EVGA did, however, connect those pins on their Z690 boards, allowing the GPU to interfere with bootup (likely during RAM detection). You lose nothing by isolating the GPU from the motherboard’s SMBUS.
To be absolutely clear, the incompatibility issue here only affects EVGA’s Intel 600 Series motherboards, and only this particular model. Motherboards from other brands do not appear to have issue, and that’s primarily due to the manufacturer leaving the affected pins unused.
Further, NVIDIA’s driver team has seemingly reached out to the Redditor for more information, meaning that people with the same EVGA board could see a patch release soon.
(Source: Reddit, Videocardz)
