Multiple Intensity Pro 4K Cards in One PC?

Rather than spending thousands on external 4K switchers, I had the 'bright' idea of using multiple Intensity Pro 4K cards in one PC and doing the switching with OBS Broadcaster software.

The application is online streaming of a live event. OBS will make it easy to do PiP or side by side output from multiple capture cards.

I'm building a new PC based on Z-390 chipset, i7-7900K. Motherboard has four PCIe X1 slots in addition to the X16 slot that the GPU will occupy. I'm not 100% certain about the slot config needed by the Intensity Pro 4K, as it's not specified, but looking at the photos of the card, it appears that the back set of pins are longer than the slot on the motherboard. If the card needs an X4 slot, I will have to exchange the motherboard for a different model with more of the longer slots.

The main question, assuming we have the quantity and right type of slots, is whether it's possible to run multiple IP 4K cards in one motherboard. O/S will be either Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 10 Pro. The parts for the build are still arriving and assembly is expected to start next week.

If possible to do this, are there any unique setup procedures necessary to make it all work?

Well it is possible if you have the right motherboard..
But our expierence is that you need so much beefed up system (running 4K) that the machine alone will set you back 2/3K including cards). That it would be cheaper to buy an Atem.

Having an Atem will also be much more reliable as multiple capture cards in a heavy beefed up machine can still lead to glitches.. And other computer related issues like updates that break functions, windows forcing restarts, drives getting corrupt.. etc etc.. We run a 4K obv for 3 years now.. We have had our fair share of computer issues with hardware on the road.. While the Atem always works..

I'm just streaming 1080P 24, which is the limit of our upstream connection (we're in the US), and presently we're running a Core2Quad CPU with one IP 4K card and it's doing fine.

We're building a new multipurpose system (backup video editor, MIDI production, sound editing, bookkeeping and internet machine and planning to put two IP 4K cards in it. It is an i7 9th generation Z390 machine with 32GB (64GB capacity) installed. Other than the slot configuration, I'm quite sure it's more than twice and powerful as a Core2Quad from 2008. The only cost incurred will be the $400 for two cards, which we already have in two machines now. We'd move them to the new PC and stream from that. Then we can shut down the old, extra machine that is dedicated to video streaming.

We run mostly Windows 7 machines here and they don't do anything we don't ask them to. No unwanted updates or shutdowns.

The real question is do the drivers support multiple cards and are there any conflicts of hardware with putting more than one capture card in a single machine?

[Gary Adams]

Hello Mark. There is nothing to prevent using multiple cards and capture devices as long as the motherboard and OS supports it.

Regards, Gary

Thank you. That's the sort of answer I'm looking for.

I've purchased a motherboard with multiple X16 slots, so there's enough slots to power the GPU and these two IP 4K cards.

Well it DID work... until I rebooted the machine. Now the BMD programs cannot find any capture cards, despite TWO of them being in the machine.
Device manager says they're both working properly.
Haven't found a solution in 75 hours of fiddling with it.

Having an Atem will also be much more reliable as multiple capture cards in a heavy beefed up machine can still lead to glitches..

Dont say i did not warned you.

But what you can try are few things.

- Step back into software version. So download and install an earlier version of desktop video. The cards probabbly will say they need an " Update" Or in this case means a downgrade.
- Change the cards to different slots. (Yes this helps sometimes due too resources alocated by the motherboard / windows)
- Put card in a different machine and go install a previous version of desktop video there including downgrade.

There are only two slots available that can physically fit these cards, so there is no option to move cards around like in the old days when you had 8 slots.

I've downgraded to earlier version of drivers, but that didn't change the behavior.

Device Manager can see the cards and their drivers are showing, "This device is working properly".

VLC Media Player's import capture card can see two WDM Intensity Pro 4K devices, but none of Black Magic's software can. VLC gets a black screen when opening the IP4K device but it gets the frame rate and screen dimensions that I set in Desktop Video Manager when the cards WERE working immediately after installation.

I know they work in another machine because these two cards came out of two other machines.

I've got a trouble ticket in with Asus, the motherboard manufacturer, still awaiting response and another in with Microsoft who said to report it on the BMG forum.

I looked into ATEM last May, but it can't do multiple PiP overlays that I can do in OBS and is terribly expensive. Since I needed to replace a 10 year old PC, I decided to make the new PC one that had at least two spare X16 PCI slots for IP4K cards and a powerful enough processor (i7-9770K) to handle streaming two cameras. The whole computer cost me half the price of an ATEM.