The maximum number of gpus supported on one board also depends on the model of gpus you are running.
Since you can only see 4 cards in device manager, it might be a bios issue and not easy to fix.
I would suggest you try the method of shorting pins of A1 b17 and see if it would get more gpus to work.
thx for the tip. should i only short them for cards that dont work? im running latest bios btw.