SLI problems

[gregmacknass]

I'll start with the setup
XFX 680i LT motherboard
E2200 2.2Ghz overclocked to 3.101
2 PNY xlr8 8800gt's
2gig corsair XMS ddr2 800
700W PSU

I am having problems with my SLI setup. The Nvidia panel says SLI is enabled. EVGA Precision says SLI is enabled. GPU-Z says SLI is enabled. But in GPU-Z it says that 1 card is running at x16 2.0, and the other is just x16. I am wondering how I can fix this. I run 3dmark06 and get the same score in SLI as I do with a single card, and that is what led me to discover the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-Greg

[jason4207]

I was under the impression that 680i only supported PCIe1.1. That's one why they brought out 780i; for PCIe2.0 support.

If both your cards are showing up at x16 then there is nothing you can do to make it faster. A controller is either PCIe1.x or PCIe2.0...it doesn't switch.

3DMark06 is very CPU dependent, and not the best indicator of actual gaming performance since it runs at a low rez. Try playing some games and let us no if there is no difference b/n a single card a 2 cards in SLI. What rez is your monitor?

[gregmacknass]

I have now switched out the motherboard, and the problem still continues to persist. I now have my setup on an EVGA 680i board. 3dmark06 and CPU-Z still say that 1 card is running at 2.0. 3dmark06 says that I only have 1 card, and it is the 2.0 card. SLI is enabled in NV control panel, and everything is hooked up correctly. So I have come to the conclusion that the card is the problem. Will flashing the cards bios help to remedy the situation? Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
-Greg

[jason4207]

Post up screenshots of GPU-Z, and CPU-Z.

No, I don't think flashing your cards BIOS will help. I'm not even sure that you have a problem, really.

Does each card run fine by itself?

[atm743]

i just recently got an other 285gtx for my rig to SLi and i had this happen to me 2 times.

My motherboard supports both Both cards in 16X 2.0 in sli or first card 16x 2.0 and second card 8X 2.0 sli. i chose to just go with the 8X 2.0 sli cause with the other set up my primary card was getting very hot (80C) now both cards never go past 70C full load :) )

but back on topic. when i first had the system set up in both 16x 2.0. i was getting issues with sli not working at all. in the nvidia control panel, it showed that SLi was enabled (i have the latest nvidia WHQL drivers.) but when running 3dmark vantage only the main gpu was getting used and i was getting messed up graphical glitches. i took a look at gpu-z and noticed that one of the cards (forgot which one) was not in 2.0. and im like what the. idk why i tried this first but i downloaded the evga sli enhancement patch
http://www.evga.com/articles/00463/

and BOOM for some reason, it worked. no more graphical glitches and both cards were working perfectly in SLi, as well as both cards in 2.0.

When i decided to swtich my second card to the 3rd PCI express slot, i had the 2.0 problem again. SLi was working perfectly but for some reason gpu-z was showing the slave card at 8x not 8x 2.0 like it should be.

What i would do is Install the latest drivers again. once that's done, install the evga sli enhancements. it will ask you to restart the computer once its done. do that and check back and see if that worked

Post up screenshots of GPU-Z, and CPU-Z.

No, I don't think flashing your cards BIOS will help. I'm not even sure that you have a problem, really.

Does each card run fine by itself?
the motherboard i have for some reason had an issue with SLi with one of its BIOS. it was in the FAQ. i flashed it to the latest as well as did what i stated above and it worked. not sure if the bio flash or hte evga sli enhancements fixed this but one of them did

but still for gregmacknass, i would just try the sli enhancements patch first. don't want to flash the bio's and screw something up in the process. i tend to not flash my bio's unless a major bug was found or if i had to for upgrading a CPU.

[jason4207]

the motherboard i have for some reason had an issue with SLi with one of its BIOS. it was in the FAQ. i flashed it to the latest as well as did what i stated above and it worked. not sure if the bio flash or hte evga sli enhancements fixed this but one of them did

but still for gregmacknass, i would just try the sli enhancements patch first. don't want to flash the bio's and screw something up in the process. i tend to not flash my bio's unless a major bug was found or if i had to for upgrading a CPU.

I thought he was talking about the gfx card BIOS, not the mobo BIOS.

[atm743]

I thought he was talking about the gfx card BIOS, not the mobo BIOS.

ah. i read what you typed to fast. i passed over card lol.