How To: Enable SLI on pre-i7/i5 hardware

[Velvet Wafer]

Originally Posted by razaice

Sorry if I'm being annoying with so many questions, but now I'm wondering if my corsair 650 tx power supply is good enough for 2 gtx 460's. I figured you guys would be smart enough to know if it's good enough.

should work flawlessly

[Homer-Mix]

Is there a chance that future SLI Patch versions will work with Avast? I'm happy with this AV, but since version 6.xx i can't boot into SLIenabled windows anymore.

[djpaliobcn]

Originally Posted by djpaliobcn

More details of my problem.

I have tested with SLI Patch 1.0 but without SLI enabled because crashes.

In Battlefield4Free freezes the computer playing at full graphics.
In World of Warcraft at full graphics and resolution, don't crash
The same things with Need For Speed Hot Persuit 2

I have to test this two games with SLi and I tell you more.

Starcraft 2 SLI enabled, at full graphics also crash.

[YukonCornelius]

Originally Posted by anatolymik

Just finished work session with RVC. Huge thanks to him. For his help. Bug fixed and he successfully enabled sli on server board. SLIPatch 1.2 beta coming soon. Thanks!

AWESOME, AWESOME NEWS! Thanks Always, Anatolymik.

Can't wait to push my 580's on the Intel 5520! Looking forward to testing the beta!

[aXeL_UK]

Hi All,

If, like me, you have SLI working but get random desktop freezes and Windows startup freezes, I found a solution which works consistently for me; reasoning and inferences follow after:

1) When I switch the PC off, provided I do NOT disconnect/switch off the mains, I never ever get the desktop/startup freeze. Basically there needs to be power to the system all the time, even when off - strange

2) Whenever I switch it on, usually the first cold boot fails to initialise both cards. Usually one will fail to start. A second (and vary rarely third) reboot always cures this for me.

After (1) and (2) I have completely seemless uninterrupted SLI gaming with no issues whatsoever. Nor does it make any difference what version of the drivers (258 - 265) or SLI patch (0.90 - 1.0) I use. I believe that there is a significant probability that, for those experiencing the same freeze/crash issues I was, that the issue is nothing to do with drivers/SLI patch problems/Windows:

After experiencing numerous crashes and freezes last year, I got fed up with rebuilds so after a clean rebuild and getting SLI running again I installed Acronis and took a drive image. The next time I had a crash, I just recovered the drive image and carried on no problem.

After awhile I stopped playing with the gaming rig so I shut it down and powered it off at the mains. Some weeks later I switched it back on and got the freeze/crash problems. Odd because the last time I shut it down it had been fine, nevertheless I just restored the disc image and got the same problem again - weird. The restore was a disc image of the working clean SLI build so there couldn't be any file corruption. So I restored again and again, each time getting the same desktop or startup freeze. After awhile I gave up and switched the whole thing off but forgot to turn off the mains. Next day I booted up and everything was fine. Ran a few rounds of Vantage, got P34595 score - everything seemed fine. Left it looping that for a few hours and still fine. Played FSX for hours and still fine... Ok so switched it off (not at the mains) and came back to it a few days later. Took a couple of reboots to get both cards to start up but still fine. Repeated the whole exercise every few days and the system seemed to be bomb proof. Then I powered off and switched off the mains. A few days later it freezes on windows start up. Reboot and the same. Reboot again and a freeze on the desktop. Recover the drive image again and it still freezes - WTF?!

The only thing which had changed was that, after the PC was shutdown, the mains were switched off. Ok, so I switched the mains back on and left it for a few days. Next power-on, and a couple of reboots to get both cards to start, it was fine again. No freezes or crashes and has stayed that way ever since provided that, when I shutdown there's still mains power and that a do a couple of warm reboots to get both cards starting happily in Win7. After that everything is fine. Ok so it's a quirky startup routine but compared to the random niggles I had with my old pair of 4870X2s in the same system - this is a dream.

It could be useful to know if this approach works for others. Only thing I would say is, "patience" if you've been powering off at the mains. It took my PC a few days to be 'happy' again after I stopped doing this.

Obviously if you don't switch off at the mains after a shutdown and you have freezes/crashes then the above is going to be useless for you.

(I had posted this on xtremeys but meant to put it here - doh!) Teach me for not watching the forums recently....

[Thiesi]

Originally Posted by Velvet Wafer

Es gibt hier sogar deutschen Support notfalls

Schauen wir mal. Ich hoffe jetzt erst einmal, dass der Patch auf meinem System laeuft. Wenn er das tut, bin ich ein ganzes Stueck gluecklicher (& meine 580er hoeren endlich auf, sich zu langweilen).

Das Timing waere uebrigens perfekt, da Homefront naemlich morgen in der Post sein muesste. ;-)

Bye, K&K,
T-Zee

[rwurdig]

Hi im trying to use the sli hack on my system but dont seems to make it work, the problem im facing is that:
The computer are not recognizing the second card, i have the msi 890fx gd70 and 2 zotac 460 gtx, if i try one card at a time the system works fine, when i put the second card it doesnt recognize and dont even turn on the monitor, so if i put the dvi on first card pci 1(lets say pci 1 and pci 2) without the second card, turn on fine. If i put the second card and keep dvi on pci1 it turn on but dont recognize second card. If i switch the dvi to second card (pci 2) then it dont turn monitor on, if i unplug first card (pci 1) and the turn on its fine, if i plug it again dont turn on. No clue whats going on .
My system is amd phenom II 965, msi 890fx gd70, 2x zotac gtx 460, 4gb ram 1600mhz and windows 7 x64.
Any help is apreciated.
Regards,
Rodrigo.

[RiC@RDOC]

Originally Posted by rwurdig

Hi im trying to use the sli hack on my system but dont seems to make it work, the problem im facing is that:
The computer are not recognizing the second card, i have the msi 890fx gd70 and 2 zotac 460 gtx, if i try one card at a time the system works fine, when i put the second card it doesnt recognize and dont even turn on the monitor, so if i put the dvi on first card pci 1(lets say pci 1 and pci 2) without the second card, turn on fine. If i put the second card and keep dvi on pci1 it turn on but dont recognize second card. If i switch the dvi to second card (pci 2) then it dont turn monitor on, if i unplug first card (pci 1) and the turn on its fine, if i plug it again dont turn on. No clue whats going on .
My system is amd phenom II 965, msi 890fx gd70, 2x zotac gtx 460, 4gb ram 1600mhz and windows 7 x64.
Any help is apreciated.
Regards,
Rodrigo.

Hi, are you using pci-e slot 1 and 5?

Msi site:
• 5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots
- PCI_E1 supports up to PCIE x16 speed (when PCI_E3 is empty)
- PCI_E5 supports up to PCIE x16 speed (when PCI_E6 is empty)
- If you want to install two graphics cards, please use PCI_E1 & PCI_E5 slots
- PCI_E3 & PCI_E6 support up to PCIE x8 speed
- If you want to install four expansion cards into PCI_E1, E3, E5 & E6 slots, these four PCIE x 16 lanes will auto arrange from x16/ x0/ x16/ x0 to x8/ x8/ x8/ x8
- PCI_E4 supports up to PCIE x4 speed
• 1 PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot
• 1 PCI slot, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus Interface.

[rwurdig]

Tks for the fast response, i will have to check that, im not in home so i cant look right now.
But even is both cards are in slots lets say, pci 8x and pci 8x, didnt the system should see them in the device manager? the problem is the device manager only recognize one card when i have both plugeds.
I will try change the pci lanes to see if anything changes but i suppose it should see both cards even if they are in pci 1x right?
Regards,
Rodrigo.

[anatolymik]

better compatibility with chipsets
better optimization for Intel platforms
new NV detection driver approach (absolutely stable)
fixed some bugs
new installer version

as usual link below
thanks

[RiC@RDOC]

Thanks anatolymik, awesome work as usual

Edit: Tested and stable, using the 266.77 driver in Win 7 64 and Xp 32

[razaice]

Got 2 gtx 460s going on my amd motherboard. It's awesome. Thanks anatolymik. Coundn't have done it without ya.

[juanchacin]

Originally Posted by anatolymik

better compatibility with chipsets
better optimization for Intel platforms
new NV detection driver approach (absolutely stable)
fixed some bugs
new installer version

as usual link below
thanks

Thanks mate, and thx for publish the changes made in this version.
i'll keep following your work.

[Velvet Wafer]

Originally Posted by razaice

Got 2 gtx 460s going on my amd motherboard. It's awesome. Thanks anatolymik. Coundn't have done it without ya.

as i said, one click, and you were good to go?

[Thiesi]

Originally Posted by anatolymik

better compatibility with chipsets
better optimization for Intel platforms
new NV detection driver approach (absolutely stable)
fixed some bugs
new installer version

as usual link below
thanks

I can confirm SLI is now working on a Z400 by HP with two GTX 580s, driver version 267.31. I did encounter a strange lockup/freeze, though, during my first (& so far only) 3DMark run: the screens would go black, & the system would not respond to any keypresses anymore. However, I could still access a streaming server running on this system via network. RDP login was not possible - the screen would just display the spinning circle for minutes.

I'll look into the lockup/freeze issue further soon.

Thanks so far for this great piece of work!

Bye, K&K,
T-Zee

[razaice]

Originally Posted by Velvet Wafer

as i said, one click, and you were good to go?

Yep. Thanks again for the help.

[anatolymik]

Originally Posted by Thiesi

I can confirm SLI is now working on a Z400 by HP with two GTX 580s, driver version 267.31. I did encounter a strange lockup/freeze, though, during my first (& so far only) 3DMark run: the screens would go black, & the system would not respond to any keypresses anymore. However, I could still access a streaming server running on this system via network. RDP login was not possible - the screen would just display the spinning circle for minutes.

I'll look into the lockup/freeze issue further soon.

Thanks so far for this great piece of work!

Bye, K&K,
T-Zee

try 266.58

[asarimoped]

For my system with 2x GTX580 on 5520 Serverboard (Lenovo D20 Workstation) it runs great!

Crysis Warhead, Unigine Heaven, 3DMark 11 - all without problems. Also the PSU seems to be stable - GREAT!

Driver Version (Quadro): 267.05 Win7 x64

Thanks a big bunch anatolymik!

[gondo]

Same here, it also works on my Dell Precision t7500 (also 5520 board), with 2x gtx 580.

Warcraft in 3d vision surround does look kinda nice!

Thanks!

[Nick [D]vB]

Great work!

Will test ASAP

[Sinzia]

Working great on my system, except for one game, everquest 2.
After I patch the game, when it tries to load to character select, my machine locks up, black screen... no BSOD. after a few seconds the PC reboots.

Its the only thing that's not working right.

[anatolymik]

Originally Posted by Sinzia

Working great on my system, except for one game, everquest 2.
After I patch the game, when it tries to load to character select, my machine locks up, black screen... no BSOD. after a few seconds the PC reboots.

Its the only thing that's not working right.

it was in windowed mode?

[Sinzia]

Yes, come to think of it.
I'll switch it to full screen and see if that fixes it.

Works in full screen, only problem with that is I need to reference a combat parser as well as ventrilo too.

If I alt + tab to another screen, or hit the windows key, the machine does the same reboot as described in my other post.

[johnspack]

Slipatch 1.2 and beta driver 267.46 working great under Win7 x64.

[HiGGz]

I'm very excited about getting Sli on my X38 mobo (P5E).

The last time I had SLi working on my computer was with 3DFx2 (somewhere around 1998-99 I think).

So just wanna say Thank u for this patch... For now 'm trying to find an other GTX460 and once done i'll post a feedback here (FYI; P5E + Q6600@3.6Ghz on Win7 x64 Sp1)