• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

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

JrRacinFan

Served 5k and counting ...
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
20,073 (3.23/day)
Location
Youngstown, OH
System Name Dual Build Streamer
Processor Ryzen 7900x3d : Ryzen 4600G
Motherboard AsRock B650E Steel Legend : Giga B450i Aorus
Cooling Custom Water 1x420 : Stock
Memory 32GB T-Force Deltas : 16GB Dominator Platinums
Video Card(s) PowerColor 7900 XTX Liquid Devil: iGPU
Storage 20+ TB
Display(s) Sammy 49" 5k Ultrawide
Case Custom White Painted Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2
Audio Device(s) Onboard : Onboard
Power Supply EVGA 1200W P2
Mouse Corsair M65 RGB Elite White
Keyboard Hyperx Origins 65
Software Windows 10
@Scott

There aren't any P35 boards that do both x16 interfaces @ x16 bandwith when occupied by x16 cards. Your having an issue somewhere else and I beleive it has to do with the HALmod itself. Although, the second card should read x4 not x2. I suggest reseating your second card.
 

Scott_M

New Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
15 (0.00/day)
Location
Medina,Oh
@ Nick

I will try the other Hal Mod shortley

@JrRacinFan
The manual says something like 2 x 16x Pcix slots max 16x
So I was expecting 2x 8x
The 2nd card has been in and out several times all with the same results. I am going to try running it alone in the 2nd slot and see if I get 16x

I'll be back shortley......and Thanks !!!

Scott
 

Scott_M

New Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
15 (0.00/day)
Location
Medina,Oh
I just tried both cards alone in the 2nd 16x slot and gpuz reports 2x

I'm confused

Scott


After all this mucking around in windows system files , I think it best to re-install windows and start fresh.
If I can't get the 2nd slot to run 16x by itself, It is probably a mobo problem.
I have had a lot of trouble with this board and it has been back to gigabyte twice. Both for bad bios chip problems. The last time it came back the onboard sound did not work. So maybe it's just a bad board. Or the techs screwed it up ?

Scott
 
Last edited:

JrRacinFan

Served 5k and counting ...
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
20,073 (3.23/day)
Location
Youngstown, OH
System Name Dual Build Streamer
Processor Ryzen 7900x3d : Ryzen 4600G
Motherboard AsRock B650E Steel Legend : Giga B450i Aorus
Cooling Custom Water 1x420 : Stock
Memory 32GB T-Force Deltas : 16GB Dominator Platinums
Video Card(s) PowerColor 7900 XTX Liquid Devil: iGPU
Storage 20+ TB
Display(s) Sammy 49" 5k Ultrawide
Case Custom White Painted Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2
Audio Device(s) Onboard : Onboard
Power Supply EVGA 1200W P2
Mouse Corsair M65 RGB Elite White
Keyboard Hyperx Origins 65
Software Windows 10
Your welcome. One thing though might I ask, do you have anything else occupying PCIe slots?
 

TheWolf

New Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Messages
211 (0.04/day)
Location
Pascagoula, Ms
System Name TheWolf
Processor Q9650/Q9550
Motherboard Abit IP35ProXE/IX38QuadGT
Cooling Big Typhoon x4
Memory G-Skill/A-Data/SuperTalent
Video Card(s) 3x MSI 260GTX OC 2x216 1x192 shaders
Storage Hitachi 80gb x2
Display(s) Norcent/Neovo
Case none/benching stations
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Crosair TX650W
Software XP/W7
I could be wrong & another reason I wanted to see the screen shots is because of the x16 @ x2.
From my experence & others post I think the second slot has to become at least x4 in order to get SLI working.
My Abit IP35Pro worked & had SLI but with 1st PCI-E at x16 @ x16 & 2nd at 16x @ x4.
Bench marks were acually lower with SLI enable from use of a single card on that system.
In my case SLI hurt instead of helping me on that rig, but I ran the test with 2x260GTX, one was 192 shaders & the other was 216 shaders.
The mix of cards could have caused some problems & lost of bench scores. I never tested with the matching 2 260GTX I have, so I can't say for sure.
 
Last edited:

Scott_M

New Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
15 (0.00/day)
Location
Medina,Oh
OK I think we are getting to the bottom of this.

With one 8800gs in the 2nd Pcie 16x slot ( No other slots occupied by anything )
Fresh install of Win7 x64 build 7600 on a clean partition
Ran the mobo driver cd ( Even though win7 had newer drivers)
Ran gpuz and it still shows @2X

So I think there is something hinky about this mobo. I think I will blame it on the repair techs at gigabyte.

Again, Many thanks to all who have helped.

Scott
 
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
189 (0.04/day)
I assume you have tried resetting the bios, on some gigabyte dual bios boards the reset jumper doesn't work properly, you have to unplug the power and short the battery contacts for 20minutes (turning the battery up side down also works).

What PCIE options are there in the bios? Do both cards run a x16 in another board? I have seen a GT stuck at x4 before (on any board) so it could be a dodgy card, you could try flashing a "Gen1" GT bios to the GS and see if that helps.

Did you try the x2 HALmod I posted? It would be interesting to know if it works on another board.
 

Scott_M

New Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
15 (0.00/day)
Location
Medina,Oh
Hi Nick
I pulled the cards from a DFI system where they were sli'd quite happily. On this board each card will run 16x in the top slot and 2 x in the bottom slot.
I just flashed my bios yesterday from P7 to P9 . But no I did not reset it.
The only options in the bios for PCIe are freq. and voltage.

Scott
 
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
189 (0.04/day)
I would try resetting the bios, if that doesn't help try the HALmod I posted. I had a 8800GT that would only work at x4 on any board, I flashed it with a Gen1 bios and that fixed it (to PCIE 1.0 x16) I can try and find the bios file if you want to try it, can you upload the video bios from your GS.
 

Scott_M

New Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
15 (0.00/day)
Location
Medina,Oh
Nick
Which bios are you suggesting I reset ? The mobo ? or the Vid cards ?

Both video cards will run 16x in the top slot or another board.

Scott
 
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
189 (0.04/day)
Reset the MB bios (unplug + jumper + short battery) then load defaults.

If that doesn't help try the other HALmod, it might work on an intel board ?

If that doesn't work you can try flashing the video bios to Gen1, have you used nvflash before?
 

Scott_M

New Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
15 (0.00/day)
Location
Medina,Oh
Nick
Thanks for the help !

Reset mobo bios......no change

Ran your Halmod.......no change

At this point I think I am gonna bail on trying to get this POS board to run SLI and put the 8800's back in the DFI and return the 260 (core 216) to this box.
I was kinda hoping to get SLI working and then get another 260. But I guess this board just dosen't have enough express lanes to work.

So once again many thanks to all who have helped and developed this Mod. I really like messin with this stuff !!

You guys are great ! Thanks

Scott
 

Schlingel

New Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
43 (0.01/day)
I think the board causes the problem. Should be x16@16x and x16@x4. So upgrade to P45 ;) But welcome to the group of guys having "porblems" with the Pxx chipsets. My P45 has also 3x PCIe x16. Acc to the manual I was expecting x16/x8/x8. I had to find out it is only x8/x0/x8 or x8/x8/x0 or x0/x8/x8
 

Scott_M

New Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
15 (0.00/day)
Location
Medina,Oh
I think the board causes the problem. Should be x16@16x and x16@x4. So upgrade to P45 ;) But welcome to the group of guys having "porblems" with the Pxx chipsets. My P45 has also 3x PCIe x16. Acc to the manual I was expecting x16/x8/x8. I had to find out it is only x8/x0/x8 or x8/x8/x0 or x0/x8/x8

From what I have been reading mine should be 1 @ 16x and the other @4x , where the other 2X went who knows ??

I guess there are just so many "lanes" to be divided up among all the populated slots. A valuable lesson learned. I am glad I learned it on old outdated hardware. I will be ready when I pick out that new LGA 1366 board !!

Scott
 

TiN

Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
214 (0.04/day)
Location
USA
System Name selfmade caseless :D
Processor Intel ES
Motherboard EVGA X299 DARK ES :)
Cooling LN2
Memory G.SKILL DDR4 @ 3600MHz
Video Card(s) GTX Kingpin's
Storage Intel P4500 4TB
Display(s) Philips BDM4350
Case none
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi
Power Supply EVGA NEX 1500W's
Mouse None (trackball)
Keyboard Steelseries APEX RAW and Corsair K-something
Software W2k8 R2 64bit SP1, FreeBSD 12
Benchmark Scores http://www.hwbot.org/community/user/tin?oldstyle=true
Again ,there is no any difference for SLI if cards work in x16 or x4 or even x1. The only problem may occur if lanes are connected to different chipsets (Like x16 lanes to northbridge, and x2 extra lanes to southbridge). Because there is no direct PCI-E communication between chipsets - SLI may not work on such a systems. But all another cases - SLI don't care, I sli-ed two 6600LE's with TWO PCI-E x1 slots well.
 
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
189 (0.04/day)
I have seen SLI working on x8 + x4 systems, but never with x2, I have tested this on an nForce 740 SLI board, I "taped" one card to force x2 + x8 mode and SLI stopped working. I only thought PCIEx2 might be the problem because that was the reason anatolymik said SLI was not working on my nForce4 board, but I am sure there must be something more complicated happenning, I do not pretend to understand it... :D
 

ddww21cn

New Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2009
Messages
3 (0.00/day)
MOD BIOS + crossflash 9800GT to 9800GTX bios + 9800GTX+ with no Bridge= SLI work



 

TiN

Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
214 (0.04/day)
Location
USA
System Name selfmade caseless :D
Processor Intel ES
Motherboard EVGA X299 DARK ES :)
Cooling LN2
Memory G.SKILL DDR4 @ 3600MHz
Video Card(s) GTX Kingpin's
Storage Intel P4500 4TB
Display(s) Philips BDM4350
Case none
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi
Power Supply EVGA NEX 1500W's
Mouse None (trackball)
Keyboard Steelseries APEX RAW and Corsair K-something
Software W2k8 R2 64bit SP1, FreeBSD 12
Benchmark Scores http://www.hwbot.org/community/user/tin?oldstyle=true
Can you share modded BIOS for 9800GT for me? I have 9800GT + 9800GTX now too, will test :D
 

TheWolf

New Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Messages
211 (0.04/day)
Location
Pascagoula, Ms
System Name TheWolf
Processor Q9650/Q9550
Motherboard Abit IP35ProXE/IX38QuadGT
Cooling Big Typhoon x4
Memory G-Skill/A-Data/SuperTalent
Video Card(s) 3x MSI 260GTX OC 2x216 1x192 shaders
Storage Hitachi 80gb x2
Display(s) Norcent/Neovo
Case none/benching stations
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Crosair TX650W
Software XP/W7
I have a 8800GTX & a 8800GT I would like to do something like that with.
Also a 8800GS, maybe something can be done to all 3 to make them all work together in Tri SLI?
 

TiN

Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
214 (0.04/day)
Location
USA
System Name selfmade caseless :D
Processor Intel ES
Motherboard EVGA X299 DARK ES :)
Cooling LN2
Memory G.SKILL DDR4 @ 3600MHz
Video Card(s) GTX Kingpin's
Storage Intel P4500 4TB
Display(s) Philips BDM4350
Case none
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi
Power Supply EVGA NEX 1500W's
Mouse None (trackball)
Keyboard Steelseries APEX RAW and Corsair K-something
Software W2k8 R2 64bit SP1, FreeBSD 12
Benchmark Scores http://www.hwbot.org/community/user/tin?oldstyle=true
You can flash 8800GS bios to 8800GT and have SLI.
8800GTX + any GS/GT - NO WAY, GTX is G80, and GS/GT's are G92. NO WAY :D
 

TiN

Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
214 (0.04/day)
Location
USA
System Name selfmade caseless :D
Processor Intel ES
Motherboard EVGA X299 DARK ES :)
Cooling LN2
Memory G.SKILL DDR4 @ 3600MHz
Video Card(s) GTX Kingpin's
Storage Intel P4500 4TB
Display(s) Philips BDM4350
Case none
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi
Power Supply EVGA NEX 1500W's
Mouse None (trackball)
Keyboard Steelseries APEX RAW and Corsair K-something
Software W2k8 R2 64bit SP1, FreeBSD 12
Benchmark Scores http://www.hwbot.org/community/user/tin?oldstyle=true
Tested newest 195.39 beta driver with modified Windows 7 64bit to support SLI on any unlegal chipset. Testsystem: W7 64bit, P5B DLX, two 9800GX2

Looks like SLI hack is rejected now. Modded HAL is not loading now.
Used HAL mod 0.9 alpha, as usual. with 191 - ok. 195 - Everest still reports that both HAL and direct IO are P965 chipset, not X58 for hal.
 

TheWolf

New Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Messages
211 (0.04/day)
Location
Pascagoula, Ms
System Name TheWolf
Processor Q9650/Q9550
Motherboard Abit IP35ProXE/IX38QuadGT
Cooling Big Typhoon x4
Memory G-Skill/A-Data/SuperTalent
Video Card(s) 3x MSI 260GTX OC 2x216 1x192 shaders
Storage Hitachi 80gb x2
Display(s) Norcent/Neovo
Case none/benching stations
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Crosair TX650W
Software XP/W7
You can flash 8800GS bios to 8800GT and have SLI.
8800GTX + any GS/GT - NO WAY, GTX is G80, and GS/GT's are G92. NO WAY :D

Sorry, my bad, its a 8800GTS G92 512MB, not GTX.

Try v0.8 alpha v0.9 alpha didn't work for me last time I tried it even with 191 driver.
But v.08 did... :confused:
 

Schlingel

New Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
43 (0.01/day)
I guess also CPU Check now ;) Perhaps HT, CPU Cache, CPU ID or something similar ^^
 
Last edited:
Top