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

[JrRacinFan]

@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]

@ 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]

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

 

[JrRacinFan]

Your welcome. One thing though might I ask, do you have anything else occupying PCIe slots?

 

[TheWolf]

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.

 

[Scott_M]

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

 

[Nick [D]vB]

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]

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

 

[Nick [D]vB]

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]

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

 

[Nick [D]vB]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Nick [D]vB]

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...

 

[ddww21cn]

MOD BIOS + crossflash 9800GT to 9800GTX bios + 9800GTX+ with no Bridge= SLI work

 

[TiN]

Can you share modded BIOS for 9800GT for me? I have 9800GT + 9800GTX now too, will test

 

[TheWolf]

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]

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

 

[TiN]

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]

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

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...

 

[Bondzo]

No Sli with 195.39 beta drivers.

 

[anatolymik]

No Sli with 195.39 beta drivers.

i know about it. i almost finished SliStringInstaller 2.0 when i got know it. they added something to check. but it's not direct io.

 

[Schlingel]

I guess also CPU Check now Perhaps HT, CPU Cache, CPU ID or something similar ^^