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

[manut2500]

hello , i have 0.55 sli patch installed on my seven and to install 0.7 sli patch i only copy and replace the three files in system32 but it's seems that since this operation i have a severe performance hit in sli, dirt2 benchmark from 74.4 fps drop to 26 fps.
It's what i do or perhaps performance hits in 0.7 sli patch.

 

[manut2500]

i see in GPU-z my secon card in pci-E 2.0 x1 only i think it's the problem, how can i restore it to x8 ?
i try to restart my pc without the second card, turn off and reboot.

 

[papatsonis]

remove your card from pc and reattach(in the meanwhile check for dust in the pci-e slot and blow with a fan accordingly), most possible will recognize as 16x

 

[tifftrip]

I don´t know what you Guys are talking about. I Bought a second 8800GT for my Gigabyte DS3P (965 Express Chipset) and flashed it with the Bios of my first GT, so i´s same.

I tried 190, 191, 195 and 196 Drivers together with SLIstringinstaller 2.0 and Slipatches 0.2 0.42. and 0.5.

There is NO SIGN of, in any Combination that my two GT´s connected with an ASUS SLI Bridge on PCIE Ports 16x and 4x are working together!

 

[tifftrip]

Btw, I should say, my two 8800Gt´s are not identical. One is an Jetway, the other one is Point of View. Also their Boards have different size. But I flashed them with the same Bios. They both have 512MB, but GPU-Z always show that the card on the second slot, no matter which one it is, only has 256 MB.

And the Nvidia Control Panel doesn´t even let me choose my second card for PhysX Acceleration. I can only Enable, Disable. Once I had a 8400 in second slot, I could choose which one for PhysX usage.

 

[Velvet Wafer]

I don´t know what you Guys are talking about. I Bought a second 8800GT for my Gigabyte DS3P (965 Express Chipset) and flashed it with the Bios of my first GT, so i´s same.

I tried 190, 191, 195 and 196 Drivers together with SLIstringinstaller 2.0 and Slipatches 0.2 0.42. and 0.5.

There is NO SIGN of, in any Combination that my two GT´s connected with an ASUS SLI Bridge on PCIE Ports 16x and 4x are working together!

use a newer patch... there is supposedly a newer version. try a few OSes, only certain may work me for myself had to use win7 x64, to get my 2 8800 gt to work in SLI

 

[oiluj]

I don´t know what you Guys are talking about. I Bought a second 8800GT for my Gigabyte DS3P (965 Express Chipset) and flashed it with the Bios of my first GT, so i´s same.
I tried 190, 191, 195 and 196 Drivers together with SLIstringinstaller 2.0 and Slipatches 0.2 0.42. and 0.5.
There is NO SIGN of, in any Combination that my two GT´s connected with an ASUS SLI Bridge on PCIE Ports 16x and 4x are working together!

Btw, I should say, my two 8800Gt´s are not identical. One is an Jetway, the other one is Point of View. Also their Boards have different size. But I flashed them with the same Bios. They both have 512MB, but GPU-Z always show that the card on the second slot, no matter which one it is, only has 256 MB.
And the Nvidia Control Panel doesn´t even let me choose my second card for PhysX Acceleration. I can only Enable, Disable. Once I had a 8400 in second slot, I could choose which one for PhysX usage.

First of all, check that your MOTHERBOARD has the latest BIOS available. As I can see, latest one is version F7 for your motherboard. If you don't have this one, flash your MOTHERBOARD with it.
Then, check that the second PCIe is also controlled by the NorthBridge, as the first one. If the second PCIe is controlled by the SouthBridge, you have nothing to do, SLI is NOT possible under these circumstances (First PCIe controlled by the NB; Second one by the SB --> NO SLI)

 

[tifftrip]

Yeah, I also tried on Win7 x64, and yes, I have Bios Version F7. About PCIe-Slot controlled by Northbridge I don´t know, but I saw a picture on the site where the Complainings are of my Mainboard! One Month ago. It must work.

Where do I get the new Versions?

Here http://xdevs.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.30 they are not.


Also, I can´t use the Mod Driver Mod. Why is it, that only 190.62 for XP 32bit ist 76MB big, and the other around obe or two MB? When I combine (copy to system32 the "nvlddmkm" file, after Installation of the normal 190.62 from Nvidia Website??? Win 7 tells me it can´t use this driver, theres not even a Control Panel anymore. I disable UAC via Registry.

 

[tifftrip]

Ok. Now I installed just for testing modded 190.62 on Xp. (just for testing, I want it wo work with Win 7 for DX10). GPU-Z say "SLI Disabled (SLI available). Not bad but, I cant open Control Panel anymore.

 

[tifftrip]

There is a fucking Trojan in "SLIPatch 0.42 WinXP x32 alpha" TR/Patched.Gen from http://www.xdevs.com/sli/SLIPatch 0.42 WinXP x32 alpha.zip says my AntiVir!!

What the fuck is this??

 

[Mussels]

please edit instead of multiple posting.
The link you posted doesnt work.

What antivirus do you have?

 

[tifftrip]

Avira.

http://www.xdevs.com/sli/SLIPatch ...32 alpha.zip


Oh, it doesn´t work. I got it from here, in the middle:

http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/showthread.php?t=655591&page=4

 

[Mussels]

that file is clean.

You get what you deserve for using a weak heuristics based antivirus - its altering key components of the OS, of course its going to have suspicious behavior.

 

[tifftrip]

"You get what you deserve for using a weak heuristics based antivirus "

Do I have money?

 

[Mussels]

"You get what you deserve for using a weak heuristics based antivirus "

Do I have money?

not my problem. You took rather easily to assuming it was a virus, and abusing... well, i'm not sure who that abuse was aimed at - especially since the file wasnt even hosted here.

 

[tifftrip]

Come clear Man! I just thought I found a Virus.

 

[Mussels]

true. but you over-reacted.

Think about my job here: i cant have people causing panic, and you screaming "SLI MOD IS VIRUS!" could well have caused us 10 pages of calming people down, thinking they've infected their PC's.

 

[tifftrip]

How about deleting our little Conversation about Viruses, so User can get back to Topic.
(In this Case, my questions, why I dont get SLI to work, now that I have two similar Grafikboards.)


Ok. I will tell you about the steps I made.

I first installed SLIStringinstaller 2.0 one Month ago on Windows 7 x64.
Then I got my second 8800GT and builded it in: it was not detected right, and there was a new beta Dirver out, the second 196.xx. So I installed. After this I installed Sli Patch 0.2. I rebooted, I could chosse "Windows 7 x64 Sli" in Bootloader.
In Windows, there was no Option in Nvidia Control Panel to activate.
GPU-Z said "Disabled".
Then I installed drivers 191.xx 195.xx and used SLI Patch 0.42 and 0.5. (Can´t remenber in which order)
Same Results.

Like I already said above:

my two 8800Gt´s are not identical. One is an Jetway, the other one is Point of View. Also their Boards have different size. But I flashed them with the same Bios. They both have 512MB, but GPU-Z always show that the card on the second slot, no matter which one it is, only has 256 MB.

And the Nvidia Control Panel doesn´t even let me choose my second card for PhysX Acceleration. I can only Enable, Disable. Once I had a 8400 in second slot, I could choose which one for PhysX usage.


Additional Questions: What do you mean with "run the install.cmd from command line"? Why not doubleclicking the File?

What is "Test Mode"? Sorry, I´m German.

Another Problem I had always with disabeling UAC, when I did it Windows still asked stupid Questions. But now I did it via Registry, I think it is quite now.

 

[Velvet Wafer]

some boards simply wont work right. POSPC had to tape his 8800gt to pcie x4 to bring them to SLI in his biostar 790gx. mine run flawlessly, on a foxconn 790gx. if you dont messed something up, and tried all OSes, it may be your hardware. i also use different 8800gt, an EVGA and a BFG, theyre both reference i believe, even tho the EVGA has better Memory,a better Chip and a better Cooler. wasnt much of a heck, once i used win7 x64. but till today, my gpu-z shows me, that one card runs in
x8 2.0 @ x8 2.0 and one (the BFG) only in x8 2.0 @ x8.
some boards may not run,as said. or only partly.

youre asking for HAXX, to be true, dont expect them to work always. its a freetime project, no payed job.

try a few possiblities, and be sure to not patch with the wrong version (for another OS), and to disable UAC, best with a tool made specifically for that. i used such a prog, and never had probs afterwards.

 

[p_o_s_pc]

Just to add alittle input they don't have to be the same cards. Exp. I used a BFG+BFG and it was fine then i used a BFG+Nvidia(real Nvidia branded) and still worked fine. Now i would be of some help if i remembered how to do this but now that i am on the X58 and running only 1 card i forgot how to do it.

but can we get your hardware specs please that may help.

 

[Mussels]

tifftrip: my guess is that the ram showing up differently is the problem. even if you did get SLI working using the coolbits hack for cards with different ram sizes, you're going to end up with 256MB of usable ram total. not worth it unless you can fix the ram issue.

 

[tifftrip]

When I change the two cards GPU-Z says the second (which has been the first before) now has 4096 MB of Ram and 256 Shaders instead of 112.
The first one is shown right.

512 MB, not 256 as when it is in second Slot. But same card.

 

[Mussels]

that is very weird. The mod may not be compatible with your board... and if this is pre-mod, well shit.. thats one F'ed up motherboard

 

[tifftrip]

Hmm. Well, it is this Motherboard --->

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2455

Other System Specs:

2 x 2 Gig DDR2 1066 @ 950 Mhz Dualchannel, G-Skill

3 x Western Digital SATA2 HD, 2 in Raid 0 (1140Gb in all)

Core2Duo 4300 @ 3.15 Ghz

600Watt Tagan

X-Fi Music

SATA DVD Writer


Windows XP x32
and Win 7 x64

hmm, guess that´s it.

 

[tifftrip]

I flahed with an Point of View Bios from http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/

I got PCIExpress Overclock down to Original 100 in Mainboard Bios.

No difference.

Card in second slot is always shown with different Memory size. In worse Case with different Shader amount also.