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

[anatolymik]

ok. keep test with different games

 

[Triton.se]

Even with just a single card and 257.21 Metro2033 blackscreens and crashes quite often while alt+tabbing, at least for me.

Oh... thats a surprise... any driver would / should work well with ONE gpu, but you mention alt tabbbing...means shifting 2GB data to HDD...

 

[soundood]

im going to bed now, need to get up for work soon, will test tommorow with bad company 2

goodnight guys, and keep up the good work

cheers

 

[Triton.se]

nn & gg mate

 

[Triton.se]

reboot with #2 of 258.96: Metro2033 crashes when I load a save game

Testing L4D.

 

[anatolymik]

i have my system stable 2 hours 20 minutes

 

[Triton.se]

l4d was 97% all great. no stutter etc, but not 100.00% smooth at occasions, couldnt see fps drops, just visual not smooth. I give it OK anyhow.

 

[Velvet Wafer]

l4d was 97% all great. no stutter etc, but not 100.00% smooth at occasions, couldnt see fps drops, just visual not smooth. I give it OK anyhow.

do you use Vsync? if not, i may tell you, that SLI can induce image tearing

 

[Triton.se]

I'll test Metro2033, new game DX9 and move up

edit ///

game started playing after changes that required restarting the game. any changes w/o restartng = crash. tested dx10 @ high, AAA, all high..decent, not worse than I played thru with at spring.

 

[Triton.se]

do you use Vsync? if not, i may tell you, that SLI can induce image tearing

no vsync, turn them all off...l4d is one of those games you want mouse to work 100% !

 

[papatsonis]

win7 x64 proff, 2xGTX470 , X48 Rampage Formula, i confirm that 45mins Battlefield Bad company 2, were ok, but, cards cant monitor gpu load , stuck at 0% (minor problem though) , also clocks seem to stay at full 3d as i see from watt-o-meter

 

[johnspack]

Negate my reports, I've discovered another issue, and I will probably have to redo all my sli tests now. Sorry.

 

[JDougNY]

ok. keep test with different games

My results with Driver Version 258.96 and patch

3dMark Vantage = nominal difference
Mafia 2 Benchmark = same score
Need For Speed Shift = +3 FPS
Dirt 2 = same score
Stalker Call of Pripyat = +2 FPS

I'll be gaming tonight, so if I run into any issues I'll let you know.
Thanks for working this out!

 

[anatolymik]

Negate my reports, I've discovered another issue, and I will probably have to redo all my sli tests now. Sorry.

what's the matter?

 

[anatolymik]

I'll test Metro2033, new game DX9 and move up

edit ///

game started playing after changes that required restarting the game. any changes w/o restartng = crash. tested dx10 @ high, AAA, all high..decent, not worse than I played thru with at spring.

it's strange because i haven't such problems with this game

 

[anatolymik]

As for Metro 2033:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=419933&mpage=1#421255

if you google it you found many issues

 

[anatolymik]

any news with testing?

 

[anatolymik]

http://www.gamebrood.com/2010/03/18...-glitches-cant-launch-and-more-fix-and-fixes/

for Metro 2033. sort out the problems. there are issues and solves

 

[Arisu]

Generic SLI Fix v1.1 for NVIDIA ForceWare Vista/7, Version 258.69 or higher

Hey guys,

I've compiled a generic patcher based on anatolymik's modded ForceWare drivers.
This should work with any existing or future driver version since 258.69, but you still need to have SLIPatch installed.

History:

(2010-09-22) Released ForceWare SLI Patch v1.0 based on anatolymik's Build 2.
(2010-09-23) Released ForceWare SLI Patch v1.1 based on anatolymik's Build 3.
​

If anything goes wrong:

Boot into Safe Mode, go into "C:\Windows\System32\drivers" and rename "nvlddmkm.sys.BAK" to "nvlddmkm.sys". This restores your original driver.
If there's no .BAK, then either the patch couldn't be applied and thus your driver never has been modified or you've disabled the "Make backup" checkbox while patching.
​

How to update to a newer build:

You have two options here:

• Reinstall ForceWare
• Replace nvlddmkm.sys with the unmodified version before patching. Same driver version only!

To take option B, you need the original NVIDIA driver file:

• If you used this patcher, see "If anything goes wrong" without booting into Safe Mode.
• If you didn't use this patcher and didn't make your own backup, you can extract the file from the ForceWare installer.
  
  To do this, open the installer with WinRAR or 7-Zip and extract "nvlddmkm.sy_" to your desktop. This file is under the "Display.Driver" subdirectory since ForceWare 260. Now hold your Windows key, press R and then type in:
  

  cmd /C "@chdir /D %USERPROFILE%\Desktop && @expand /R nvlddmkm.sy_ && @rename nvlddmkm.sy nvlddmkm.sys && @erase nvlddmkm.sy_ && @pause"

  
  You should now have a "nvlddmkm.sys" on your desktop. To verify everything went right, right-click on it, select "Properties" and open the "Digital Signatures" tab. Click the "Details" button and it should say: "This digital signature is OK." and the signer name should be "NVIDIA Corporation".
  All you you have to do now is move the "nvlddmkm.sys" into the "C:\Windows\System32\drivers" directory.

Whichever way you took; after restoring the original driver you can successfully use the patcher again.
​

Antivirus warnings:

A few antivirus programs such as NOD32 are detecting this as HackTool/Patcher. This is not a virus, but something termed "potentially unwanted software", because this is often used for (illegally) cracking all kinds of software. If you don't know what this means, ask someone you trust.
​

I primarily made this for my own use, but I'll try to keep this patcher up to date with anatolymik's recent work and hope it is useful.

Have fun!
~ Arisu ~

Please note: The 32-bit versions are untested! Please report your experiences.

 

[anatolymik]

Great new! I would like to see the project has joining

 

[Triton.se]

Morning !

OK, gotta test more games now, and maybe install other ones like Crysis/Warhead/Far Cry 2 etc

deal later with Metro2033 (played it thru once), not important game for me. I could compare benchmark results later (vs 257.15), thread found at 'guru3d's benchmark mayhem section'

results: Avg fps increased from 20-25 to almost 30 compared to 257.15 drivers, this is 25-30%
Very High, DX10, 4xAA, 16xAF, 1920x1080 rez

 

[anatolymik]

Ok . I'm at work now. I'll get back to driver after it.

 

[anatolymik]

I've compiled a patcher, based on anatolymik's Build 2 of his modded ForceWare drivers, that works with any driver version (for Vista/7 x64 only!).
This is currently tested with ForceWare 258.69, 258.96 and 260.63, but should work with future drivers as well. The file is attached to this post.

http://www.xdevs.com/sli/ForceWare x64 SLI Patch v1.0.exe

 

[anatolymik]

johnspack how'r your results?

 

[johnspack]

Sorry, will retest all tomorrow. Turns out my pci-e tuner card has been messing with my video for almost a year. I pulled it, now my gtx280 is alive again, so next win install will be my sli gtx260s. No prob, I have 5 win installs, what's one more?
Sorry, premature results anatolymik, give me one more day. I should have surprising results....