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

[mypg0306]

I found out in my DSDT, it say nvidia SLi "not present". No matter how many times I tried to reinstalled the SLI patch, it is still "not present". Can someone explain why? Thanks in advanced.

 

[anatolymik]

I found out in my DSDT, it say nvidia SLi "not present". No matter how many times I tried to reinstalled the SLI patch, it is still "not present". Can someone explain why? Thanks in advanced.

you have sli works?

 

[mypg0306]

yap. with connector bridge.

 

[soundood]

260.89 WHQL drivers released: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-winvista-64bit-260.89-whql-driver-uk.html

i will try them tonight with the newest sli patch, anyone else having a go?

 

[elbubi]

Thanks once again for your concern.

Tonight when I get home I will continue testing and give you further information.

With sli disabled I did not get any bsod, but to be honest I didn´t spend to much time with it disabled (I was too anxious to enable it ).

I will get a picture of bsod's, but as far as I rememer all of them were the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" type.

Thanks indeed for your kind support Anatolymik!

Ps: Today v260.89 has became official WHQL

Some updated news:

With SLi disabled upon sli profile I get no bsod's. Last night I got a new bsod legend (not irql bla bla bla) but "SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION" with stop: 0X0000003B.

Later I will keep digging and let you know any new info

Thanks once again!!!

 

[ich71092]

i will try them tonight with the newest sli patch, anyone else having a go?

I used this driver as beta version since a week and it works .
Now with WHQL it works too.

 

[anatolymik]

yap. with connector bridge.

so what's a problem?

 

[erocker]

I used this driver as beta version since a week and it works .
Now with WHQL it works too.

A question... Do you just uninstall the old drivers and install the new or do you need to re-apply the patch as well?

 

[johnspack]

I believe it's like the 0.8 patch, you just upgrade the driver and that's it. I'll be trying this out shortly myself.

 

[johnspack]

Yes, I can verify that all you need to do is update your driver, in my case I didn't even bother to uninstall old driver first. Just had a nice little zombie session in DR2......

 

[mypg0306]

so what's a problem?

Just wanna to ask why my DSDT show SLI 'not present'? How to fix it?

 

[sprach]

Yes, I can verify that all you need to do is update your driver, in my case I didn't even bother to uninstall old driver first. Just had a nice little zombie session in DR2......

Did you update the driver in SLI mode boot option upon OS selection or in the normal boot option?
Thanks.

 

[ich71092]

Do you just uninstall the old drivers and install the new or do you need to re-apply the patch as well?

Just installed the new driver and activate SLI in the nvidia systemsettings.
Haven´t done sth with the Patch.

 

[johnspack]

I updated in sli mode, with bridge installed.

 

[dbphelps]

Re: 260.98 WHQL Released drivers, I installed them in my Asus Crosshair III Formula with dual GTX280s in SLI, already running the new 0.9b and install went flawless as well as 3 hours of solid gaming with no crashes. I played SC2, AvP, Crysis and Sacred 2, all without issue.

 

[elbubi]

Well, have tested SLi little further

With stock clocks, I get this results in vantage with sli disabled/enabled

I´m very happy with the results and to see that SLi Patch is AWESOME!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anatolymik, here I paste a photo of the bsod I get once in a while (doing nothing or in vantage or benchmarking (LP2 for example)):

I do also get another one with the legend "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", but today I only got the previous one so I couldn't take a shot from it (yet )

I have noticed that almost every time that I get a bsod, I have MSIAfterburner OSD running in background to check temps and gpu usage, could that be triggering the bsod's???

Best Regards and THANKS as always!!!

 

[johnspack]

I usually only use monitoring apps like afterburner when I want to check something, otherwise I leave them off. Try running for awhile without it and see if the bsods stop.

 

[elbubi]

I usually only use monitoring apps like afterburner when I want to check something, otherwise I leave them off. Try running for awhile without it and see if the bsods stop.

I´m doing that atm, so far tried benchs of Mafia 2, NBA2K11, LP2, and a few minutes gameplay of Singularity, Trine, and Sniper Ghost Warrior. So far so good, it´s a shame I can't overclock gpu's cause of restricted space/airflow, could squeeze at least 20% more with ov/oc :shadedshu. But ey, I'm running sli

Gigabyte ga-790ftxa-ud5 should be added to the supported mb list for slipatch

 

[elbubi]

Another BSOD, this time just entering Windows desktop

Cheers

 

[EGOvoruhk]

Looking back over the past few pages of comments, it looks like the patch isn't using a modified HAL.dll anymore? And a quick glance at the new version, it looks like it's now using a loader, I'm guessing similar to that of a Windows OEM activation loader? Is that right, anatolymik?

And don't worry, no nVidia guy here

 

[johnspack]

Hmm, that bsod doesn't seem to be video related. How much are you ocing your cards? I've now found out by trial and error that you can't oc as high when sli ing them. My cards are stable at 1566 shaders by themselves, but when sli'd are only stable at 1458 shaders. Try backing down your oc. Also is your cpu and ram oced? Check everything.

 

[elbubi]

Thanks for your reply johnspack.

I´m using both vga's at stock clocks, not even 1mhz overclock

Cpu overclocked to 4ghz v1.5 (from 3,2ghz v1.4) and northbride to 2600mhz v1.2 (from 2000 v1.1). Now that I have sli enabled I´ve rechecked stability with prime95, occt and linx, and it´s all 100% stable too (1 hour test each). So I guess that it might not be overclock related, but i´m only guessing.

Best Regards

 

[johnspack]

Yeah, I'm still leaning stuff.. I've got 6 sata devices, and the one my games are installed on apparently was on a bad cable. I replaced it and I'm able to use higher oc now with no lockups. Oops! I'm going to cross my fingers and start ramping up the clocks....

 

[johnspack]

I'll post some screenies of the new fallout new vegas, at full 1920x1200 and ultra settings. 70-110fps with sli. I'll include fps box. Have to wait until tomorrow, I'm tired, and this took a lot of work to overvolt and overclock my cards...

 

[JDougNY]

Another BSOD, this time just entering Windows desktop

Page faults point to issues between the North Bridge and memory. The potential problems could be:
1) North Bridge needs more voltage
2) Memory needs voltage/timing adjustment

I will mention that I've been getting odd BSOD's on cold starts, since using the recent sli patch and Nvidia drivers 258.xx (including a page fault out of nowhere). Once the system reboots, everything runs stable. Whatever the case, I have SLI and that's all that matters. If it has to reboot once from a cold start, I'll deal with it.