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

[anatolymik]

I've tried with 265.90 drivers, but I do not work, I get the time, the display driver has stopped working, and the screen goes black..

when you get black screen? with which drivers you have no issues with latest patch?

 

[D4L70N]

when you get black screen? with which drivers you have no issues with latest patch?

With the final 1.0 patch and 260.99, is perfect.

But I tried the 265.90 with the final 1.0 patch, and is fatal. Just enter windows, it starts to flash and the screen stays black.

 

[anatolymik]

With the final 1.0 patch and 260.99, is perfect.

But I tried the 265.90 with the final 1.0 patch, and is fatal. Just enter windows, it starts to flash and the screen stays black.

try to use 266.xx drivers

 

[D4L70N]

Ok, I test and comment in a while.

Any special driver on the 266.?

 

[aXeL_UK]

Caution regarding use of Rivatuner

Hi All, wanted to share an observation on my system with Rivatuner. My SLI setup has been stable and happy for awhile now (NV 260.99, SLI 0.91b - never had a reason to change). However, whenever I install Rivatuner, doesn't matter which version, the system becomes very unstable very quickly with freezes on the desktop and logons. Usually this results in windows no longer booting. However I've been using Win7 backup which enables me to be back up and running in minutes from a boot cd. Tested Rivatuner again and again. The system is fine until I use the tool and then from the next reboot it will start to go horribly wrong. EVGA Precision tool has the same problem. As long as I stay away from them, SLI seems solid.

Going to try MSI Afterburner instead since I've got two 480s with aquagrafx blocks that never go above 46C in any test so I'm keen to overclock them.

 

[D4L70N]

I already tried the patch 1.0 with the 266.35 BETA drivers, and yes it works, the worse it seems, who give less performance than the 260.99 ...

3DMARK Vantage.

260.99 + patch 1.0 = 25.032



266.35 Beta + patch 1.0 = 24.964



I've had several times to make sure, but no way it hits 25,000 points. The setup is exactly the same for the two tests.

 

[johnspack]

Running sli with my gtx285s with 265.90 drivers under xp64 with my own modded inf. Black Ops running perfectly, smooth as silk! Using the 2nd ver 1.0 slipatch.

 

[largon]

Ack!
I was having huge trouble finding a download link for SLIP 1.0 final and as I have signatures hidden so I naturally didn't see the link in anatolymik's signature.
Might be a good idea to add one to OP or xdevs' reference article.

 

[johnspack]

Having one weird issue with my sli. With the current driver, I can't oc even a little bit. Computer locks up when I start a game, but at stock clocks I can game for hours. These card are ocing beasts, so I don't know what's going on. I may try other drivers to see if that changes anything. I did notice with my sli 260s, I couldn't oc as high as with a single card either. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[johnspack]

Okay, testing the 266.35 drivers now. So far everything seems stable, and I actually can oc my cards again. Must have been something weird with the beta quadro drivers I guess. Will try higher oc, and a few more games to be certain.

 

[D4L70N]

Has anyone tried the patch 1.0 + the WHQL 266.58?

 

[D4L70N]

790XTA-UD4 - SLI Gigabyte GTX460 1GB OC.

SLI patch 1.0 Final + 266.58 WHQL= Perfect!

 

[RiC@RDOC]

Hi anatolymik,

I have dual boot with Win 7 64 and XP 32, Sli patch works flawless in Win 7 but when i try installing sli patch in Win XP i get this:

Is there a way to force the installation in XP or i'm doing something wrong?

Thanks for your great work, keep it up

Edit: I was able to figure it out, disabling the hdd with Win 7 and booting directly from Win XP hdd give me the option to install the patch.

 

[johnspack]

Confirming 266.58 under xp64 so far. Good performers and stable. Able to oc my cards as well. Will be trying under win7 64 next.

 

[johnspack]

I know I have mentioned this before, but it merits attention. Apparently, when using this method, I suppose, overclocking is much more touchy in sli. You will have to use more lower clocks. My cards can do 1656 shaders by themselves, but in sil max out at 1548. Any higher can result in crashes or lockups. Make sure to test this sli patch, do it with stock clocks to start. At my current settings, I'm stable with 266.58 drivers.

 

[juanchacin]

REPORTING:

Using SLI Patch v1.0 Build 20.14 with the Forceware 266.58, working correctly, no issues so far

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND KEEP REPORTING.

 

[manut2500]

With SLI Patch v1.0 build 33.22 and 266.58 , battlefield bad company 2 ok, modern warfare ok but just cause 2 black screen freeze and need to push reset button and safe mode

 

[johnspack]

Discovered setting gtl ref for nb is helpful. Also, know your mobo stable nb volts. By setting cpu and nb gtl, and getting the nb volts just right allowed me to further oc my cards in sli. Didn't know this was going to be so much work!
Edit: verified! I've got my shaders at 1584 now, and still testing. Makes a huge difference in stability.

 

[johnspack]

Big difference, BlackOps at 1920x1200 with 8x aa, shader warming, shadows on, shaders on extra, everything maxxed, 78-91fps constant:

 

[whitrzac]

first post so take it easy....

I spend 3hours searching for something like this

I can't get the 266 drivers to work, when I try to enable SLI it goes blackscreen with a flashing curser, after 4-5min windows pops back with a generic video driver...


specs
vista 32bit
Intel D975XB2 Intel Bad Axe 2
e6300
2x 7800gtx 256mb(paid $30 for both)
2gb mushkin pc5300, 4gb coarsair pc6400 is in the mail.

first pass of 3dmark06 is 6600 with no OC

 

[johnspack]

First: make sure to use stock clocks.

Second: not sure if this works with cards under 8x series....

 

[Sinzia]

I would think it would work with those cards, I wouldn't recommend it, however, since you can get cheap used 8800's and 9800's on the for sale threads here.

I would be more worried about how the layout on the board is, with the traces going to the southbridge and the CPU, if thats the case, then you can't use SLiHack to enable it, all the traces need to be going to the same place.

 

[Velvet Wafer]

I would be more worried about how the layout on the board is, with the traces going to the southbridge and the CPU, if thats the case, then you can't use SLiHack to enable it, all the traces need to be going to the same place.

Anatolymik once stated this is hackable, but he also said that it will be done later in the hack

 

[Sinzia]

Anatolymik once stated this is hackable, but he also said that it will be done later in the hack

Thanks for correcting me, its been a while since I looked at the restrictions.

 

[whitrzac]

forgot to add that it works with the 260 drivers...