SLI with different cards

[topmysteries5]

This new patch does no longer allow for SLIing different cards. Instead of 'SLI with different cards' you might call it now 'SLI on any MoBo'

@P!nkpanther We can happily say again that SLIing same type of non-SLI GPUs is possible, that too on latest drivers.
This means GT 1030, GTX 1050, GTX 1050Ti, GTX 1060s can SLI on 417.71 driver (same GPUs only).

 

[P!nkpanther]

@P!nkpanther We can happily say again that SLIing same type of non-SLI GPUs is possible, that too on latest drivers.
This means GT 1030, GTX 1050, GTX 1050Ti, GTX 1060s can SLI on 417.71 driver (same GPUs only).

Agreed. And thank you for testing resp. for the benchmarks.
It needs to be said that PCIe bus load is a lot higher with these cards without SLI bridge. That's probably one of the main reasons why your 3-/4-way SLI scaling tests showed diminishing returns.
Also important to know is that benchmark programs which try to emulate gameplay, like Unigine Heaven/Valley etc., make heavy use of the shaders, but do not stress the PCIe bus significantly. Try a benchmark like Star Swarm Stress Test in RTS mode, which renders an insane count of polygons, and you'll see what i mean...

 

[topmysteries5]

Agreed. And thank you for testing resp. for the benchmarks.
It needs to be said that PCIe bus load is a lot higher with these cards without SLI bridge. That's probably one of the main reasons why your 3-/4-way SLI scaling tests showed diminishing returns.
Also important to know is that benchmark programs which try to emulate gameplay, like Unigine Heaven/Valley etc., make heavy use of the shaders, but do not stress the PCIe bus significantly. Try a benchmark like Star Swarm Stress Test in RTS mode, which renders an insane count of polygons, and you'll see what i mean...

Ok, friend. I will do Star Swarm Stress Test in RTS mode for you, I will upload screenshots of results very soon

Unigine Heaven/Valley benchmarks also utilize higher GHz CPU. My xeon was at 3.67Ghz, if you test it with 7700K, 8700K, then you'll get more FPS on same GPUs due to higher single thread performance.

 

[phoenixfire425]

Would this be worth doing with a GTX 1050ti and a GTX 1070?? Would i see any increase or is it to much of a difference?

 

[TheD3VO]

Hello all,

I was curious if it is possible to sli a Zotac 1060 6gb and Gigabyte RTX 2070? 121 pages is a lot to comb through. Thank you in advance.

dang just read SLI with NVlink isn't supported on the RTX2070 Grrrrr

 

[P!nkpanther]

Would this be worth doing with a GTX 1050ti and a GTX 1070?? Would i see any increase or is it to much of a difference?

Not worth it, because the max. theoretical framerate is twice that of the slower card. And in reality it's even lower than that.

I was curious if it is possible to sli a Zotac 1060 6gb and Gigabyte RTX 2070?

Even without the problem with the bridge, it would not be possible due to the different GPU architecture of 1xxx and 2xxx

 

[Piranha]

Hi!

I have 4 x GTX 1050 Ti driving 11 Displays. Unity engine has a limitation of max 8 displays. Currently I'm using "nVidia Surround" to make at least 4 Displays appear as one display in Windows (and therefore in Unity).
Can I use this SLI-hack to make "nVidia surround" using mutiple card to make 5 displays appear as one display? (I'm asking because maximum displays of one card is 4)

 

[topmysteries5]

Would this be worth doing with a GTX 1050ti and a GTX 1070?? Would i see any increase or is it to much of a difference?

Thats not possible, SLI is only possible on same GPUs. I have tried GTX 1080 with GTX 1070. With newer drivers, SLI option dont even appear. On older drivers, SLI appears but causes sudden BSOD.

Hi!

I have 4 x GTX 1050 Ti driving 11 Displays. Unity engine has a limitation of max 8 displays. Currently I'm using "nVidia Surround" to make at least 4 Displays appear as one display in Windows (and therefore in Unity).
Can I use this SLI-hack to make "nVidia surround" using mutiple card to make 5 displays appear as one display? (I'm asking because maximum displays of one card is 4)

I don't think it will work, because Surround option is just greyed out (locked). only SLI works for now

@P!nkpanther and @Pretentious,
Linus has demonstrated Different SLI auto on his YouTube channel step by step. I hope it doesn't bring attention of Nvidia, otherwise this mod is just DEAD, if Nvidia patches the next drivers.
And now we have confirmed that this mod works on latest 417.71 drivers too.

 

[P!nkpanther]

Since my last install instruction post did not cover the patch location for 471.17 correctly, I want to summarize here again the new way of patching/installing (4.xx driver generation) in one single post:

• The install procedure for Windows 10 is still the same as outlined in this post (start reading below the video):
  https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/sli-with-different-cards.158907/post-3968942
• Except that for patching nvlddmkm.sys you no longer use DifferentSLIauto.exe, but have to modify a series of bytes using a hex editor:
  For 417.35: From address 002BB52F onwards change '75 05 0F BA 6B 24 0E' to 'C7 43 24 00 00 00 00'
  For 417.71: From address 002BBFCF onwards change '75 05 0F BA 6B 24 0E' to 'C7 43 24 00 00 00 00'
• This new patch does no longer allow for SLIing different card variants of the same architecture. Instead of 'SLI with different cards' you might call it now 'SLI on any MoBo'

Thanks to Pretentious for opening up this new way for patching the current generation of drivers!

If you get SignTool errors, check out this post for the fix:
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/sli-with-different-cards.158907/post-3323103
Replace the respective lines with those written in bold.

 

[topmysteries5]

Agreed. And thank you for testing resp. for the benchmarks.
It needs to be said that PCIe bus load is a lot higher with these cards without SLI bridge. That's probably one of the main reasons why your 3-/4-way SLI scaling tests showed diminishing returns.
Also important to know is that benchmark programs which try to emulate gameplay, like Unigine Heaven/Valley etc., make heavy use of the shaders, but do not stress the PCIe bus significantly. Try a benchmark like Star Swarm Stress Test in RTS mode, which renders an insane count of polygons, and you'll see what i mean...

Here is result of Star Swarm Stress Test in RTS mode.
Average FPS was around 40 FPS,
Minimum was 20 FPS. Also not all 4 GPUs were getting used. seems some issue with SLI profiles. Unigine Superposition benchmark also have SLI profile problem.

@P!nkpanther is it possible to load modded drivers with test mode disabled ? It causes problem in many games.
around 4-5 years back I used Creative sound blaster driver modded on realtek onboard audio. at that time it was working without enabling test signing. it was on Windows 7

 

[P!nkpanther]

@P!nkpanther and @Pretentious,
Linus has demonstrated Different SLI auto on his YouTube channel step by step. I hope it doesn't bring attention of Nvidia, otherwise this mod is just DEAD, if Nvidia patches the next drivers.

@P!nkpanther is it possible to load modded drivers with test mode disabled ? It causes problem in many games.

That has always been the big issue with this method and Linus seems to have failed to mention that in his video. No BattlEye etc.
AFAIK all you could do is to manually 'disable driver signature enforcement' every time on boot.

Also the procedure shown in the video skips some steps, which might be important, and does not always work.
E.g. finding the offset by searching the byte pattern may turn out wrong, as may be not verifying the active driver path in device manager, etc.

And as far as the P106 is concerned: The 4.xx driver patch shown in the video does no longer support different GPUs
The 'old' way of patching (using driver 388.71 patched using DifferentSLIAuto.exe version 1.7.1) however probably would allow a P106 in SLI along with a 1060.

Here is result of Star Swarm Stress Test in RTS mode.
Average FPS was around 40 FPS,
Minimum was 20 FPS. Also not all 4 GPUs were getting used. seems some issue with SLI profiles. Unigine Superposition benchmark also have SLI profile problem.

Thanks, but I have no comparisons for these results, since I have totally different hardware.
What I meant in my statement is testing SLI scaling, i.e. how much FPS improves on activating SLI without a bridge, compared to a single card.
I'm quite sure that without an SLI bridge, scaling can still be quite good in most normal games, but not in circumstances where a large number of objects is pushed across the PCIe bus, like in Star Swarm's RTS scenario.

 

[topmysteries5]

That has been the big issue with this method and Linus seems to have failed to mention that in his video. No BattlEye etc.
AFAIK all you could do is manually 'disable driver signature enforcement' every time on boot.

Thanks, but I have no comparisons for these results, since I have totally different hardware.
What I meant in my statement is testing SLI scaling, i.e. how much FPS improves on activating SLI without a bridge, compared to a single card.
I'm quite sure that without an SLI bridge, scaling can be quite good in most normal games, but not in circumstances where a large number of objects is pushed across the PCIe bus, like in Star Swarm's RTS scenario.

Only one GPUs was utilized in Star Swarm test.
I removed other two GPUs and then remaining two 1050tis were @ x16 lanes. I tried SFR by forcing it via nvidia inspector. then two gpus were utilized and avg fps jumped from 40s to 65s but during benchmark it caused lots of glitches, flickering horizontal white lines flowing from top to bottom.

Also i tested Battlefield 1 @1080p ultra settings (100% resolution scaling), there was no FPS increase on latest drivers, but both GPUs were utilized, avg was 50-55 FPS,
whereas on older 388 drivers, FPS jumped to 80-85 FPS. GTA 5 was also crashing.

EDIT:-=============================================

I fixed Battlefield 1 performance loss by turning it into windowed mode from full screen.
Now, avg FPS was 90-95.

 

[Pretentious]

Thats not possible, SLI is only possible on same GPUs. I have tried GTX 1080 with GTX 1070. With newer drivers, SLI option dont even appear. On older drivers, SLI appears but causes sudden BSOD.


I don't think it will work, because Surround option is just greyed out (locked). only SLI works for now

@P!nkpanther and @Pretentious,
Linus has demonstrated Different SLI auto on his YouTube channel step by step. I hope it doesn't bring attention of Nvidia, otherwise this mod is just DEAD, if Nvidia patches the next drivers.
And now we have confirmed that this mod works on latest 417.71 drivers too.

If you're whiling and have the time to patch the driver with different offsets I can take a look and try to hook up the functions that would allow mixing different GPU's, e.g 1080 with a 1070. I currently have a couple of 1080 TI's so I am unable to make sure I hook the right functions. All I can do is give you the offsets that I suspect to be the correct ones so that you can patch the driver yourself and then give me back feedback if it worked or not.

Let me know if you're interested.

P.S: For those into virtualization , you can do SLI in KVM using our method even though people claim it not to be possible see: https://www.reddit.com/r/VFIO/comments/6kp30v

EDIT: I just finished watching the LTT video - FYI I'm situated in Vancouver as well so if you guys would like a hand getting the P06 to work using this method I'm up for it

 

[mxxm]

hy, im new to techpu.

I get stuck on importing file. any tips? I think the problem is on signature app?

 

[Pretentious]

hy, im new to techpu.

I get stuck on importing file. any tips? I think the problem is on signature app?

Look through the last 5 pages, there is a link that will show you how to solve the signing error.

 

[topmysteries5]

If you're whiling and have the time to patch the driver with different offsets I can take a look and try to hook up the functions that would allow mixing different GPU's, e.g 1080 with a 1070. I currently have a couple of 1080 TI's so I am unable to make sure I hook the right functions. All I can do is give you the offsets that I suspect to be the correct ones so that you can patch the driver yourself and then give me back feedback if it worked or not.

Let me know if you're interested.

P.S: For those into virtualization , you can do SLI in KVM using our method even though people claim it not to be possible see: https://www.reddit.com/r/VFIO/comments/6kp30v

EDIT: I just finished watching the LTT video - FYI I'm situated in Vancouver as well so if you guys would like a hand getting the P06 to work using this method I'm up for it

@Pretentious I'm interested and would be happy to provide feedback to make this driver mod progress forward. BTW i dont have GTX 1070s anymore. sold them few weeks ago. if required I can arrange it from my friends here for doing this experiment. Right now i have 4x 1050tis and a GTX 1080 amp extreme.

 

[mxxm]

I now finally enable sli, both 1070s. Hehe, directx12 is not supported and on benchmark get lower score then runing just one.

 

[saiallexander]

The 'old' way of patching (using driver 388.71 patched using DifferentSLIAuto.exe version 1.7.1) however probably would allow a P106 in SLI along with a 1060.

I already tried this, sadly it wont work .. when I enable sli in nvidia cp result in bsod. But if I use 2x1060 or 2xP106 it works flawlessly

 

[topmysteries5]

I already tried this, sadly it wont work .. when I enable sli in nvidia cp result in bsod. But if I use 2x1060 or 2xP106 it works flawlessly

It may work if you can flash GTX 1060 bios on P106. Now you can also flash cross-brand BIOS on GTX 1000 series.
If this doesn't work, then last way will be to physically swap BIOS chip (EEPROM).

 

[saiallexander]

I think P106 not really worth since I found out some games (for example RE 2 Remake) refuse to use it even though in windows 10 setting I already set the app to use P106, but it still use my Integrated GPU Intel HD

the best investment in my experience is using normal 1060 SLI, more cheaper than gtx 1080 but if game support SLI it can scale like 100% improvement. Prey 4K Very High 25fps - SLI 50fps

 

[topmysteries5]

I think P106 not really worth since I found out some games (for example RE 2 Remake) refuse to use it even though in windows 10 setting I already set the app to use P106, but it still use my Integrated GPU Intel HD

the best investment in my experience is using normal 1060 SLI, more cheaper than gtx 1080 but if game support SLI it can scale like 100% improvement. Prey 4K Very High 25fps - SLI 50fps

Like your 1060 SLI, 1050ti also has very good scaling but only till 2 way SLI, 3 way in some cases only. After end of mining craze. 2nd hand used market has flooded with these GPUs. Here in my country used 1050ti is available @ approx 85usd and 1060 for approx 130 usd.
To further increase performance of your 1060's, you can flash it with Asus 1060 bios which has higher power limit and boost, and oc both gpus equally via msi afterburner. Most of the time many games dont support SLI at all.

 

[saiallexander]

oc both gpus

the pcie in my mobo are very close, I couldn't oc my cards since its already very hot.

Most of the time many games dont support SLI at all

true, sli not just plug n play. for example Prey by default not support SLI, but by using Nvidia Inspector it can be enable and by my surprise it scale very well

 

[Pretentious]

@Pretentious I'm interested and would be happy to provide feedback to make this driver mod progress forward. BTW i dont have GTX 1070s anymore. sold them few weeks ago. if required I can arrange it from my friends here for doing this experiment. Right now i have 4x 1050tis and a GTX 1080 amp extreme.

Awesome, I will work on this in the next couple of days and report back once I'm done.

 

[P!nkpanther]

...then two gpus were utilized and avg fps jumped from 40s to 65s but during benchmark it caused lots of glitches, flickering horizontal white lines flowing from top to bottom.

Also i tested Battlefield 1 @1080p ultra settings (100% resolution scaling), there was no FPS increase on latest drivers, but both GPUs were utilized, avg was 50-55 FPS,
whereas on older 388 drivers, FPS jumped to 80-85 FPS. GTA 5 was also crashing.

EDIT:-=============================================
I fixed Battlefield 1 performance loss by turning it into windowed mode from full screen.
Now, avg FPS was 90-95.

Thanks for testing. Looks like on your first try with the 4.xx drivers Battlefield 1 probably was running with Vsync on, which got disabled on switching to windowed mode.

And for Star Swarm, the scaling looks surprisingly good, the artifacts however may be a result of an overloaded PCIe bus (latency).

I get stuck on importing file. any tips? I think the problem is on signature app?

Look through the last 5 pages, there is a link that will show you how to solve the signing error.

I added that link to my latest install post above.

 

[Pretentious]

It's that time of the month again

418.81
===========
00000000002C35A3: 75 C7
00000000002C35A4: 05 43
00000000002C35A5: 0F 24
00000000002C35A6: BA 00
00000000002C35A7: 6B 00
00000000002C35A8: 24 00
00000000002C35A9: 0E 00