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SLI option not showing up. I thought Nvidia drivers 'just worked'

Soldato
Joined
27 Nov 2009
Posts
3,869
Location
Maidstone, Kent
I've already made fun of Nvidia in the title, so no need for the ATI brigade to come along unless you can help...

Got my 2nd GTX470 through yesterday, and installed this morning. Nvidia would have you believe that you simply put the card in, put the SLI connector on, then startup and everything will be fine. Did that. No SLI option in NCP.

Ok, reinstalled 256.98 drivers.

Nope.

Ok, uninstalled 256.98 drivers, restarted and then reinstalled 256.98...

...Nope

Ran a test of BC2 to see if there's an improvement - no.

Checked Device Manager - yep under display adapters, 2 GTX470s.

Checked System Info in NCP - yep, 2 GTX470s.

Updated motherboard BIOS, still nothing.

As far as I'm aware, there's no 'enable SLI' option on the motherboard, and I certainly couldn't find one.

I then uninstalled again, then rebooted, let Windows find drivers, rebooted, then installed 256.98. Nope. Tried getting the latest SLI Profiles, still nothing.

WTH! Why isn't this happening? I seem to recall I had issues getting 2 9800GTs working in my brother's computer some time ago, and this seems to be the same.

System specs are:
CPU: Xeon X3450
Mobo: Maximus III Gene (yes it's SLI compatible)
Memory: 4GB OCZ Intel Extreme DDR3
GPU: 2 GTX470s
PSU: Gigabyte Odin 1200W (yes, all leads are plugged in)

NCP allows me to set the Physx config, so I can set that to the second GTX470, but no SLI options.

Have I missed something? Any suggestions? 'Cause I'm a bit annoyed right now, and may not be thinking perfectly straight.
 
Marvin , BFBC2 is currently having issues with SLI and GTX 470 / 480!. Doesn't affect everyone one but it sure is an issue.. Same with stuttering and gpu usage :(

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=170238

The game doesn't like the new cards for some reason , again does not affect everyone. Wait and see what the beta driver does for you , due soon

EDIT : ooops i see your talking about SLI in general , duh stupid me. Maybe the beta's will fix that too lol
 
Have you tried each card individually and also swapping them around? Also, How much of a pain would it be for you to do a reinstall of windows? (I've never had this problem so I'm just throwing ideas about).
 
Yeah, should have mentioned I've just spent some time putting each card in each slot both individually and together, and no fix there.

I'd rather not reinstall Windows, but I have considered it.

I'm just going to reinstall the chipset drivers, but I'm not hopeful...
 
What do you mean 'the right way'? There's only one way? (it's symmetrical). It's on the SLI fingers closer to the back of the case.
 
I had thought that. Haven't got a spare to test with unfortunately.

Got plenty of XFire bridges, but the pin pitch is different...
 
Try it without the sli connector and hope it then tells you sli performance could be better with a connector. That may allow you to select sli option from the nvidia control panel.

If i can get sli 260's to work on an x48 you should be able to do it on your board.
 
Have tried without an SLI connector and still nothing...

I really don't want to do a reinstall of Windows...
 
in that case i would try a format if it was me.

+1.

You could try Driver Cleaner in Safe Mode before hand to see if that does anything, make sure you remove everything, physx etc. Whats's wierd is that both are showing in device manager so they're being recognised. Usually a little bubble pops up to tell you that you have an SLI capable system and you click that to go to the control panel.
 
Not sure if it's been mentioned but perhaps a dodgy PCI-E port is to blame? Have you tried both sockets individually?
 
i see my GTX480 and my 8800GT in device manager but no sli tick box as i dont use a sli bridge (no that it would work as they are incompatible) because mine uses one for physx.

it sounds like the connector not allowing them to comunicate or a driver somewhere not allowing it.
 
Does the PhysX tab appear at all?

Also don't think it works any more but try using this in the run prompt: rundll32.exe nvcpl.dll,LaunchMultiGpuApplet

EDIT: That won't work with 256+ drivers anyhow, lemme see if I can find the new entry point for them.
 
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