Vista SLI no option in nVidia Control Panel help!

[FatRakoon]

I like the pics of your machine

Erm, do you?

Thats my No2 Machine.
Its not a bad system, well above your average joe machine, but well below what we would consider a serious games machine... Plays all *** games I have though, bar a couple of the very latest ( Lost Planet is the only game it has actually failed to play )

Case is a nasty ICUTE and swapping the PSU on that case is hell, so in there now, is a NorthQ Giant Thunder 500 which I have to say is a great PSU for an unknown make.

I wonder if you've done any benchies?

I would be well interested to see the results.

Yeah, I have done plenty of benches, but the thing is, that I change bits on that PC pretty much on a Weekly basis, sometimes it makes it better, sometimes it makes it worse, I dont give a stuff which way it goes because I just like buggering about with it, so anyway, the benches are all over the place!!!

I do however, hope, that I will be settling in to a setup that will no longer be chopping and changing, and the end product on this very machine, will be pretty much as it is now, but I have another 2GB to slap in first though...

The end result ( unless I change my mind ) will be :-

A8N-SLI
4x1GB Crucial DDR400
2 x Gigabyte 6600GT
SB Audigy 1 + LiveDrive
C: - 40GB
D: - 400GB
250MB ZIP
2 x DVDRW

Pretty much as is, but with more RAM and a swappie on the HD and then my youngest son will get it for his 9th birthday, and I will make a start on my conroe as *** experimental PC when I get myself a new PC for my main toy.

I am considering getting Vista back on this machine either this evening or tomorrow but I just want to get straight which graphics drivers to use before I do

Well, as I said, the 6800GT ran perfectly fine for me, using both those 162 and the 163 drivers... If you ask me, maybe you could just try using the drivers off the supplied CD you had with one of the cards?

The 6800 cards have been had back now, so I am a little gutted... The 6800 is a fair bit faster than the 6600 although nowhere near as much as many seem to make out, and now Im back on the 6600, I feel a little bit inadequete.

 

[vwgolfman]

I meant benchies with 1 and then 2 6800GT's in SLI!

Anyway it doesn't half sound like you have a lot of fun playing with those rather expensive "toys" LOL.

I can't install the drivers which came with the cards as I've had the cards about 2 years now and Vista didn't even exist at that stage

Have you been reading up on the beta 169.04 drivers and people's experiences?
I was wondering what people are saying about them; whether they're worth installing as my "first" driver. Are they likely to keep crashing?!

If you were me and made a fresh install of Vista (which I may well start this evening) would you install the stable and released 162.22's (which I am sure I tried before and which didn't give me the SLI option) or would you go for it and install the 169.04 betas (which apparently should give me the SLI option)?

Just off to try and find a Vista driver for my old 56k fax/modem and then back everything up ready for the big F (format).

 

[FatRakoon]

Sorry mate... I never got the chance to tryu 1 then 2 6800's!

Although, on the 6600's I used AquaMark3 and OTTOMH it was 55K for one card and 75K for two.

Ok, I know AM3 is old and many people will be ready to **** me off in that choice, but I really cannot give a toss about them. The 6600 cards are old Tech too, so its possibly a good all round choice to use AM3 in order to get a quick comparison.

However, if you have a peek at the page I sent you to, I did half-start a bit of a list with the pair of 6600s and on their own too, in a number of different benches.

Which drivers would I put on?

Well...

I know that 162.22 are fine.
Obviously, I went with those.

I only instyalled the 163.69 Drivers purely because you asked me to... Otherwise, I would not have bothered for a while.

Now, you are askign me about Betas as well??

Dont waste your time asking me about anymore drivers. Both the others work and they work perfectly fine. Now you are askign about other drivers which are betas??? Come on, why are you dont this?

v162.22 DO WORK WITH YOUR CARDS... IF YOU CANNOT GET YOUR CARDS TO WORK WITH THOSE. THEN YOU CANNOT KEEP BLAMING THE DRIVERS. MAYBE ITS TIME TO LOOK CLOSER TO HOME.

 

[vwgolfman]

>v162.22 DO WORK WITH YOUR CARDS... IF YOU CANNOT GET YOUR CARDS TO WORK WITH THOSE. THEN YOU CANNOT KEEP BLAMING THE DRIVERS. MAYBE ITS TIME TO LOOK CLOSER TO HOME

OY!

These 2 x 6800GT's worked first time in SLI with Windows XP Pro and have been doing so for 2 years. I set them up properly first time and have had no problems.

I shall install the 162.22's and if they do not give me the SLI option you buy me a new Mobo, CPU, RAM and Graphics Card yeah?

I'm very tired this evening but I shall do this in the morning

Oh yeah I know what I as going to ask.....
There used to be a (FTP?) site from which you could download any nVidia driver. It was a single folder comprising of all driver releases. Do you know if this still exists?

If not then from where would I download different driver releases if I wanted to try them?

 

[FatRakoon]

OY!

LOL

These 2 x 6800GT's worked first time in SLI with Windows XP Pro and have been doing so for 2 years. I set them up properly first time and have had no problems.

So, its only Pasta that your getting the problems?
You have installed the Mobo Drivers yes?
I really dont know what else to suggest? BIOS update?

Ok,ok... Lets go back to basics...

How about an F&R and take it step by step...?

1 - Backup your gubbinz

2 - Put a copy of

The Chipset drivers v 6.86 : And the ForceWare drivers v162.22
Onto a spare CD or FlashDisk or whatever

PLEASE DONT USE ANY OTHER DRIVER AT ALL

3 - Format & Install Vista to C:\

4 - As soon as you get the desktop up, install the Chipset v6.86 Drivers and restart it when it asks you to.

5 - Install the ForceWare VGA Drivers v162.22

Might be an option to RUN AS ADMIN PERHAPS? - I didnt need to.

6 - when the desktop comes back up... Right click on *** screen and select the nvidia control panel option from the context menu, and then select ENABLE SLI.

It really cannot be any easier, it really cant

If you are in need of these very versions, do you need me to chuck a CD at you?

I shall install the 162.22's and if they do not give me the SLI option you buy me a new Mobo, CPU, RAM and Graphics Card yeah?

All I can say mate, is that when I was unable to get SLI running on these 6600 cards, I went to extreme lengths to sort it... I knew that it must be somethign wrong with the cards, or the Mobo, or something else... I knew I was not doing anythign wrong, but in the end, it was simply down to me trying to use all kinds of Drivers, and all they needed was a compatible Mobo and VGA driver to get it playing right.

Of course, another option, is for you to send me your 2 cards and I will work out what is needed to get them to play together properly?

I'm very tired this evening but I shall do this in the morning

Yeah, Im starting to flake myself...

Kids at my mums last night, but this morning cars MOT ( Passed but Im iffy on whether it should have cos the front end is making a funny noise ).
My suzuki GS850 is finally getting sorted out ( I also have my KwakZZR running great but thats also meant that my Suzi has been dumped for far too long and now rust is its only friend ), so I was workign on that today, then trick or treating with the kids.... Im knackered.

Oh yeah I know what I as going to ask.....
There used to be a (FTP?) site from which you could download any nVidia driver. It was a single folder comprising of all driver releases. Do you know if this still exists?

If not then from where would I download different driver releases if I wanted to try them?

Good question. Yeah, they used to be on the nVIDIA site... I just had a peek and I didnt find them anywhere obvious.

I have a pretty stupid number of drivers... Not for any reason...I just hoard stuff and my PCs are no exception...

Anything in particular you are after?

 

[vwgolfman]

Right!
I am

2 x XFX 6800GT's.
Hardware and BIOS configured correctly for SLI.

Fresh install of Vista Ultimate 32 bit.
Installed 15.01 mobo/chipset drivers.

Installed 162.22: No SLI option in nVidia control panel. Release notes for this driver specifically states that 6800GT's in SLI are not supported.
Installed 169.01: No SLI option in nVidia control panel.
Installed 169.04: No SLI option in nVidia control panel. Does NVIDIA_x64 have any proof that this driver should? I am yet to find any release notes for this driver and to this effect.

I then surfed the net and found a comment that "all nVidia drivers since 160.04 don't support 6800GT's in SLI".

So I installed 160.04 and guess what the SLI option was then available.
However I was getting the "nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" warning.

For this reason I have decided to avoid Vista for now. It's not Microsoft's fault. I blame nVidia. Typical of a company striving to obtain new customers before looking after its present ones.

6800GT's may be superseded 10 times over but they are not yet dinosaurs and 2 years ago cost me £600 for the pair. Now with Vista nVidia have rendered them next to useless.

I am a professional user as well as occasional gamer and cannot afford the time in pi55ing around with my desktop machine trying to get it to run correctly.

I am writing this on my laptop as I am currently making a fresh install of XP on my desktop and reinstalling a full suite of software.

An annoyed user,
News at 10,
Dorset

*********!!!!!!

 

[FatRakoon]

B0110ck5!

The 6800GT will run in both 162.22 and 163.69

Maybe what we had before, was that either it still thoguht the 6600's were in there still, or maybe it got confused, but FFS, it told me the SLI option was there and that I could enable and disable it to my hearts content.

I dont think that you can blame either nVIDIA or MicroSoft, but you need to really blame both.

Although I know how you feel when you say that in only 2 years they have been rendered useless... This would really upset me too!

I seriously cannot accept how the 6800GT cards would stop the SLI support and yet the 6600 is still happy as larry???

I will ask if I can nab the cards again mate, and try a fresh install with the 6800 cards and not use the 6600 cards at all... Will that help?

Hey, if its any help for you, you can buy cards for under a ton these days.. a pair for under a ton to SLIthat will kill the 6800GT stone dead.

Kind of really puts thing into perspective doesnt it?

 

[vwgolfman]

Well it shouldn't be necessary but when I can afford to I plan to purchase a 8800GTX or something. One of those would be supported by nVidia's latest drivers.

Re: 162.22's....
6800GT's ARE supported just not in SLI.
Have a look at the release notes. On page 4 it specifically states that 6800GT's in SLI are not supported but it mentions nothing about 6600GT's in SLI.

I still can't understand how you had the SLI option with the 6800GT's.

I'll not be SLI'ing again due to this. I'll just opt for single cards and upgrade when necessary. It's more trouble than it's worth.

 

[ad0m]

I am Having the EXact Same Problem Except I am running

2 x 8800

although

1st Gfx Card = 8800 GTX
2nd Gfx Card = 8800 Ultra
(im not even sure that will work) I won the ULTRA at i31

I am on Vista 64 Ultimate

I have the latest Beta drivers 169.04

I don't get it... please some one Shoot me....

any one any ideas for me....... ?