Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 08:15Vista tempramental when it comes to overclocked video cards. If you push em too hard they can and will cause Vista to reload the drivers. Why you getting the drivers has stopped responding bit. Best thing I can tell you is this, reflash the original BIOS to the original cards. Since SLI is supposed to work with mixed matched manus cards of the same series. If its not working properly then there's another problem that has to be fixed. Wether it be the operating system or the actual drivers themselves.
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Xspeed
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 08:29Raptor wrote: Vista tempramental when it comes to overclocked video cards. If you push em too hard they can and will cause Vista to reload the drivers. Why you getting the drivers has stopped responding bit. Best thing I can tell you is this, reflash the original BIOS to the original cards. Since SLI is supposed to work with mixed matched manus cards of the same series. If its not working properly then there's another problem that has to be fixed. Wether it be the operating system or the actual drivers themselves When I bought the second GeForce 8800 GT from XpertVision I tried to SLI without flashing but the SLI was enabled at 1st card at 600MHz and the 2nd, the ASUS it was running slower. So the SLI wasn't performing at all so I tried to flash the cards to the same BIOS and when I was flashing the XpertVision I lost my backup BIOS.
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Mavke
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 08:47Xspeed wrote: Any idea why the others can reach above 650MHz and shader of 1625MHz on same config? I'm getting confused, is it driver issue or what? I would have a lot of ideas, first being that are you have the same system? Cause really SLI and overclocking results do really depend on a lot of things because more power is required and not every mainboard is working the same way. Second not each card is the same and using one at the time one can be better than the other and when running SLI the overclocking results always go down and not always with a lot of logic. This is not really a driver issue unless you are refering to Vista, there it is just Vista and something just being badly designed by Microsoft giving driver developers a hard time...
Now when you are using Windows XP you can run these cards in SLI at 700MHz which means it is working fine. Though since you had to increase the voltage to 1.10V it could also be that the PCI Express bus itself and also your power supply is just giving enough but not above what is required and all that helps to get better overclocking. In the end, the power supply you can change and mainboard as well, but than you need to know for sure which mainboard is going to be better. But really SLI overclocking is never straightforward even if you have two cards that would run on their own easily at 800MHz, in SLI they could be screwed and only just barely make 650MHz...
And cooling and airflow is an extra player within this all as well. So there is quite a lot to take into account. I did once run SLI as well and it took me about five days to get the overclocking performance figured out, by flashing both cards with same BIOS which was overclocked, re-applying the cooling solution with very well applied thermal paste, getting a better airflow within my case and the space between the cards is very important as that is where the heat is building up. Just to say don't take it for granted that SLI overclocking is an easy game, sometimes it is but most of the time some extra worrk and adjustments are needed.
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Boiler
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 09:16Mavke right on the money here, you could buy four different cards swap them around and get different scores from the different pairs. I'm in a pair of GeForce 9800 GTX+'s, GeForce 9800 GX2's and now the GeForce GTX 280's all recently and going nuts see one GX2 outperform the pair is sad. And I am having a GameXtreme power supply, so I shouldn't have a problem there but I don't see the performance they tell you about. It might be possible in a perfect world I guess, we should be able to buy review samples...
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Raptor
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 09:35Also is your Windows Vista updated to SP1 or have you updated it? Because the older version of Vista absolutly hated multi-GPU setups and required patches and such which SP1 puts all them in a neat little package. I run Vista 64-bit and I will say this trin to overclock all three cores has been quite the chore. I ended up flashing the cards to a higher clock speeds and as Mavke said is correct you can have two identical machines and both will react totally different from one another. As always you must have a good solid power supply to support the system.
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Boiler
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 09:47Yes, I'm in a Vista 64-bit environment, also SP1 and any other update I can find but I haven tried the GX2's for a few weeks since SP1. So humm, maybe give um another go and a couple driver releases since too...
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Mavke
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 10:35Raptor wrote: Vista tempramental when it comes to overclocked video cards. If you push em too hard they can and will cause Vista to reload the drivers. Why you getting the drivers has stopped responding bit. Best thing I can tell you is this, reflash the original BIOS to the original cards. Since SLI is supposed to work with mixed matched manus cards of the same series. First welcome back mate, yeah I missed you around. Though I want to come back on your message as the SLI is still not always working just that fine with mixed BIOS's really and advised really is to have both cards running the very same BIOS for the best and most stable operation.
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Xspeed
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 12:02Raptor wrote: Also is your Windows Vista updated to SP1 or have you updated it? Because the older version of Vista absolutly hated multi-GPU setups and required patches and such which SP1 puts all them in a neat little package. I run Vista 64-bit and I will say this trin to overclock all three cores has been quite the chore. I ended up flashing the cards to a higher clock speeds and as Mavke said is correct you can have two identical machines and both will react totally different from one another. As always you must have a good solid power supply to support the system. I have now dual boot Vista 64-bit SP1 and Windows XP Professional and both operating systems are updated till today. By the way I have some issue even in Windows XP at 700MHz core, for example I can play as long as I want with no problem and pass many times 3DMark06 but when I try to pass 3DMark03 I always hang up in second test when the left is up. Any idea why?
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Mavke
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 16:37Xspeed wrote: By the way I have some issue even in Windows XP at 700MHz core, for example I can play as long as I want with no problem and pass many times 3DMark06 but when I try to pass 3DMark03 I always hang up in second test when the left is up. Any idea why? No idea, and frankly 3DMark03 isn't the best benchmark suite for a new card cause even with a single card I have that it sometimes hangs. So why using old programs which are not really updated for new technology? And SLI isn't neither well supported with 3DMark03 as it is from before SLI became really available...
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Raptor
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Re:Running two GeForce 8800 GT's in SLI mode with problems? - 2008/08/08 21:55Is it artifacting, and hang ups can relate to two things. One the core speed is set too high or the system memory. I realize Vista can be tempramental on multi-GPU's but I know several peeps using 3-way SLI in Vista 32-bit and 64-bit with no problems. I do know its been fixed, have you tried flipping the cards? Exchange places, what is your full system specs right down to the Amps of your power supply? Also your exact cooling you are using for the video cards, northbridge, CPU, etc. Also if you could be kind enough to give us your BIOS settings, like the FSB, memory speeds, etc and also please list voltages. I am sorry if this is a lot of typing...
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ASUS 9800GTX+ (DK) PCIe 512MB - Rev 01
