SLI help

[bobdole776]

just installed two nvidia 8600's, got the bridge in and all, motherboard is switched to sli, but not sure i'm in sli. can someone help?

 

[tastegw]

is everything working properly?


also, not tryin to bash your set-up in any way....
but...

why did you decide to sli 2x 8600's?

one single 8800 series or 9600-9800 series would run much better than the 2 8600's at about the same price as 2 of the 8600's.

single 8600 gt average 3dmark score of 4200 (average cost $70 each)
2x 8600 gt in sli average 3dmark score of 8400 (average cost $140)
single 9600gt average 3dmark score of 10,000 (average cost $100)
single 8800gts 320mg (the cheapest one)average 3dmark score of 9100 (i have one of these, i score allmost 10,000 with no oc) (only one i could find was $90 bucks)
single 8800 gt avearge 3dmark score of 11,000 (average cost $150)
single 9800 gtx average 3dmark score of 12,000 (average cost $180)

all 3dmark info came from toms hardware
all prices (averages) came from newegg

as you can see, the 9600gt would have been the best solution for youl. (better score and 40 bucks cheaper)

good luck.

 

[bobdole776]

reply

sorry for the late reply, just got home from work. anyways, i got the two for 100 bucks and i just saw it as a deal. yes everything is working properly, when i boot up it displays on one card, then i have to switch to the other card when the user selection screen comes on. i already installed the driver from nvidia for the cards. turned on sli from my bios, motherboard; its an m2n sli. nvidia nforce 560 sli chipset. i never got any type of confermation that i am using sli, nore could i find any options to turn it on.

 

[tastegw]

is your pc running any faster while playing games?

did you run a benchmark before and after this application (sli)

i havent yet built a system running sli cards so any further help i cannot give.

but if its working properly, you should see some difference in sli mode while playing games and such.

 

[bobdole776]

well, i upgraded from a nvidia 5500, so even if it isn't in sli, i'll still see an improvement
and this is the first time i used sli
and i got windows xp pro os

 

[tastegw]

well, i upgraded from a nvidia 5500, so even if it isn't in sli, i'll still see an improvement
and this is the first time i used sli
and i got windows xp pro os

ah, so you never ran just one of the 8600's alone

run 3dmark06 basic version (free)
http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark06/introduction/

and then post your score here.

 

[guitto]

Also, in Nvidia Display panel (right clicking on the desktop as if you wanted to change the background) and clicking this. This utility allows you to customize the way your cards work, 3d perf, resolution and SLI mode. It is default SLI mode if capable. If you dont have this, then try downloading latest drives from Nvidia website

 

[bobdole776]

i dont see any sli directories in the nvidia controlpanal

 

[bobdole776]

got all of the newest drivers

 

[bobdole776]

well, both the cards are good, could it be the sli bridge that connects the two, think it could be faulty? i never used it before, does it go on a certain way? i tryed both ways and it didn't seem any different



o, and for the earlier comment of downloading that file, thanks for the help but that file is just too big, it wold take me like an hour and i dont have that kind of time. thx anyways.

new- just found out from gpu-z that sli is disabled but available