Can't SLI GTX 970s

[fdo1415]

Hello all. I just had a quick question on how to SLI two GTX 970s. This is my current build: CPU: Intel i5 8600K Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING RAM: 16Gb Ripjaws Graphics: GTX 970 (MSI) and GTX 970 (Gigabyte) After reading through many SLI tutorials, I made sure that my graphics cards were set up in the right PCI-e slots (16 and 8) and connected the two with the SLI bridge that came with the motherboard. I have reversed the direction of the bridge and nothing. After installing the cards, I tried using NVidia control panel, but it said that SLI was disabled and I needed to connect the two cards. I uninstalled GeForce Experience and reinstalled it with new drivers, but that did not work either. Both cards are registered by Device Manager and by GPU-Z as two 970s. If anyone has any tips or suggestions, I would be very grateful!

 

[Philballer17]

Install something like MSI afterburner and match sure clock speeds, mem speeds, are identical on both cards. Which means, either downclocking one card to match another, or overclocking one card to match the other.

 

[The Paladin]

I encountered this issue when I first SLIL my 2 gtx 970 (both where identical)
After putting your hardware in place, things I did ;

I had to DDU the driver in safe mode (important) then reinstall the driver again and it recognized it.
Also depending on motherboard some require to have a GPU SLI switched turned on for the second PCIE slot becomes active

I would boot in bios, into advanced settings in hardware section check that BOTH video cards are recognized on the board.

 

[fdo1415]

I encountered this issue when I first SLIL my 2 gtx 970 (both where identical)
After putting your hardware in place, things I did ;

I had to DDU the driver in safe mode (important) then reinstall the driver again and it recognized it.
Also depending on motherboard some require to have a GPU SLI switched turned on for the second PCIE slot becomes active

I would boot in bios, into advanced settings in hardware section check that BOTH video cards are recognized on the board.

Thank you for your response! I followed your suggestions and reinstalled the driver. On start up I got a notification from Windows that read "SLI connector is missing. For optimal 3D performance, connect the SLI-ready graphics card with an SLI connector." On opening Nvidia Control Panel, the home screen says "2x GeForce GTX 970", but in the configure SLI tab, it reads "to use maximum 3D performance, connect the SLI-ready graphic cards with an SLI connector." So do I just need a new bridge? I just noticed that one of the cards is slightly taller than the other, so I wonder if it can't read the stiff bridge and I need a more flexible one.

 

[fdo1415]

Install something like MSI afterburner and match sure clock speeds, mem speeds, are identical on both cards. Which means, either downclocking one card to match another, or overclocking one card to match the other.

Thank you for your reply. I am getting the same speeds for both.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I encountered this issue when I first SLIL my 2 gtx 970 (both where identical)
After putting your hardware in place, things I did ;

I had to DDU the driver in safe mode (important) then reinstall the driver again and it recognized it.
Also depending on motherboard some require to have a GPU SLI switched turned on for the second PCIE slot becomes active

I would boot in bios, into advanced settings in hardware section check that BOTH video cards are recognized on the board.

Thank you for your response! I followed your suggestions and reinstalled the driver. On start up I got a notification from Windows that read "SLI connector is missing. For optimal 3D performance, connect the SLI-ready graphics card with an SLI connector." On opening Nvidia Control Panel, the home screen says "2x GeForce GTX 970", but in the configure SLI tab, it reads "to use maximum 3D performance, connect the SLI-ready graphic cards with an SLI connector." So do I just need a new bridge? I just noticed that one of the cards is slightly taller than the other, so I wonder if it can't read the stiff bridge and I need a more flexible one.

If the bridge is not properly seated on both cards then they won't be connected, looks like you have found your issue.