Help! Galaxy GTX460 SLI: no option available in control panel...

[eurosport360]

Hey guys,

I recently bought another Galaxy GTX460 768 MB to hook the same video cards together.

My mobo is a Asus P6X58D Premium, with three PCIe 2.0 ports that have speeds of x16/x16/x1 or x16/x8/x8 (plus others). In other words, two blue ports and one white.

So I put both video cards next to each in the x16 slots, and connected the SLI bridge. After the drivers installed, all I did was go to the control panel and click maximize 3D performance/enable SLI. That worked out, but my temps were ridiculous, with the first GPU going up to 90+ Celsius. both cards were in x16/x16 ports, but they were literally .2 milometer apart from each other, blocking the 1st GPU's fan.


So I then decided to put the second GPU in the white x8 port, making the bandwidth x16/x8. The bridge is not long enough, however, but I then researched that the cards should work in SLI anyways without the bridge. I check the control panel, and the option is grayed out with two warnings underneath:

For maximum 3D performance, connect the bridge.
and
For optimum 3D performance, plug the second card into a high performance PCIe slot.

Both warning should not gray out the enable SLI option. If anything, I researched that the bandwidth makes no noticeable difference and the SLI bridge is not necessarily to enable SLI ( I just bought one off amazon already)



My thoughts from other posts and forums are this,

I should reset the CMOS, but i do not know how to do that on the mobo and I have a lot of overclock settings and other options which i do not want to mess up.

I also heard that Realtek NIC or the LAN network drivers were causing this problem and should downgrade them, but I could only find EVGA files.

I have the latest nvidia patch (275.33) and reinstalled twice with clean installs (which uninstalled all the nvidia drivers)


Anyone have any idea's?

 

[eurosport360]

Hey guys,

I recently bought another Galaxy GTX460 768 MB to hook the same video cards together.

My mobo is a Asus P6X58D Premium, with three PCIe 2.0 ports that have speeds of x16/x16/x1 or x16/x8/x8 (plus others). In other words, two blue ports and one white.

So I put both video cards next to each in the x16 slots, and connected the SLI bridge. After the drivers installed, all I did was go to the control panel and click maximize 3D performance/enable SLI. That worked out, but my temps were ridiculous, with the first GPU going up to 90+ Celsius. both cards were in x16/x16 ports, but they were literally .2 milometer apart from each other, blocking the 1st GPU's fan.


So I then decided to put the second GPU in the white x8 port, making the bandwidth x16/x8. The bridge is not long enough, however, but I then researched that the cards should work in SLI anyways without the bridge. I check the control panel, and the option is grayed out with two warnings underneath:

For maximum 3D performance, connect the bridge.
and
For optimum 3D performance, plug the second card into a high performance PCIe slot.

Both warning should not gray out the enable SLI option. If anything, I researched that the bandwidth makes no noticeable difference and the SLI bridge is not necessarily to enable SLI ( I just bought one off amazon already)



My thoughts from other posts and forums are this,

I should reset the CMOS, but i do not know how to do that on the mobo and I have a lot of overclock settings and other options which i do not want to mess up.

I also heard that Realtek NIC or the LAN network drivers were causing this problem and should downgrade them, but I could only find EVGA files.

I have the latest nvidia patch (275.33) and reinstalled twice with clean installs (which uninstalled all the nvidia drivers)


Anyone have any idea's?

 

[browsingtheworld]

The cards should be next to each other. You cannot use the x16 slots that are the farthest apart. Get a better case, the cards are supposed to be right next to each other.

 

[eurosport360]

Do they have to be right next to each other? I thought that they can be anywhere...

The temps are ridiculous; with the cards farther away both are getting reasonable temps...

 

[browsingtheworld]

Your case sucks, everyone else that uses SLi and CFX have their cards next to each other.

 

[eurosport360]

I don't care about anyone else. Do they have to be next to each other or not.

i have a thermotake Spedo Advanced full tower case, so it does not "suck". The video cards are none reference and don't seem to have the cooling that other cards have that allow for SLI.

Do they have to be next to each other slot wise or can they be in any PCIe slot.

 

[browsingtheworld]

I don't care about anyone else. Do they have to be next to each other or not.

i have a thermotake Spedo Advanced full tower case, so it does not "suck". The video cards are none reference and don't seem to have the cooling that other cards have that allow for SLI.

Do they have to be next to each other slot wise or can they be in any PCIe slot.

Maybe you should care about other people considering they have their SLi working.

nvidia reference coolers are fine.

They have to be next to each other obviously for the bridge. They probably have to be next to each other anyways (I don't really know and care about non-bridged SLi).

 

[eurosport360]

Read the comment. I do not have reference video cards, so I am saying that the cards do not cool well under sli when they are right next to each other. I dont care if everyone in the world likes to put them next to each other, I am just asking if you can put two video cards in any PCIe ports. I am ordering a longer bridge anyway, so they will be bridged, just like how they would be next to each other.

All I am asking is if two video cards in any PCIe ports, bridged, and still work in SLI. Yes/no. Someone with a concise answer and without telling me that my case sucks would be nice

 

[megamanx00]

You can go online and buy a longer SLI cable.

http://www.amazon.com/Nvidia-flexible-bridge-interconnect-connector/dp/B0025VT6LQ

It would make more sense though to have the cards next to each other so they can run in 16x/16x mode. It's too bad that there isn't an extra slot between them though for better ventilation but if you were only going to use two cards you should have thought of that before you bought the board 😀.

 

[eurosport360]

I ALREADY BOUGHT A CORD.

All I am asking is if you can put two video cards in any PCIe ports, bridged, and still have them work in SLI.

 

[megamanx00]

As long as you attach the SLI bridge AND your board is SLI certified (which that one is) it should work. It will affect performance to have it run in 16x/8x rather than 16x/16x though, but oh well 😀.

 

[eurosport360]

Ok thank you.

Is there a reason why they can not be in SLI now without the bridge?

 

[Mousemonkey]

This next topics has been merged by Mousemonkey
■ Help! Galaxy GTX460 SLI:no option available in nvidia control panel...

 

[megamanx00]

Try installing the SLI bridge. If you already bought it install it.

 

[reeper250]

If you have not tried switching the cards around, then do so.