No SLI option in control panel (EVGA 660 Ti)

[throwawayaccnt]

I don't wanna add another thread to the plethora of these kinds of threads but after months of browsing and trouble shooting I just can't get it to work

I have two EVGA 660 TI GeForce GPU's that I'm trying to run SLI, I've got a Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 Motherboard so I know it's an SLI compatible MoBo. I've tried everything from switching the slots the cards rest in to even trying different SLI bridges an no avail. My computer *recognizes* that two 660 Ti's are present but I can't get the option to show to enable it. I bought both cards together so I know it's not an issue of different makers or memory size.

Am I missing a crucial aspect to this? What other methods can I try to get it to work? Or is it a possible hardware issue?

Full specs:
Asus Sabertooth990FX r2.0 motherboard
(2) EVGA 660TI GPU 2GB
AMD FX-8320 8-core CPU
Corsair H80i v2 mounted CPU cooler
RAM 2x4GB G.skill Sniper
1TB Seagate HDD
Rosewill 1000W power supply
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
DirectX 11
364.72 nVidia drivers

 

[c4s2k3]

Are you sure you are looking for the right nomenclature? The control panel option for SLI doesn't say SLI. I think it's simply labeled "Maximize Performance" or something like that (not in front of my computer at the moment).

One more thing, if you have more than one monitor, you can't connect any of them to your second GPU. All must be on the primary GPU or the option will be disabled.

 

[coolcole01]

Also are you running it in full screen

 

[throwawayaccnt]

Are you sure you are looking for the right nomenclature? The control panel option for SLI doesn't say SLI. I think it's simply labeled "Maximize Performance" or something like that (not in front of my computer at the moment).

One more thing, if you have more than one monitor, you can't connect any of them to your second GPU. All must be on the primary GPU or the option will be disabled.

I've only got the one monitor, this is what my nVidia control panel looks like

 

[coolcole01]

run your game or bench in full screen sli will be active

 

[throwawayaccnt]

run your game or bench in full screen sli will be active

Does SLI activate itself then? How can I be sure it's running SLI? I'm just confused is all

 

[coolcole01]

run the game in window mode then in full screen see if there is a difference and yes sli only works in full screen mode

 

[throwawayaccnt]

I'm still not sure I'm getting why I'm not seeing an enable SLI option in the nVidia control panel, did they remove that feature in recent versions of the nvidia control panel? In the "Control Surround, PhysX" menu people showed the option to enable SLI in older forum posts dealing with this issue. I'll try the windowed/full thing like you recommended and report back

 

[c4s2k3]

run your game or bench in full screen sli will be active

Does SLI activate itself then? How can I be sure it's running SLI? I'm just confused is all

No, you should be able to see the option in the control panel screen you posted. You should not have to "guess" whether it's enabled or not. Something is definitely amiss here.

Are your GPUs in the first and third PCI slots (I believe sockets for these slots are the same color)?

Assuming they are, you might also try the SLI bridge across the 2nd set of SLI connectors on the card. Each card should have two. If not working on one, try the adjacent one. Only connect one SLI bridge at a time, though, but try both sides.

edit:
Also had a thought that you might want to try a different power cable for your 2nd card, and also try a different connector for that cable on the PSU, assuming the PSU has additional VGA connectors. Just trying to rule out a power problem. I've heard of cases where the 2nd card is "alive" and reported as available by the system because it has power via the PCI slot but can't be stressed (or made to work with SLI) because of a fault in power delivery to the supplementary power connectors on top of the card.

 

[throwawayaccnt]

run your game or bench in full screen sli will be active

Does SLI activate itself then? How can I be sure it's running SLI? I'm just confused is all

No, you should be able to see the option in the control panel screen you posted. You should not have to "guess" whether it's enabled or not. Something is definitely amiss here.

Are your GPUs in the first and third PCI slots (I believe sockets for these slots are the same color)?

Assuming they are, you might also try the SLI bridge across the 2nd set of SLI connectors on the card. Each card should have two. If not working on one, try the adjacent one. Only connect one SLI bridge at a time, though, but try both sides.

edit:
Also had a thought that you might want to try a different power cable for your 2nd card, and also try a different connector for that cable on the PSU, assuming the PSU has additional VGA connectors. Just trying to rule out a power problem. I've heard of cases where the 2nd card is "alive" and reported as available by the system because it has power via the PCI slot but can't be stressed (or made to work with SLI) because of a fault in power delivery to the supplementary power connectors on top of the card.

Yeah I have the cards in the first and third slots, both are tan. I swapped the cards between the slots and tried them individually to see if one was faulty and they're both fine. I'll try using the adjacent goldfingers though nothing changed the last time I'd tried that, and I hadn't heard about this PSU solution thank you for the suggestion! I figure it's worth a shot