Problems With SLI

[Flyinhi2005]

Specs are
i7 4690k
Asus z97-A
Msi 970

I have been gaming for past 6 months with just 1 Msi 970 video card.. I just purchased a 2nd 970 and plugged it in and my motherboard just don't seem to recognize it.. I have completely deleted drivers and reinstalled.. I have restarted cpu without bridge connected and still only shows 1 970.. I flipped cards and both cards work solo.. I went into bios and see pcie_slot1 x8 and pcie_slot2 x0 but are both grayed out where i can't change.. This is my 1st pc build so im kinda a noob at this.. Any help would be appreciated

 

[davmazin]

So both cards work solo? but the problem is when you try to go sli? maybe the mobo you got is a crossfire one instead of a sli one that can happen a lot if you dont read the mobo description well unless one of your cards isnt working this is what could be happening

 

[Flyinhi2005]

Yes both cards work solo in the 1 slot.. Neither card will work in the 2 slot in sli or solo.. Im not sure if i just got a junk motherboard or theres settings i need to switch that i don't know about..

 

[JimF_35]

That board does support SLI...

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97A/

Watch this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYQEJnDorF4

hope it helps.

 

[ss202sl]

In bios, you say that the settings are pcie_slot1 x8 and pcie_slot2 x0. Seems like PCIE slot 2 is disabled somehow if it's speed is 0.

 

[davmazin]

Most mobos are really a pain with some settings check your bios and make sure that sli is enable in the bios maybe there is something like that on it to be honest dunno why did you get another gpu as sli has little support and is not as good as it seems to be honest it was funny how my 4870 could beat my sli setup in games like farcry 2 lol after that bad experience i never bothered with sli again

 

[JimF_35]

In bios, you say that the settings are pcie_slot1 x8 and pcie_slot2 x0. Seems like PCIE slot 2 is disabled somehow if it's speed is 0.

Are you sure the next 16/8x slot is labeled pcie_slot2? It could be refering to the 4x slot that is between the two of them and the slot you are actually looking for is the pcie_slot3. Refer to your mobo manual to see how the slots are labeled and match them up with your BIOS.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z97-A/e9060_z97-a_ug_for_web_only.pdf

I personally think the real issue here is insufficient power. You may have mentioned it but can you tell us what PSU you have again. You should have around 600W to drive these cards depending on your PSUs efficiency.

 

[davmazin]

yeah i totally forgot about power draw you might probably need 600W but i would say to get more power go for a 700W or 800W to be safe and get the best brand psu you can with preference to what is the best on the market the best brand that seems to be the most popular one EVGA(superflower) anyways hope this gelp