SLI / CrossFire FAQs

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Well I put the 9400 in and tried to play assassins creed 1 and CoD4 which the old card plays both and it kills it stone dead which I find amazing considering it's got 1 gig on it and the other one's only 256. Would you consider that normal for this card?
 
Size isn't the only factor to consider a card there are lots of important factors such as Stream processors,Core clock etc,as i said a 9400GT isn't a good card for gaming and its slower than 6800GT,so don't expect to play games well with a 9400GT
 
Thanks for your help. I've now gone back to the 6800 and is all better. Just gotta get shot of the other one now!!!!! Anyone want a 9400GT???? hahahahaa
 
I posted this question as a separate thread but it may belong in this thread more. Please feel free to tune me into how much of an idiot I am if my problem is something obvious.


I have not put together a computer almost since they were like an abacus but I am trying to get my son started. He wanted a screaming gaming computer. We have it all assembled and it is running but the SLI is not working. The NVIDIA control panel is supposed to have an option in the 3D menu to enable it but the option just isn't there. The computer has 2 Gigabyte GV-N250OC-1's. The SLI bridge connector is connected. The system sees both cards. The monitor is plugged into the card that is closest to the CPU. If we plug it into the other card, the display gets no signal. Is this normal? The computer has an ASUS Sabertooth 55i mobo, an Intel I7-860 CPU, a 1000 watt power supply and 4 gig of memory. We are using an old copy of XP that we just updated with SP3. I am not sure if I am missing something in the mobo BIOS or where else I have gone wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if more info is needed.

Thanks,
Dave

Update:I tried swapping video cards. Both are working. I have read that I may need to install one, load the drivers then install the second and load the drivers. I have looked to see if there is a switch on the mobo but there is not one. I also do not see anything in the BIOS to change how it sees the video cards. I have not updated the BIOS or the video card drivers. I guess that would be next...
 
Have you tried updating to the latest VGA driver ?
Please post a picture of your Nvidia control panel please,also you said that if you plug to the other card the displays gets no signal,if so then can you try using the card (that gives you no signal in SLI)in single mode ?
 
Thanks Maziar. The problem is solved. I am blaming Bill Gates. I told my son he should get all the updates from Microsoft so that XP is up to date and secure. In my job, I troubleshoot microlithography equipment when it breaks and my question to the techs is always, what happened right before the failure. Well, in hind site, after installing SP3, the pig would not boot. Then we were unable to install any updated drivers and have them take because we always would have to start with last good known config. After we un-installed the update, and tried many other things, the computer booted and we were able to install the updated drivers. BTW-I had him remove one of the video cards too. So I am not sure if that is needed too but long winded post short, the SLI is working and the boy is happily tweaking this and that. Thanks for your help!
 
This was a great post!

As I am looking to replace my 5+ year old system (the venerable AMD Athlon 64 FX-55) with a new gaming rig in late Q1 2010 (I'm waiting so I can get a look at the fermi, and decide from there) this information is very helpful!

Thanks!

D.

 
speaking of helpful, I'm hoping someone can answer this for me.
I have (2) Radeon HD 5970's that I've put into my XPS 730, (replaced 2 GTX 295's) and am not sure they are really working as intended as a 4-GPU system. The quad-SLI was pretty straightforward actually but I'm fairly certain this is only using 2 of the GPU's (1 card) rather than all 4. Power isn't a problem and I connected the cable between the two as well. I see all 4 cards are active and working fine but there is no "CrossFire" options in the menu dropdown. I read that this was because you could not disable CrossFire since the card is DualGPU (which makes sense) but how do I know if I'm using all 4?

Any pointers would be welcome.

Thanks
 
ok, can you crossfire two xfx hd 5970 Black Edition 2gb 512 cards ??? With an asus Rampage II Extreme??? Here's why I have bought already the mobo an a ultra x4 1600 ps, 12g ripjaws memory ddr3, Intel 950 cpu, OCZ 60 gb solid state hd, two caviar black 1tb hd's, 64 bit windows 7 extreme, and a zalman cnps10x cpu cooler and putting it in a thermaltake vg4000sna case. And I just want to make sure these cards will work I havent been able to get an answer ?? Thanks, Just call me broke!! !oops. I forgot the cd/dvd burner and lg blue ray burner too.
 



Hi
Yes that should work. I have/had two xfx597A-BE cards mounted in this new system. My cards have gone back RMA as like others with other brands I was having issues with grey screen / crashes requiring hard boot. There are posts on this site about the issues you just need to look for them.
You could go to the AMD forum site there is a section just for the xrossfire set up.

OS: Win7-64bit
MOBO: Asus P6X58D Premium
CPU: Intel i7-965 extreme
RAM: 12GB OCZ 1600
PSU: Silverstone 1500W
Case CoolerMaster HAF932
2 x DVD
3 x HDD
 
Hey all, I have this monitor.

http://www.viewsonic.com.pe/suppor [...] /a91fplus/

Im looking at buying either a ATI 5770, 2 ATI 5770's Crossfired, or a single ATI 5850.

I have a I7 920 CPU with the ASRocks X58 extreme Mobo.


Which Vid Card should I get and why? I can get 2 5770's for $20 more than the 5850 and they out perform the 5850 quite well.

Would anything more than one 5770 be overkill? I built my system to last at least 3 years and who's to say I wont get a new monitor within that time?

Thanks,

Johnie
 
Depends if you are looking for an upgrade now, 5770 is a very good value. I run them cross-fired for high end purposes and they work great. However if you think you will have extra money in a few months, I figure why not bump up and get a 5850. I only upgrade once every 1.5 years so 2x 5770 will serve me well as the 5XXX series is really only just a bridge series till the next REAL gpu release.
 
The i7 920 will outperform even a QX9770.
You are right in that that rig is better at gaming, however the CPU isn't as powerful.
A 5870 isn't that far behind, as 3 & 4 GPU scaling is horrible, so quad-CF is probably like 3 4870's, a 5870 = 4870X2. So OCing the 5870 and it won't be more than 5-20% behind.
 
So, anyone knows 'bout the new motherboards with hydra technology (like MSI Big Bang Fuzion)?, suposed to be able for the sli-crossfire, I mean nvidia-ati cards together.
 
you said ex:\ 8800 gt 512 mb with another 8800 gt 512 mb wont make my memory go 1gb. so is it bettter to just chuck away old gpu and buy a new graphic card with 1gb memory.
 
so back to JohnnieReb's question: With a new build of an i7 920 system intended to not be upgraded within 3-4 yrs (aside from graphics card/HD), is it better today to purchase a 2x5770 or 1x5850?

To add my own twist, I will be playing on a 1680x1050 monitor and possibly a 52" plasma from time to time (idk if that makes a difference or not)..and the games will likely vary but include starcraft 2 + diablo 3 and the occasional FPS..

Thanks in advance!
 
As you said adding 8800gts512 mb with another 8600ts512 sli wont make my memory go 1gb. how sli will help me anyway then , does it mean that games which cannot use multiple gpu will show no improvement during gameplay. ?
 
Sorry! I didn't answer before do my task in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTKjjXo_KVc , octv shows how did work this moterboard with a 260 GTX and a HD 4890 together, in fact I think maybe it shows a little decrement in performance compared with a SLI or CFX, but, it represent an advantage for one guy with a oldest video card, in the specifications MSI declares that mobo works wit the 9xxx and gtx 200 series in the nvidia part and with the 4xxx series for ati, but there are another video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3DeOsrBUa8&feature=related , that shows a chinese guy playing with a HD5870 & GTX285, for the moment I do not know more than this and I like someone can explain me how can it possible?, how does work sli and cfx physically?, and how did the hydra 200 make work ati-nvidia?
 

Download GPU-Z and run 4 copies of it (each for one core) and then run a game,and check their usages
 

The lnk you posted doesn't work but 1 HD 5850 would be the best price/performance option between them
 

Some sites (including tom's)wrote a review about Hydra.
It looks promising but its currently new and driver support isn't very good but i think in future it will work better.
And yes the general purpose is using an ATI card with a Nvidia one
 
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