SLI disabled in nVidia Control Panel

[tylerphilco87]

System:

Windows 8.1, on two 60GB SSDs, Raid 0. I'll admit this is a cracked version. Wasn't sure if I'd like Windows 8 and wanted to test it. I am about to erase everything and start over with my legit copy of Windows 7 if that will fix this.

GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 (Motherboard, Yes SLI)
intel i7 4.4 Quad Core 4790k
Kingston beast 2400mhz 16GB
Power supply should be plenty at 850watts, Thermaltake.

EVGA Nvidia GTX 670. Identical: 02G-P4-2670-KR

Greetings everyone and thank you for your time,

Have ran this system for a couple weeks with just 1 card. Added a second and SLI not showing in the nVidia control panel.
- Reset the system - no change
- Switched cards - no change
- Booted WITHOUT the SLI bridge - Now it says it is SLI ready and to connect a bridge to 'maximize performance' - nVidia control panel - SLI IS and option but "Disabled"
- Powered back down and reconnected bridge - Same thing. SLI an option but disabled
- Rebooted again - NO SLI option
- Uninstalled, deleted and reinstalled drivers
- same
- Tried older drivers - same
- Removed both cards - booted of onboard video and removed any and everything remotely related to nVidia
- installed 1 card and drivers
- installed 2nd card with connector - NO SLI.

I only have 1 connector right now but its new, just out of the package that came with the motherboard. I'm about to go get another one if I can find it locally. I have tried the connector both ways on both sides of the cards.

There is NO BIOS option to enable SLI that I could find, I consulted my manual and all it said was its 2-way SLI ready and to enable it in nVidia control panel.

Top Slot

Bottom Slot

^Stats do not follow the card. If I switch the card the stats are the same where the lower one shows LESS memory and lower bit rate. Not sure if this is problem or not.

 

[wss_003]

Are you running a single monitor i has the same issue but it ended up being my monitor configuration

 

[tylerphilco87]

Single monitor.

The boards 3 slots are 16, 8 and 4. With SLI they should be both at x8. Board model is in original post. According to gpu z they are running correct - both at x8

It's only when I plug in both that they run at x8 - like they're suppose to - but the bottom one drops to the lower bit rate and memory as you see in the pictures. If I switch the cards it shows the same stats but they follow the slots, not the cards. The cards both run just fine solo

I have reset the CMOS to defaults with no change. I'm not too familiar with flashing the bios. When I installed the board I just installed the drivers that came with it - which happened to be the latest, after looking at gigabytes website. Could it be that I need to install and OLDER bios? Or older nVidia drivers?

 

[faalin]

make sure your cards are in slot 2 and 5. slot 2 is the pciE-16x and slot 5 is pciE-8X. If you put the second card all the way to the bottom pciE slot it only runs a 4x and will not be able to run sli. Its hard to tell form the picture but it looks like your card are in the right slots, this will narrow it down to a bad sli bridge.

 

[lantrich]

I had the same problem. For some reason it corrected itself when I went back in the bios and set to default. Then i went back in so I could overclock.

 

[tylerphilco87]

I'm ordering another SLI bridge just to be safe. The difference in GPU Z stats is what concerns me though - as if the board doesn't recognize the lower PCI slot correctly. They are definitely in the right slots. The lowest x4 slot isn't even accessible with these large video cards. I've already reset the cmos - doesn't that reset the bios too? It did make it default to where I had to turn RAID back on and set the XMP memory profile again. Ugh, my brain hurts now...

 

[tylerphilco87]

Just rebooted a few times and fiddled with the power cables, swtched card slots again, reversed bridge, etc... Lower slot card still shows difference stats in GPU z compared to top one. Other threads tell me this is because SLI is disabled and the card is just idling. However, sometimes when I boot the lower card fan starts running incredibly fast. Even playing games with these cards I have never actually heard the fan. But sometimes the lower card fan starts running at a very audible high speed then stops. Again, it doesn't matter which card - just whichever one is on the lower slot.