[Morania]

I have two GeForce 8600GT graphics cards. When I team them up in SLI, the process goes as it should:
Both cards are shown i the device manager.
The software, finds them and recommends that I put them in SLI mode.
The computer runs fine on every application in SLI mode except....

Games. The games' screens flicker. (I know that they realize they're in SLI because Black Hawk Down goes so far as to add a green line to the screen with the letters SLI at the top of it. The line changes length as I move the mouse. Neato, but useless.)

So far, I've found out through surfing that:

I need to use the drivers that came with the cards. Check.

I should try over or under clocking the cards a little. I used ATI-Tool. Check.

There are no setting in my BIOS to tweak any of the PCIE stuff so I can't investigate there. Check.

No change in the flickering by playing with either

Now. What I've noticed is, the MSI K9N manual list the PCIE slots as compatible with x8 aperture in SLI mode and in x16 primary, and x8 secondary in non-SLI. When I open up the NVidia control panel, it list the primary at 16 and the secondary at 8. I wonder if it is just reading generic slot values or if I need to find a way to set these values at 8 each.

OR....

Get one honkin' big GeForce card and quit the idea of SLI altogether. The two cards here cost as much as a great big card. Even the latest and greatest can be found on the cheap with Pricewatch.

[gdi1942]

I have just two questions, i'm not all that experienced in SLI because i've never done it.

Some motherboards have a chip on the motherboard next to the primary PCI-E slot that needs to be turned around to fully activate SLI mode. Maybe you missed that? Old ATI cards that used crossfire took a special cable to connect the two cards togeather to produce a unified output. But since your using 8600's they're fairly new. I'm sure you've connected the SLI bridge as well that goes across the cards? One thing you could try is change the mode the SLI operates in. There should be three modes in the Nvidia Control Panel of how the cards display the joint image.

One more note, if your overclocking Nvidia cards I believe it's better to use RivaTuner than ATITool.

I'm no expert on this, let me know if you get it workin and what you did.

[matthew0155]

can you use SLI with ati, do you have to have a 'crossfire" compatible motherboard? Or does it work both ways? Crossfire with NVIDIA and Sli with ATI?

[Morania]

The way I understand it is:

SLI is Nvidia chip stuff.

Crossfire is the ATI version of this.

Both are the same process with different names.

Not knowing anything about ATI, I would have to search to see how it works.

[Gulo Luseus]

Mostly familiar problems I have had. Re the 16x/ 8x, not a problem. Many SLI boards had this, and it doesnt make a lot of difference. IF yo uare in SLI mode, it will automatically configure itself to work. However, it may be worth checking in BIOS to see if there is an SLI mode.
Second one, are the cards the same, as in maker, memory size, etc? IF not, it can cause big problems. Thirdly, are you using an SLI bridge( It conects the top of the 2 cards together)? This can cause the problems.
According to the mobo spec, you dont have a SLI switch, so its not that.
If you can work through, let us know if it gets anywhere

[Morania]

Originally Posted by matthew0155

can you use SLI with ati, do you have to have a 'crossfire" compatible motherboard? Or does it work both ways? Crossfire with NVIDIA and Sli with ATI?

Here's a bit that I found while I was messing around.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,12...s/article.html

[Morania]

The cards are the same as in I ordered two of the same card.

I've been over and over the BIOS and there's no setting for SLI. The MSI folks leave it up to the nVidia software to handle it. It is an nForce motherboard, they got off easy there.

I probably need to sign up for nVidia forums and slog through the problems people have had. Generally speaking, it doesn't sound like anyone who had this problem has ever solved it. That coming from my searching but I may need to come up with new terms too.

[matthew0155]

I think i may have misunderstood.
Are you running a motherboard with a Nvidia Chipset and Nvida Graphics cards?

[matthew0155]

i know that the primary should be running at 8x
the secondary should also be running at 8x
this is the reason sli is not greatly beneficial. 1 good card runs at 16x. So you would be getting more memory but not more speed out of the cards as they are each running at half the speed.

[Morania]

My rig is listed in the signature. It's all nVidia.
The second part of your post makes me think I should get a single 8800 with a gig of DDR and call this SLI crap quits.

[matthew0155]

ya, i have also done a little (not alot) of research on sli.
Im undecided i mean the only huge advantage of sli is the reputation you get, its all bragging rights, you can say you have sli, as for performance im pretty sure you can run all the latest games with high settings with 1 really good card, with less power consumption(who cares right?) and hassle.
Sli is a good concept, but i would wait till the can make both the cards run at there full potential 16x. Also i would wait intill everything is compatible with it. The only problem with that statement is the game you mentioned specifically says its compatible with sli.
Anyway think about what im saying im not saying get rid of it, im also not saying go spend 400$ on a new card.
I would think about going sli for sure but, its really preference and finance.

[Morania]

This is the time of year when I have some extra money. I'm not too foolish and will probably talk myself out of the 400 dollar model and go around 250 for the still nice 8800 and let it ride for a while.

I think for now, I'm going to give away one of the 8600's and wait for SLI to mature a bit.

[dman4862]

have you downloaded the lastest drivers for cards? Usually the driver cds you get with the cards are very outdated. Also as far as performance with SLI it depends on the game. I have played games such as CSS which produce a marginal performance difference while games like COD4 which produces a phenominal result with SLI.

[Morania]

An earlier attempt to get this running is when I put i the latest drivers. other forums said to go back to the originals, not to mention that the removal of the nVidia drivers using Windows went horribly wrong and I had to redo Windows (another story).
It's becoming obvious that this isn't the way I want to game on this machine. It's not convenient, with the little gaming time I have, to change settings or configurations whenever I want to play particular games.
Sooner or later, SLI will become so standard that any game will work with it out of the box.
I'm getting long winded here. There is now quick fix to this problem. There isn't even an involved fix. If there was, we'd have found it by now. I haven't given up completely. This is one of those problems that I'll surf around on for a while. Eventually, I'll end up getting a new mobo and cards by default and the chipsets will probably handle everything we throw at them.

[crjdriver]

You have found out something I have been saying for years; sli is no more than a gimmick to sell more video cards. The tech is not new. It has been around since the late 90s. The voodoo line of FX cards had models with two gpus on a single card. Once model even had four gpus on the card.

You are correct. Get a single high end card like an 8800 series and be done with it.