SLI Issue With GTX 670

foresttree1

Honorable
May 11, 2013
8
0
10,510
So I am running a pair of GTX 670 on SLI. I have an Asrock Z77 Extreme4 with a 3770k so the pcie runs at 3.0 speeds. Here is my problem:
For easier explanation, lets call the cards gpu 1 and gpu 2 and the 2 pcie slots pcie 1 and pcie 2.
1)When I plug in gpu 1 in both pcie 1 or 2 slot. Everything runs perfectly.
2)However when I plug gpu 2 in pcie 1 slot it runs perfectly but when I put it in pcie slot 2, any games or benchmark that I run causes massive stuttering. This happen when in SLI or when the card is running alone (even with the other gpu physically removed). It only happens on pcie slot 2. But with gpu 1 it work flawlessly on both pcie slots

What could be the issue? I am completely at a loss?
 

foresttree1

Honorable
May 11, 2013
8
0
10,510
Finally solved the issue. It has to do with the combination of the Z77 motherboard and the GTX 670 when running on PCIE 3.0. Apparently there is some timing issue in the implementation of the 3.0 standard on the Z77 board which caused random crashes and black screens with the GTX 670. The problem happens on random motherboard and gpu configurations and so far the only know fix is to use PCIE 2.0 speeds. Since after benchmarking i noticed no difference on the scores so I am quite happy running at PCIE 2.0. After switching over I have had no issue and it even solved the random black screen I was having.
Here are some link regarding the issue. Not sure if I can post it or not.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=368046
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m...e=1&print=true
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=9403.0
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/36...bridge-systems
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1038962857
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.p...ic,9144.0.html