7950GX2 Quad SLI problem- Quad support date

[Greygore]

I have two eVGA 7950GX2 cards (Step Up from 7900GT's) running on my MSI Diamond Plus mobo. Forceware 91.33 recognizes the quad sli setup. My problem is with an SB x-Fi extreme. When it is in PCI slot 2 ( the only slot accessible) the second video card is unrecognized. BIOS is 3.00 3/26/2006. Called eVGA and was told that official support for quad sli won't start until the end of the month.

 

[ikjadoon]

So the Sound Card won't work with the GPUs in? I'd say IRQ Conflict. See if you can change the Sound Cards or at least to what it is set, then check on the GPUs. Are they conflicting?

~Ibrahim~

 

[Greygore]

The X-Fi Extreme works fine. The second 7950GX2 isn't recognized and the resolution drops. Both the #2 video card and the sound card want to use IRQ17 and the SB must be loading first. I am not sure how to make either the video card or sound card change their settings. Thanks!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Go to creative's site and look in their support knowledge base.

It's there, I had to tweak it in the past.

 

[deweycd]

Probably an IRQ problem, change it for the sound card and see what if thats the problem.

 

[pauldh]

Quad SLI already? You are ahead of the support. [H]'s review is only a few weeks old and they could only get Qual SLI to work in 3 of their 10 games.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA4MywxNywsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA4MywxMywsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=

I hope you are loaded. Don't get me wrong, you've got some serious potential 3d power in your rig. But how soon before it is working as well as regular SLI. That's alot of money in DX9 hardware with DX 10 cards not all that far off.

 

[ikjadoon]

Ah, you wait for DX10, then someone is going to say, "Well, DX11 isn't that far off either." I'm tired of people telling others to wait! Then someone is going to say, "Well, I hear the hybrid drives are coming into play soon; Vista will take advantage" If you wait for that, good god, what else will you wait for? Quad-Core? Sometimes we think too far into the future. I have to say the most common words in technology are either "DAMN IT!!!" or "cannot be fully utilized".

No offense directly towards you, but everyone is saying "Wait!". Just my $.02.

As I said earlier, it is probably an IRQ conflict. Check on SB site first. If still not able, there are some IRQ settings in the BIOS.

~Ibrahim~

 

[Greygore]

I have not been able to find anything at Creative, yet. I'm not sure if changing IRQ's is possible when APCI is enabled.

 

[pauldh]

Well, I think you posted your tired of hearing wait comment at the wrong time and to the wrong person. It's not like I am saying keep using your FX5200 and don't buy that 7900GT now. Think about the difference, as in this case I believe this is the first time I have told anyone they would have been better off waiting. But hey again, if he can take a $400 hit and replace it with the top solution every generation, more power to him.

Unless money means nothing I think waiting makes sense in this case. Think about it. $1100+ for DX9.0 graphics that at the time of his purchase are known to the big name reviewers to not currently work properly, 70% of the games in the case of the [H] review. Then DX 10 cards/games will be out this year, possible before he gets consistent results out of that rig. And to top it off, ATI crossfire would have been far cheaper and has superior IQ and features. Look at the [h] link I gave and they without question give ATI the IQ advantage.

I completely stand by my comment. He should have bought 1- 7950 and then dual G80's later. Which very well be his intention anyway.

 

[raven_87]

I"m not taking sides, and I'm not saying who is right or wrong:

However I personally would have taken Pauldh's said approach.....
then again thats just me :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[ikjadoon]

Yeah, I somewhat agree on the getting Quad SLi, but not on DX10. The drivers for it will be out at the end of this month, so there should not be anymore problems with that. I have a DX7 card that runs Half Life 2 beatifully. 1280X1024 most settings on medium, one or two on high, and 2AA/AF. Not 100% if it was 4AA, but...Pretty good I think. If you buy a high-end card now, and who can say that Quad-SLi isn't high-end, you will be suited for a long time. DX10 is bringing SM 4.0; hell, you tell me 10 games that even use 3.0! Good DX10 games won't come until near the end of next year, possible very early '08. Now I think he can survive the latest batch of DX10 games extremely well on four GPUs....It isn't going to be DX9 cards getting 5 FPS with DX10 cards getting 80 FPS. It will be close, I think...

Well, I'm just going to ask."Greygore, why did you pick two top of the line cards now, when DX10 is coming?" All in honesty, I am asking this.

Anyways, back to topic. I looked around SB's site. I think the hard way is to move some pins, but this Solution looks slightly dated. Check it out:

Curses! Cannot get URL working..Let me just post a picture:

Have you tried asking Creative, yet? Don't mention the Quads, yet. They might hide behind the excuse that it isn't supported, blah blah blah. Just ask that you are having an IRQ conflict and you need to change the IRQ on your card.

Looking through your BIOS, you want APIC enabled as it expands available IRQ resources.

Go to your BIOS, then PNP/PCI configs. Go down to PCI Slot 1/2 IRQ. Change whichever the slot is in. That should fix it, if what SB gives doesn't.

If that STILL doesn't work, go down to IRQ Resource setup and reserve that IRQ. The GPU should default to another one. You could also disable some COM ports, if you aren't using them... The manual says that a sound card can work off of IRQ 9...

Have you tried the orange PCI slot?

~Ibrahim~