I ACCIDENTALLY ended up with two 7950 GX2s! SLI on a 975x??

[RichardJSampson]

Hi friends,

All right, I'll cut to the chase.. I was delivered 2 GX2s by accident. I mean, both have been charged to my account (ouch), and this wasn't intended. I kind of explained how this happened in another thread, but anyway..

I got great deals on each card, even though I only wanted one. Each was just under $400.. one is an XFX, the other an ASUS. I'm pretty much going to RMA one of them, but I'll take a hit on restocking fees.

BUT -- the idea of "quad-SLI" is irresistable to me. On these forums, someone pretty sharp mentioned the existence of majorly hacked drivers that could make this possible on my ASUS P5W DH 975X-based mobo. Is there any truth to this?? Please advise ASAP!

I know how impractical "quad-SLI" is, but hey, I want to do it if possible. Otherwise I'm just losing money on restocking.

Yeah, my behaviour in building this new system is bordering on, well, flamboyant, but by God I'm paying my dues and working hard! If this can be done, with stability, I'll do it, overclock both cards, and post some fun benchmarks.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

 

[killa]

Hi friends,

All right, I'll cut to the chase.. I was delivered 2 GX2s by accident. I mean, both have been charged to my account (ouch), and this wasn't intended. I kind of explained how this happened in another thread, but anyway..

I got great deals on each card, even though I only wanted one. Each was just under $400.. one is an XFX, the other an ASUS. I'm pretty much going to RMA one of them, but I'll take a hit on restocking fees.

BUT -- the idea of "quad-SLI" is irresistable to me. On these forums, someone pretty sharp mentioned the existence of majorly hacked drivers that could make this possible on my ASUS P5W DH 975X-based mobo. Is there any truth to this?? Please advise ASAP!

I know how impractical "quad-SLI" is, but hey, I want to do it if possible. Otherwise I'm just losing money on restocking.

Yeah, my behaviour in building this new system is bordering on, well, flamboyant, but by God I'm paying my dues and working hard! If this can be done, with stability, I'll do it, overclock both cards, and post some fun benchmarks.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

I know nothing on your motherboards capabilities, but Jesus Christ that is a tanked out system you have.

 

[Xazax310]

As far as i understand the new 91.47 drivers that have been out for awhile support Quad SLI. Because really 7950GX2 is one Video card with two GPUS so really all your doing is SLI not Quad SLI, Quad SLI is having four SEPREATE GPUS(4 7900GT's). So i believe you dont need to get Hacked drivers to run those.

 

[RichardJSampson]

I know nothing on your motherboards capabilities, but Jesus Christ that is a tanked out system you have.

Humble thanks for the compliment! I'm not used to hearing that. All I've been able to afford to build all my life is budget systems. This is a little different.. Hey, I just thought of a fun little fact. There are 12 fans in my case!

As far as i understand the new 91.47 drivers that have been out for awhile support Quad SLI. Because really 7950GX2 is one Video card with two GPUS so really all your doing is SLI not Quad SLI, Quad SLI is having four SEPREATE GPUS(4 7900GT's). So i believe you dont need to get Hacked drivers to run those.

Yeah, this is certainly a "quad-like" configuration but you're right in pointing out that it isn't. It's definitely SLI.

The problem is, the Intel 975X chipset, as far as I know, only supports ATI Crossfire configurations and not nVidia SLI configurations (why the hell Intel would only want to support only its arch-enemy's -- AMD's -- double card specification is beyond my intelligence level) so these hacked drivers to which I made reference, I imagine, would be mobo drivers or BIOS updates. Anyone know of these?

 

[Assman]

i like your rig setup man, e6700 + 4gb of corsair, vista is going to fly on that rig. But i honestly don't understand why would you buy a 7950gx2 when in a month you'll be able to get a g80?

 

[RichardJSampson]

i like your rig setup man, e6700 + 4gb of corsair, vista is going to fly on that rig. But i honestly don't understand why would you buy a 7950gx2 when in a month you'll be able to get a g80?

Couldn't agree more, assman. Ideally I would have held out for the g80. However, most of the funding for this new rig was provided in the form of a personal technology allowance benefit by my employer (a VERY generous one) and needed to be used by the end of the fiscal year (ie, next week for us)

So now I'm stuck with 2 damn DX9 cards. Time to make some lemonade. (Although I'd hardly say I've got lemons right now! ) Any more thoughts?

 

[Assman]

Any more thoughts?

yeah, return or sell one of them, so you'll have the money to get a "lime" in a few weeks

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Because he doesn't want to burn out his PSU...or electrical grid...:lol:

 

[RichardJSampson]

Because he doesn't want to burn out his PSU...or electrical grid...:lol:

I think the PSU (a 750w Thermaltake toughPower) can handle it. I'm not so sure about the electrical grid though..

And of course, I will most likely end up RMAing it. But as the post-RSF refund will go straight to a company credit card, it might take some real sucking up to the CFO to actually transform that into liquid assets into my pocket (see the dilemma I'm in? ) Fortunately, he's a bean counter and not technically savvy. "..Yes, sir, this is a very cost-effective, conservatively budgeted computer necessary to perform business functions at home.." He's still using the DOS version of Quickbooks. Pretty much the only reason I got away with this whole thing.

OKAY I've said too much... back to the drivers? :twisted:

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Maybe I should have quoted...I was referring to the post above about why he didn't wait for the DX10 cards. It was a joke, BTW.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

RichardJSampson, let's hope your boss does not hire an auditor that is a THG reader 8O

The only guy making much progress in this area that I have seen is this guy:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=97441

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106212

I don't think he has Quad SLI support yet but, if anyone does it, he'll probably be the one.

Also, I have read a forum post where a guy claims to have done quad SLI on Intel chipset MOBOs. However, I can't find it again. I did not save the link because he claimed to be under some sort of NDA (yeah right) and could not release the driver.

Good luck

 

[dean7]

Since it seems pretty "iffy" that you will get quad SLI working, I would just call the company and demand they wave the restocking fee. Just convince them that it's their fault and they need to fix it.

One GX2 ought to be able to hold you over for quite some time.

 

[Assman]

couldn't agree more

 

[dean7]

BTW, you're such a bastardo! Here I am with my 7600GT and you're like "oops, I got 2 GX2s on accident!"

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

Not only that, ASUS has their own way of doing things. I would not bet the farm that those 2 cards will play nice together, even on an Nvidia chipset MOBO. Then, you add in the uncertainty of hacked drivers and you have a recipe for failure. I think I too would return the card with the poorest warranty or performance spex.

 

[tool_462]

I think with a soon to be overclocked e6700 and potentially quad SLI'ed GX2's his system shall remain "above average" for awhile, even with quad core. The introduction of C2D was a much bigger jump than the introduction of Kentsfield will be.

 

[Xazax310]

OK, lets get back to the orignal post. Have you tried to run both on them on your mobo yet? i mean although it is crossfire "Ready" just becuase the 975X has the ATI GPU bridge (Xpress 200) doesnt mean SLI wont work on it.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

OK, lets get back to the orignal post. Have you tried to run both on them on your mobo yet? i mean although it is crossfire "Ready" just becuase the 975X has the ATI GPU bridge (Xpress 200) doesnt mean SLI wont work on it.

It definitely won't work without the hacked driver. I also think you need the bridging device to connect the 2 cards.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Supposedly the 975x chipset can do both SLI and Crossfire, but it's the Quad-SLI that gives it the heebie-jeebies...

This could be the perfect opportunity to try a dual monitors setup. Just a thought...in case you want to keep the other card so badly, but can't hack Quad-SLI workably.

 

[Granite3]

Asus announced a few weeks back the new bios for the 965 deluxe board to run crossfire on them, but not sli.

Going to be an uphill battle to get those boys to play nice with each other, I have read enough stories about the single cards playing nice with their siamese twin, much less another card. AND supposedly very game select in the ones they work well with.

Shoot me a pm if you want to rid yourself of one card, the boss does not see paypal does he? Can't decide whether to go that route now or wait for 80.

 

[Assman]

here's what i was able to find

This is beta driver with 7900/7600/7300 support, but not with 7950GX2 support.
This is unoffical driver and you can try to run SLi on any chipset at your own risk.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106212&page=1

and here's the working download links (84.66 mod, 85.96 mod)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1734029&postcount=266

 

[Assman]

ASUS P5WDH Deluxe Testing with 7900GTX SLI Hacked Drivers

link

EDIT

I installed 2 7900gtx on my p5wdh with the hack 85.96 drivers and it works beautifully without the sli bridge....Took me 3 days of frustration to figure this out...

source

 

[Assman]

as of today, there are only 8x.xx series drivers that are hacked, and they don't support 7950gx2

 

[Heyyou27]

Just get an Intel board with an Nvidia chipset, unless you're doing some extreme overclocking with your E6700.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

Yeah, good idea. But, the 570 and 590 based Nvidia chipset boards are not that great for OCing. Since you have 2 great GPUs, you could mebbe wait until NOV when the newer chipset stuff comes out, the Nvidia 680i sounds good if they can get it to OC.