s1lent

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I have two 9800's gtx+ running SLI. When I first connected the 2 cards SLI, it ran awesome. But since then, in game it has froze up on me about 3 or 4 times. So I restarted it and it would come up with a black screen. I would then have to shut it down and restart it again. Then it would run fine. Also, I ran 3dMark advantage Benchmarks it also would freeze up. I would have to do the same process all over again, restart=black screen, shut it down and restart and then it works fine. All of this has happen about 5 to 6 times now since I installed SLI. I have tried to look for answers online, with no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, is it really worth it to run SLI? I looked at benchmarks for the 9800gtx+ Sli against other SLI GPU's and single GPU's. I have found that running these cards SLI puts then right up there with other SLi cards and single GPU's. But so far running SLI has had some freeze up's. So my question is, should I run SLI or a single GPU?

Here are to links to show benchmarks.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts_3dmark_vantage_06/

http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts_crysis/


Thanks for all your suggestions!!


i7 920
Asus p6t
6gb 1600mhz
850w psu
20" monitor 1680x1050
1tb hd
2 9800gtx+ SLI
Vista 64bit
 

vargus

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I'm having almost the same exact problem as s1lent. My SLI cards ran fine at first and now have proceeded to freeze my system upon running 3D apps (games), but not with 100% frequency. It seems to happen the most when I switch from one game to the next.

System Specs:

i7 920
Asus P6T
6GB DDR3 (1066, will need to up voltage to reach 1600 like it's supposed to be)
750W Thermaltake Toughpower
640 GB WD Caviar Black
2x GTX 260 C216 SLI

Everything I've read says that the PSU should provide enough power for the video cards, so I'm not entirely sure what the problem is. I'm doing some tests right now with a single GPU to see if it still freezes up. Oh, I'm also running Vista x64, that might have an impact on it since driver support for it is notoriously lackluster.

Likewise, any help would be great.
 

s1lent

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I am also running Vista 64bit OS! Let me know what the test results where for the single GPU?
 

hundredislandsboy

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I run SLI on an Asus 750i P5N-D and this happened once only because after the first time, I downloaded EVGA Precision and manually set the GPU fans to 90 or 100% and also left the side panel out and from then on smooth sailing. The e8400 still heats up like mad on Crysis and Far Cry 2 (up to 65 C) but the GPUs stays below 66 C where before the fan setting the would go to 79 C.
 

vargus

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Single GPU seems to be working OK so far. I'm going to download the drivers off the eVGA site and their special "SLI Enhancement Patch" and see if that helps anything.

EDIT: Nevermind, the drivers are just the ones off the nVidia site anyway. I'll just check out their patch.
 

s1lent

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I noticed that my 1st GTX 9800+ has two 6-pin power connectors, while my new 9800+second card only has one. Will this affect the SLI and stability?
 

s1lent

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Bluescreen,

I seem to be having issues with SLI. Can you read the beginning of this thread and tell me if you have any suggestions. Also, I ran Rivatuner and I put the fan speed up to 90% on each card but it still would freeze up. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help
 

vargus

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Small update tonight. Everything seemed to work fine with just the one card, but when I tried reinstalling the second card and re-enabling SLI support, the whole system went FUBAR. Attempted to uninstall/reinstall the nVidia drivers and that just led to one headache after the next so here I am after doing a repair install of Windows and starting over.

I installed the nVidia drivers, the eVGA SLI patch, the works. Everything installed OK, but now Windows won't even load the drivers for the second card (error code 43 in device manager). If I attempt to uninstall the "faulty" card and manually reinstall it, it uninstalls my primary card and its drivers too, sigh. I just can't seem to win for losing.

I'm seriously starting to doubt that the power supply I have has enough amperage on the 12V rail. I just can't think of another explanation as to why I would be having such a hard time getting this to work otherwise. As always, any help would be great.