Dell XPS 730x (570gtx SLI) problems

1- That might be really the problem.
2- No, 2 GTX 570s in SLI don't need more than a quality branded 750W PSU, Dell PSUs in XPS and Alienwares aren't that bad.
3- You might check the settings where you enable the Add in card as the default Display adapter in your BIOS. Also check for a newer BIOS version.

Thanks for the quick response.

1.I just switched out the 2nd 570gtx to check if it's faulty. Everything boots up normally monitor included for the boot-up sequence.Tested it on a game as well. As soon as I am in the game it does makes an abnormal sound almost sounds like a power surge and likewise with the core temperature of the graphic card it gets hot really fast. No flickering tho. The noise also seems to appear and disappear when using alt-tab to go in and out of the game and no its not the fans. No blue screens yet but I have yet to run the game for an extended period of time. Sufficient enough to identify it as faulty? Is there any stress test?


3. Yes the motherboard bios is the latest (1.05), it is also still the stock motherboard that came with it. Also the graphic card bios is the latest (70.10.55.00.01)

Ok so I just reinserted the first graphic card and looked at it's bios. Thanks for pointing that out. So apparently there's two versions of revision 02 of the Gigabyte 570 (GV-N570OC-13I). My first one has Hynix RAM installed with bios 70.10.55.00.01, whereas the 2nd has Samsung RAM installed with bios 70.10.38.00.03. The only variance between the two cards really is it's on-board RAM and therefore the two different bios. I assume this is what is causing the problem. So my question is can I flash one of the cards to the same bios or will it recognize the variance between the two RAM manufacturers. Kind of disappointing that they would do such a thing in the first place considering it is registered as SLI ready but comes in two different versions that are not listed on the box or anywhere else accept when the card is already at your home and installed on the computer.

You could have a faulty card, If one card is normal but the second one is causing the issue even without SLI. I have known cards to Overheat just because a Bad chip or even like sam said. could be a bad card bios even tho i have had more driver issues than Video card bios. But either way if you run these in SLI. Your bound to get hot unless you water cool them or have a good Air flow design. Hope this helps

Link the 2 cards if possible.

As i understand from you that the second card is faulty, and gets pretty hot quickly, download Furmark it's a stress test for GPU, but be advised that it's considered as a heat virus and running it for too many hours could cause a serious damage. Download it and run it for 20 minutes, if no flickering or problems appear then the GPU is not faulty. You can use GPU-Z to monitor the GPU temperatures.

Also i suggest you to do a google search for your problem with your Dell machine, because i had a Dimension E520, i installed HD 5770 and there was a delay on the startup and i figured out it's a problem related to USB devices and BIOS updates.

Also, you can tell us what monitor you do have and your connection output.

This isn't your standard Dell prebuilt unit. I usually make my own unit but went for a dell XPS this time which was built and designed to last, including the tower itself. I'm aware Dells' crappier lines have allot of problems it's not the case with this and Ihave already done the research. There are people running it with 570 gtx SLI without any problems. Why is the fact that these cards are running off two different bios versions being completely ignored. From what I understand when using SLI the cards need to be exactly the same which most likely includes the bios as there could be variance in how the bios itself was tweaked.

Linking the 2 cards and doing a stress test is a bad idea and will most likely destroy the whole system. Considering after running a game for only 10min with them being linked and SLI enabled caused the 2nd card overheat and even have the corresponding scent of hot plastic to it. I will stress test them separately just in case but this seems to be a step in the wrong direction. Gigabyte has been known to tweak their cards WATT consumption on new bios updates. Therefore difference of installed bios versions could really be the problem here.

The Monitor is a Dell XS2210. It not displaying on boot up is probably related to the cards not being compatible with each other. I am open to suggestions and appreciate the help and shall continue to do some research on the matter. It is more and more leaning towards calling up the shop and telling him to get a card ready with one of either bios version for me to switch out for.

The bios is almost definitely not your problem, I run 2 460's in sli and they are different brands and different bios'. and you probably don't wanna go around trying to flash the bios on gpus, that would be opening up a whole new can of worms.

Ok fair enough. Considering your experience what would you suggest then I'd appreciate any constructive feedback. Any clue what is causing this problem and is there any way work around it? It is probably not a faulty card, when I test both separately they work fine. So far one card has survived the stress test will give an update on the other. Stores have return policies and time is ticking. Should I give up on SLI all together and return the card for a refund or another item? Only other thing I can think of that is causing the issues is the motherboard itself.

I managed to test the newest card earlier today which ended up being the culprit. It failed within 1 min of the stress test causing a system crash. Thanks for the help I appreciate it. Already went to return the faulty card today.