Quick SLI question

[kemperkipie]

I've ordered 2x Palit Jetstream GeForce GTX 680 4096MB
They will arrive today, I have:

i7 3770k
Asus sabertooth z77
16GB g.skill ripjaws @ 2133
1050W XFX Black edition PSU
240GB Corsair force

The motherboard delivered 1 bridge with the box. Do I need anything else? To install? to buy?
Or is it just, put in the 2 cards, add the SLI bridge, install GTX 680 drivers, done?
Do i need to set anything special before it'll work, or does it work on every game, as soon it's installed etc.

(It's my first SLI setup, srry could'nt find it in the SLI FAQ)

 

[smorizio]

I have that mb. for the mb itself use the usb flash back and make sure you put the three bios updates on one at a time. one is for cpu code update. one is for memory update the last is for usb device (120x). all you need is a fat 16.32 formated usb stick and to rename the bios file (think it z77st) it on asus web page for our mb. what you have to do is install one of the cards in the main video slot first and boot into windows and install the video drivers from nvida web page first. the ones on the cd are going to be old and outdated. when that done reboot and go into the bios. you want to set the pcie video card as the first boot device and you want to turn off the intel video chipset and the mvp chipset. boot back into windows if no issues going into windows. use gpu-z real quick and see that it reading the card info and bus speed. with one card and a ib cpu it read pci 3.0 at 16x. shut down the pc and then install the other video card and the bridge. power the pc back up and in windows run gpu-z again.
it should now show two video cards both should be the same speed and device ids. the mb speed should now read pci 3.0 at 8x for both cards.close out cpu z then open nvidia controller panel. there be a box for sli to turn it on. if the cards and bridge are fine it wont be grayed out. it be up to the games and there patches on how well sli runs.

 

[kemperkipie]

I currently have a GTX680 Phantom 4GB in my PC, which my brother gets when the Jetstreams arrive, so I already have drivers (Béta of the newest driver from nvidia). I have BIOS 1015 installed. And in BIOS set PCIe speed to AUTO instead of 16x or 8x, should that do the job?

You mentioned to unable iGPU, and Virtu MVP. Should i just uninstall the program.. Never noticed any performance increase of it anyway..

But if i already have the drivers, and 1 card works perfectly, shoudn't it be just plug and play for the second? or did i miss something? Cause i didn't really understand the BIOS update you mentioned. Is my Bios up to date for it atm?

 

[MouseTrap]

After installing the cards and restarting the PC you may need to go into Nvidia's control panel and enable SLI. I would start with one card restart once everything loads then power down and install the 2nd card just to let the OS load the drivers for the change in card first.

Nice cards BTW!

 

[kemperkipie]

Hmmm. Do I really have to use 1 first, before even putting in the second one. I prefer building it in instantly, instead of, first one, so i won't have to open my case 2 times, because i don't have a test place or something cables are tai-rapped to the PC spot..
Besides, my PC should recognize a GTX 680 4GB, since i've already had the phantom in it.. It is the exact same card/chip only from a different brand with different cooler.. Same chip, same clocks, same vram

Thnx

 

[MouseTrap]

You can always give it a try...But I have had times when switching the exact same spec card for another and still needed to do a reboot to load the drivers. Installing both at the same time is up to you.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Hmmm. Do I really have to use 1 first, before even putting in the second one. I prefer building it in instantly, instead of, first one, so i won't have to open my case 2 times, because i don't have a test place or something cables are tai-rapped to the PC spot..
Besides, my PC should recognize a GTX 680 4GB, since i've already had the phantom in it.. It is the exact same card/chip only from a different brand with different cooler.. Same chip, same clocks, same vram

Thnx

Also, if you are you are using W7 64 then mack sure it's got all the updates installed. I had problems with SLi'ing my 560's and it was down to a Windows update that was needed but I can't remember which one.

 

[kemperkipie]

I have legal windows from school so I install all updates when they release. Think i'm just going to install them, and then make them work.. if it doesnt work i can always open it again..

 

[kemperkipie]

Best answer selected by kemperkipie.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey