GTX690 SLI with GPUs from different manufacturers?

[thy_armageddon]

This sounds extremely bizarre to me, but maybe I don't know something that my PC manufacturer does, however either way I'm still encountering problems with my GTX690 SLI configuration and I'm pretty sure this is why. So after an hour or so this morning of wondering why my nvidia drivers are causing my computer to BSOD on a scheduled scan and why updating the drivers of the cards causes major non-functionality issues with my OS, I decided to just for the heck of it look at GPU-Z and see if there was anything wrong with the cards that are hooked up, and what I found is that Card 1 is an EVGA GTX690 and Card 2 is an ASUS GTX690. My first thought is that since they're both just reference GPUs there shouldn't be a real difference between them, but every time I reboot after updating the drivers I get a SLI connector error and then my computer sort of lags into a grinding halt where I have to do a system restore before the driver updates in order to get the PC to function again. I'm an amateur at best when it comes do all of this, so does anybody here have an idea what could be the issue?

 

[Mousemonkey]

What PSU are you using? Have you tried running each card independently?

 

[thy_armageddon]

I have a Silverstone ST1500 PSU, and I've tried running each card independently and they work just fine. I just did a completely fresh re-install and everything is running okay, I won't know about the BSOD until the schedule runs, oddly enough when I try to force the schedule the BSOD won't occur, but when I looked at the dump the BSOD left, it said the error was caused by the video drivers, which was why I went to install the latest ones and how this all occured. The only thing I'm finding odd is how it says the SLI connector isn't connected, but I can manually set it to SLI, maybe that's just what occurs after a normal driver update, this is my first SLI machine.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Quad SLi has never been the most stable of SLi configurations and is also the one that has the least returns performance wise compared to the financial outlay.

 

[thy_armageddon]

Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem, this is sort of a dream PC, took a long time of budgeting to get this rig.

 

[bucknutty]

Try without the bridge, or maybe try a new SLI bridge. I had a case where the flexible sli bridge was defective. I belive 2 of the wires were touching or shorting inside the sheathing. That caused blue screens.

You could also try to swap the cards. Or test them 1 at a time. Remove one card and use your favorit game or benchmark to push it.

PS you mentioned your PC manufacturer. Was this a prebuilt system. Perhaps they have tech support and would have some advice for you.

Some boards have issues, with the newer cards and SLI. What board is it?

 

[thy_armageddon]

I've begun talking with my manufacturers tech support to see if there are any issues, I decided to test them with Skyrim and they seem to be working well, I'll use a more intensive game to test once I have one installed, also have to get a benchmark installed as well. I've also got new bridges I can try in case the error continues, but as of now it seems to be working, hopefully it can stay that way.

 

[bryonhowley]

Are both card the same speed on GPU/memory? Do both cards have the same amount of memory? I have not been up on Nvidia tech for a while but from what I understand for sli to work correctly both cards have to have the same specs not necessarily the same manufacture.

 

[Topher1222]

Also when updateing your Video drivers it is good to uninstall the old drivers make sure to use a program like CCleaner to clean the registry after u uninstall. do all your reboots also after uninstall, then install the new drivers with a fresh install.. Also usually the non-Beta drivers are the best to go with but since the cards do not have mature drivers really yet the beta's might be usefull.

 

[Topher1222]

Are both card the same speed on GPU/memory? Do both cards have the same amount of memory? I have not been up on Nvidia tech for a while but from what I understand for sli to work correctly both cards have to have the same specs not necessarily the same manufacture.

The cards do not have to be the same specs, it is my understanding that sli will make both cards run the speeds of the lesser card or something on those lines i know if u have a lets say a 4gig card and lets say another card same specs except the memory and the memory is 2 gigs on your second card, being in sli will make both cards 2gigs each for a total of 4gigs instead of 6gigs

 

[thy_armageddon]

My PC manufacturer said the cards should be fine SLI, though now I have another worry. My PC's been running pretty hot since it arrived so I've had Real Temp running in the background while playing some games to see what temps max out at. After about a half hour of playing Metro 2033, Real Temp said the highest temp my SLI configuration reached was 93C, which worries me. At the moment it's about 98F outside and this room can get as hot as 100F+ with the computer running, so should I be looking into equipment to keep the room cool in order to fix these temps? The fans on the cards are operating just fine, and all the fans on the PC run at a minimum of 600 RPMS, averaging at about 900 RPMS while idle for most of the fans.

 

[Topher1222]

My PC manufacturer said the cards should be fine SLI, though now I have another worry. My PC's been running pretty hot since it arrived so I've had Real Temp running in the background while playing some games to see what temps max out at. After about a half hour of playing Metro 2033, Real Temp said the highest temp my SLI configuration reached was 93C, which worries me. At the moment it's about 98F outside and this room can get as hot as 100F+ with the computer running, so should I be looking into equipment to keep the room cool in order to fix these temps? The fans on the cards are operating just fine, and all the fans on the PC run at a minimum of 600 RPMS, averaging at about 900 RPMS while idle for most of the fans.

You need to make sure that you keep your tower, fans and also your video cards blown out. I personally use a device called Metro Datavac electric duster, this thing is a beast. anyways do that also depending on the tower you have now maybe look into getting a upgrade or new fans slash more fans you could also look into water cooling, very easy to set up.