SLI hack on Intel legacy chipsets (not X58)

[TiN_]

Firewings [CCG] at Expreview forum (Chinese version) has figured out the way to get SLI support for its Asus Maximus Formula motherboard based on Intel X38 chipset, with one NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT and one GeForce GTX 260 graphics card.

Source:EXPreview.com

Great news, little obsolete, but still interesting for people. Hope we get support for SLI rigs with E8600 >6.5GHz soon.
Still, It's maybe possible to enable SLI with different GPU's, even on X58. There is no physical/tech limitations to such configurations.

Update:


For now, TechPowerUp forum member sveetsnelda made successful patch to ForceWare 190.62 winxp32bit driver to enable SLI on any chipset. Driver was tested on his system (ASUS P45 + two 9800GTX+) and by myself on P5B Deluxe P965 + two 6600LE so far.

We will make detailed HOWTO bit latter, together with better (more easy) patching process.

Little description for those who know what to do.

Hardcoded X58 chipset driver ForceWare version 190.62 (XP 32bit only ATM)


After driver unpack, put this file to C:\nvidia\displaydriver\190.62\english

http://www.xdevs.com/sli/nv4_mini.rar - 2.1MB

Then install as usual.
DSDT table must have valid SLIC X58 string.




To compare posting my own old single-card results:

3D'01: single card, QX9650 @ 4210MHz, 6600LE DDR3 640/640 : 33298
3D'01: SLI two cards, Q6700 @ 3000MHz, 6600LE DDR3 580/522 : 23650
3D'03: single card, QX9650 @ 4200MHz, 6600LE DDR3 660/670 : 10044
3D'03: SLI two cards, Q6700 @ 3000MHz, 6600LE DDR3 580/522 : 11087
3D'05: single card, QX9650 @ 4213MHz, 6600LE DDR3 646/660 : 3729
3D'05: SLI two cards, Q6700 @ 3000MHz, 6600LE DDR3 580/522 : 4975
3D'06: single card, Q6700 @ 3600MHz, 6600LE DDR3 580/585 : 1510
3D'06: SLI two cards, Q6700 @ 3000MHz, 6600LE DDR3 580/522 : 1808
Aqua: single card, QX9650 @ 4200MHz, 6600LE DDR3 670/670 : 71435
Aqua: SLI two cards, Q6700 @ 3000MHz, 6600LE DDR3 580/522 : 88185

HOWTO enable SLI article:
SLI hack article, revision 2.0

Added latest files, update FAQ, fixed minor bugs, updated list of people who tested SLImods.

Available and tested under XP 32bit, Vista 32/ Vista 64/ Windows 7 32/ Windows 7 64

[saaya]

sli on amd chipsets too, sweet!

[massman]

Can I say 'finally'

There's no explanation how to do it, though.

[labs23]

There were board specific SLI hack way back then. This one just seems better. It just came late, and ppl are moving on, but one can go back of course. LOL.

It's maybe possible to enable SLI with different GPU's, even on X58.

What do you mean by that?

[K404]

Id love to see the method to doing this. Even though... the PPC on 790I for 3D01, 03 might mean its still the better option if theres a 650FSB-capable NB

[TiN_]

labs23

I think it's not board or platform specified. On my point of view - it's needed just to disable chipset/videocard checks for nvidia driver (or return always approved setings) to get SLI everywhere.

SLI with different GPU's - I mean GTX 285 + GTX 295 for example, or 9800GTX+ with 9800GX2. and so on.

If that man got success with checks - maybe he will post mod guide available to everybody. I don't think it's difficult, the key is only to know what to do

[saaya]

wow, this means we will be able to run quadsli with 4 gtx285 cards! (even without nf200 on the board for the underground tweakers who read this )
and tri sli with a gtx295 and gtx285! awesome!

could it be that nvidia did this cause they need some pr and attention?

[Kain665]

Wow, I really hope this is released to the public... I would love to stick another gtx275 in my rig!

[TiN_]

I'm not sure if NV chips can get their MIO transfer via PCI-E. So I'd be little pessimistic about big GTX 295 setups :-D

[Jamesrt2004]

is it me or is he just using it as phys x and thats why its working.. :/

[labs23]

SLI with different GPU's - I mean GTX 285 + GTX 295 for example, or 9800GTX+ with 9800GX2. and so on.

If that man got success with checks - maybe he will post mod guide available to everybody. I don't think it's difficult, the key is only to know what to do

, how did I missed that. Thanks man.

So if the guy succeeds, we'll probably end up with a hybrid SLI/XfireX platform? Hmmm...

[alexlyc]

This sounds good as this seems to be software base. For a moment I thought he modified the hacked X38 bio by HP Voodoo, but looks like this is software base! And if he can do it on X38, he can do it on X48 (Quad SLI yay)! Personally I disagree with the general claim that people have already move on to i7, my Q9650 is still kicking butt in terms of performance in gaming when compare to i7 920.

[STEvil]

is it me or is he just using it as phys x and thats why its working.. :/

http://www.hwbot.org/signature.img?i...43&thumb=false

XPR's CPU score (dual GTX260's) is 2.7x that of this guy..


you cant SLI an 8600GT with a GTX260 even if you wanted to anyways I wouldnt think, extremely different architectures.

[saaya]

, how did I missed that. Thanks man.

So if the guy succeeds, we'll probably end up with a hybrid SLI/XfireX platform? Hmmm...

hmmmm unlikely, at least on vista its impossible...
in theory you could do that but it would require a hack to make the ati card looks like an nvidia card, without using the nvidia driver to address it... idk if thats possible...

so gtx295 wont work with this hack?
damn... :/
but we can probably run quad sli with any nvidia card right eof?

[Kain665]

Yeah, wtf is with the 41k CPU score?

[Turrican]

Yeah, wtf is with the 41k CPU score?

seems like it's with physx.

[JohnZS]

Yep that is the same sort of CPU score I get with Physx on my GTX280. Although 20K is a good P score, I only get 14.5K
John

[TiN_]

sayaa

I mean, if NV chips cant use PCI-E for SLI overhead transfer , how you connect three 295's together, w/o SLI bridges ? :-D

[iTravis]

Holy cow, time to grab another GTX 275. I'm wondering if anyone on this forum tested this to confirm.

[Kain665]

we managed to enable SLI configuration in Directory Services Restore Mode.

Excuse my ignorance, but what does DSRM do exactly?

[saaya]

sayaa

I mean, if NV chips cant use PCI-E for SLI overhead transfer , how you connect three 295's together, w/o SLI bridges ? :-D

no, i meant tri sli with a 295 and a gtx260 or gtx285

and sli CAN and DOES use the pciE for sli overhead and adjustments afaik...
i wonder if we can unlock more than 4 gpus to work in sli this way
but i doubt it will work since you would need to render gpu*2 frames ahead at least, which means 10+ frames ahead... perf would be terrible

[saaya]

Excuse my ignorance, but what does DSRM do exactly?

some sort of safe mode i assume...?
it probably disables some certrificate checks...

[Chrono Detector]

Nice, though I wonder if NVIDIA found about this hack what will be the outcome.

Anyway, I hope this hack works for AMD boards as well. That will solve the problem of AMD users who wants SLI on AM3/DDR3 boards.

[Smartidiot89]

wow, this means we will be able to run quadsli with 4 gtx285 cards! (even without nf200 on the board for the underground tweakers who read this )
and tri sli with a gtx295 and gtx285! awesome!

could it be that nvidia did this cause they need some pr and attention?

Imo Nvidia realised how terrible dumb they were to on let a card with the same GPU... erm sorry with the right "sticker" to be able to do SLI.

GTX260/275/280/285/295 all is based on the same chip with different binning(?) so SLI should be possible.

Atleast that's what I love about AMD, the sticker doesn't matter it's the GPU under the hood.

[ShArKo]

Wow that´s good news I wanna get 2 GTX 275 on my Maximus Formula!!!! But like usualy, the hack bios, hack drivers are not online!!! If anybody know were I can find this thinks, just let me know :p

Nice info