What am I doing Wrong With SLI?

[fatguy1992]

So the problem is, whenever I SLI my 2x GTX 275's the picture in 3D apps flickers around with the wrong colours. To me it appears that one card is rendering it correctly, then other is using the wrong colours (normally the opposite to what it should be). Sorry not sure if this makes sense, i'm not good at writing. The problem might be that one is a factory oc'ed card, and the other is a reference card. But i'v got friends with cards that run difference stock MHz and their's work fine.

Its happened on 2x different boards (Classified E760 and 790i Ultra), over 6 difference OS's installs (win xp32 and win7 64), different HDDs and every driver I have tried.

What I have Tried...

Tested both cards by themselves, no problem, so its not a dead card.
Neither card is overheating.
I'v clock'ed both at the same MHz's.
Swapping the slots their in and which card is in the primary slot.
Changing SLI cables positions.
I'm out of ideas, anyone got a suggestion?
Disabling PHYX.

Thanks

[=[PULSAR]=]

I'm pretty sure its a known SLI issue my gtx 295's do the same thing

[BringerOdeath]

Power supply maybe not big enough or to weak? You have the sli bridge connected right? My GTX 295's don't do anything like that....

[EliTE22]

maybe that dual headed gpu ss will help

[resident1509]

if you have friends with setups, i would test a different PSU and a different sli bridge.

[fatguy1992]

Thanks, but I have tested it with both of my PSUs. 750watt and 1000watts so I doubt thats the problem and yes I have tried the SLI cable in every way, as well as the tri sli bridge.

[=[PULSAR]=]

Which 3D apps are you having issues with?

[fatguy1992]

All of them Games 3D mark, everything.

[Anth Seebel]

ive had similar problem where all games work fine but the color is weird , kinda like 16bit color or something.. i was able to fix it by moving one of GTX 295's in its slot.. looks like it wasnt sitting in there right.. maybe that helps..

[fatguy1992]

Thanks, i'll give that ago soon.

[ATMA-WEAPON]

1. make sure the cards are tight and fully locked in the slots.
2. make sure the VGA coolers are snugly secured to the cards and temps stay reasonable.
3. update to the newest drivers that were just released a couple weeks ago that fixes a bunch of SLI bugs...(driver ver: 197.13)
4. try changing 3d settings in nvidia control panel.. (ie: force alternate frame rendering 1, maximum pre-rendered frames: 1, etc)

btw setting max pre-rendered frames to 1 will make huge SLI performance gains in most games

[Landarzt]

Hello from Germany!

I am new in this forum and I hope that anyone could help me or found a solution to the problems described here in this thread.
I have the flicker / color problems too!

My system:
i7 @4,2 GHZ
Gigabyte EX 58 UD5
6 GB Corsair Dominator
2 x Gtx 295 (one EVGA and one Zotac) in SLI
1100 W UCP Coolermaster
Windows 7 Premium 64bit
latest nvidia driver.

ALL components are watercooled!! (execpt the PSU)

In SLI-Mode (in all 3d apps, e.g. COD MW2, Crysis, 3D Vantage) the screen flickers and the colors seem to be reduced to 16 bit (or something like that) on all all textures.
Using both cards seperately is without any problem...nice and smooth.

I tried everything.....
Cleaned all contacts (Sli and PCI), tried 3 different SLI-Bridges, flashed the EVGA Bios to the Zotac, used a separate 600 W PSU for one GTX 295, clean driver installation............
no solution found........

Has anyone an idea?
I would be really happy if someone could help me..........

[saaya]

sounds odd... never seen this or heard of it before...
what does nvidia say?
have you guys tried to underclock the cards?

oh and what are you doing wrong with sli?
your using it ^^

there are few games that have no glitches and bugs with sli...
the last game i played was crysis warhead and it had glitches all over the place...

[Landarzt]

Haven't contacted nvidia.....but so many people have a quad sli with two GTX 295 and not THIS problems......who wants to have this hardware when no game seems to be playable.....just for nice bench scores?
it is even in the menue of the games...in crysis, crysis warhead and COD MW2 not only when the "game" is running......
Could it be a setting in the mobo bios? (haven't found anything).....perhaps PCIE uncore of 700mv too low? (this is auto setting)....

of course I use sli when having a gtx 295........^^

I capitulate................*sniff*

[JAG87]

If you tried a different motherboard and a different psu, then something is wrong with one of those cards, despite the fact that they work fine independently. Install them one at a time and run an artifact scanner.

[saaya]

once again, underclock them and see if that makes a difference... if yes, then you got it...
one of the cards is not fully stable...
might be stable on its own, but using more cards and gpus puts more load on the chips and they start acting funny, like reversing colors :P

and stop whining :P
so what, youll have to make due with a SINGLE 295 ONLY for some time until you figured out whats wrong...
poor you!

[Carfax]

Hello from Germany!

I am new in this forum and I hope that anyone could help me or found a solution to the problems described here in this thread.
I have the flicker / color problems too!

My system:
i7 @4,2 GHZ
Gigabyte EX 58 UD5
6 GB Corsair Dominator
2 x Gtx 295 (one EVGA and one Zotac) in SLI
1100 W UCP Coolermaster
Windows 7 Premium 64bit
latest nvidia driver.

ALL components are watercooled!! (execpt the PSU)

In SLI-Mode (in all 3d apps, e.g. COD MW2, Crysis, 3D Vantage) the screen flickers and the colors seem to be reduced to 16 bit (or something like that) on all all textures.
Using both cards seperately is without any problem...nice and smooth.

I tried everything.....
Cleaned all contacts (Sli and PCI), tried 3 different SLI-Bridges, flashed the EVGA Bios to the Zotac, used a separate 600 W PSU for one GTX 295, clean driver installation............
no solution found........

Has anyone an idea?
I would be really happy if someone could help me..........

Sounds to me like you have either a bad PCIE slot on your motherboard, or a defunct video card.

Have you tried testing each card in both slots by themselves? If each separate card tests well in both slots, then the slots are probably working as intended and the problem is with one of the graphic cards.

Installing both cards on another motherboard would be the best way to test them..

[owned666]

i had the exact same problem and the fix was very funny
before doing anything the dvi cable is connected to the first card right ?
ok connect it to the second card and look at the monitor xD
if u see weird colors then just remove the card clean the slot and clean the card (gold area)