graphics card problem

[insurgent]

Hello all! I've got a problem with one of my cards. It's an XFX 7600GT, I'm using it in a SLI configuration paired with a Leadtek 7600GT, both have aftermarket heatsinks, Zalman on the XFX and Zerotherm on the Leadtek.

I have noticed that the XFX has high temps on load, it reached more than 90c last yesterday when I ran 3DMark06, while the Leadtek card never reached 70c. I turned the pc off after the benchamrk run.

I had the XFX card on the "primary" pci-e slot, the problem is I can't get the pc to post this morning. All the fans spin, the mobo's led's light up and the HDD vibrates. I thought the problem lies with the ram, but after putting the Leadtek card on the primary pci-e slot the computer booted fine, and it was running on SLI mode with the XFX on the second slot!?

So here is the situation: the computer won't post if the XFX is in the primary pci-e slot, but if I put it on the secondary slot with the Leadtek as the primary card it works: SLI mode works fine, I benchmarked it again and again and the scores are higher than single card scores.

Any ideas? Is it because the secondary slot has fewer lanes in single card and sli mode? Is it ok to still use the problematic card in SLI mode?

Thanks in advance!


Edit:
I re-mounted the zalman on the xfx this morning, and now load temps are ~70c. I'm in Southern China and temps according to weather.com is 31-34c today. Also I'm seeing artifacts on 3DMark especially the last test, even before the problem stated above. I suppose it is a widespread problem because I've read about it on other threads regarding SLI and the SLI bridge.

System:
Athlon X2 3800+
Biostar Tforce 570 SLI
1GB Kingmax DDR2-800
XFX 7600GT
Leadtek 7600GT
Huntkey 400w

Update:
Tested the XFX again, single card on the second slot: not only booted fine, 3DMark successfully ran :/

 

[Raider1284]

SLI always seem to cause more problems then its worth. On paper is sounds amazing, but performance doesn't double and it seems to be a total pain to get working flawlessly.

OT, but any reason why the scores dont double? The card is only doing half the work as before, so you would think that it could do it twice as fast...

 

[insurgent]

Maybe because of bandwidth constraints, and the way data is communicated between cpu-mobo-cards? I bought a SLI mobo because I had an extra video card (long story) and instead of building a new system I sold my old mobo for cheap and bought the Biostar.