[Resolved] [Kind Of] SLi Mode Corrupt / Distorted Screen

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Dec 24, 2004
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Originally posted by: genemd
xt
looked around but not sure what you are referring to?

under 'SLi Multi GPu'

you need to disable 'Show GPU load balancing'

(Display Settings / Advanced / Geforce X Series GPU Tab - its half way down the list

 
Dec 24, 2004
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Originally posted by: Ballistyx
Ummm.. just a quick observation (feel free to ignore it if you like).

Doesn't the Asus A8N-SLI have a "special" feature called P-E-G mode, where it (covertly) overclocks PCI-x graphics cards? You might want to try turning it off and see if it resolves it. It could be either a timing issue between the two cards when PEG mode is enabled, or because PEG mode is overclocking the cards (and the cards' can't take it).

I've tried SLi mode with PEG disabled in the BIOS - didnt seem to affect it - but aye, I got all hopeful when I looked up what PEG was after seeing the option.
 

BladeRunner

Junior Member
Aug 11, 2000
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Very strange? this doesn't explain why a lot of us are having no problems running with the 66.93's

anyhow with these 7 xx series there's been comments of pissy water in HL2, are you getting that btw
 
Dec 24, 2004
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Right, spent the morning down at my local retailer Scan

We threw hardware, drivers and prayer at the machine for 3-4 hours and came to the following conclusions

The cards I have (256Mb MSI PCI-E GF6800GTO DDR3 Dual DVI) are *not* SLi compatible, they have the bridge connectors, they will allow you to enable multi GPU mode but they cant handle it without grapical corruption

We tried several of the cards, new bridge connectors, big beefy PSUs etc, but could not get it to work satisfactorily. In fact some of the cards we tried were worse!

They happened to have a pair of XFX 6800GTs waiting to be built into a pre-built machine - slotted them in and they worked properly first time. Stress tested them a bit and all looked well.

The tech dude scarpered away and updated the website there and then to:

This

Stating that the cards will not work in SLi mode - unlike the original (I saved it just in case)

Old


So - the cert list that Zebo posted:

http://www.nzone.com/object/nz...ardware_certified.html

if you have a cards that is not on that list, and you want to run Sli - I suggest you take it back. If the retailer has advertised it as Sli compatible you should have no problems.

I'm keeping my cards until next week, when scan were happy to take them back in exchange for XFX 6800 GTs.

Just wish that cert list was available when I was purchasing my components, would have saved me many hours.

As to why the GTOs arent working in SLi mode - I have come no closer to that answer.

Incidentally, scan have ~ 100 XFX 6800GTs due in mid next week (for anyone in the UK who is desperatelyt struggling to track down anything other than the GTOs)

 

Melkior

Junior Member
Jan 10, 2005
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This may have already been mentioned but the symptoms you describe are a driver option for testing.

Look at the firingsquad review:

http://www.firingsquad.com/har...nforce_4_sli/page5.asp

"For those who do want to see SLI in action, NVIDIA provides a load-balancing option in the driver. Once checked, you?ll notice a green horizontal bar running across your screen and a second vertical bar that runs from the top to the bottom of your monitor."

Hope this helps.

Melkior.
 

pudds

Member
Nov 3, 2004
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If your looking for 6800gt's in the uk check out http://www.lowestonweb.com/Pro...4FB0-9D3C-95401E9B1D2D
Just got mine today and its a leadtek 6800gt . Comes with cables,manual and drivers bargain at 269.99 with free P&P. They all seem to have gone now but more arriving on the 30th.
My 6800gto is going back to scan too, when i bought it they were listed as sli compatible and worse still they were being sold as 16 pipeline gt's
 

Hi all,

Hey Starfighter, did scan actually swap your two gto's for two xfx's no questions aked or do you have to give them some cash on top?

Thanks in advance, titan.
 
Dec 24, 2004
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Originally posted by: titan
Hi all,

Hey Starfighter, did scan actually swap your two gto's for two xfx's no questions aked or do you have to give them some cash on top?

Thanks in advance, titan.


I'll have to pay the extra when they have them in stock - a bit annoying since I spent *so* much time doing the troubleshooting on this one (and spending 4 hours one morning proving to them in person they didnt work), but they tend to be cheap so I can pretty much forgive them.

I tend to go to scan in person, it makes rma-ing stuff less frustrating - they've written and signed on my invoice to say that they'll accept the cards back in exchange for XFXs "when in stock" - so no problems with 28days etc.

If you have any problems (you might speak to someone there who doesnt understand the issue), I've saved a copy of their website before they changed it from saying SLi compatible to 'no way SLi compatible' - I can easily mail you a copy.

Let me know if you have any trouble - I've dealt with them since they opened so might be able to let you in on a few tactics :)



 

Melkior

Junior Member
Jan 10, 2005
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Well tis a shame you took them back I think your problem was the testing mode :(

I hope they will work as have a GTo coming tomorrow
 
Dec 24, 2004
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Originally posted by: Melkior
Well tis a shame you took them back I think your problem was the testing mode :(

I hope they will work as have a GTo coming tomorrow

I did try that.....

Originally posted by: Last Starfighter
Originally posted by: bap4201
this may sound stupid, and probably is, but do you have "show gpu load balancing" checked in the nvidia settings for sli multi gpu? If so, uncheck it and see if that helps.

aye it's enabled, get the same effect with it disabled, minus the green divider / overlay lines - I left it on for the pics because it kinda exlemplifiers theres some Sli shenanigans afoot.

not sure if I mentioned, in HL2, the distribution of the 'distortion' (the bit that looks kinda acid trippy) moves across the screen in bands - I presume this is because HL2 operates in a slightly different SLi mode, whereas Farcry spilts the screen.

Good luck with your card - I heard on another forum that there might be a later rev. of the GTo card that does work in SLi mode, but that was partial conjecture.

BTW the cards are fine if you only want to use one on it's own - no problems there.

 

Melkior

Junior Member
Jan 10, 2005
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Ah i see.

Well my mate has ordered one two, so i will grab his and try to get them working in SLi mode. If I may just keep it for 6-8 months and SLi some ultras when the prices have come down
 

Melkior

Junior Member
Jan 10, 2005
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Ok.......

I now have GTo SLi'd in my mahcine and working nicely (well sort of)

Here is a small diary of events (having spent over 14 hours trying to get it working):

1. First installation of one card worked fine. A nice fast single card
2. Installed the 2nd card enabled SLi rebooted
3. Powered up Doom 3 (huge grin)
4. Noticed fuzzy text on the doom3 console This is still evident even now.
5. The text is readable but is quite distorted. However I have since loaded a multiplayer map and say_team text is readable
6. Doom3 time demos ran ok and the long benchmarking process began.
7. All looked good until i tried Farcry
8. Lower half of screen looked as if it had been shifted across by half and wrapped around to the other side. Plus it flickered (but in a cyclical manner i.e. it would slowly stop then go fast again)
9. Tried swapping cards, new drivers etc - no joy
10. Completely removed both cards from device manager and installed 67.03 (found it recommended on a forum somewhere)
11. rebooted and both cards recognised.
12. enabled Sli )
13. Farcry problem fixed (doom 3 was the same). It does have VERY minor console glitches but nothing like doom3

I haven't tried any other games but the system is now stable and i can remove, or swap the cards around without any problems.

I am guessing that most people do what I did when getting 2 gfx cards i.e. install one, load drivers check it is ok then install the other. Well I think that they both need to be installed from fresh in sli mode and let the new driver recognise both together.

Also of note to some maybe that if you enable cool bits, the nvidia drivers handle all new functions on both cards. i.e. it treats them as one )

I hope this helps anyone out there, but be warned it is not perfect.

I suspect the fuzziness in the doom3 console is due to the cards not being identical. I can see from a utility that the disabled pipelines are not the same for each card, therefore I would imagine in SLi mode that card one might be attemtping to send data to a disable pipe on the 2nd and hence the fuzziness. This is pure speculation, but all reports of SLi do say that the cards need to be identcal.

Unfortunately there ends the story as I have to give Hades his GTo back ((


Melks
 

DrRios

Member
Jan 16, 2005
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Hi:

I have the same trouble. It's the monitor.

the Nvidia driver works different if you have a "analog connection - with the adapter" vs a DVI connection. Some tabs where turn "OFF" by Nvidia in the Nview DESKTOP MANAGER when you use the DVI connector and are not being supported until the release of the next set of drivers.

I have a Velocity Micro Raptor dual PCI-e with 6800 GT (2) and SLI "ON"

The machine will work fine if the monitor if I use an old dual monitor that has both DVI and "analog" connectors, even when connected to DVI.

If the monitor is pure digital, or one of the lattest model. The card will identify this and will use the Pure DVI driver subrutine. This has advance timming "off". As a result SLI only support high definition monitor at their native resolution (Apple Cine, HDTV -LCD, Plasma and some Viewsonic Monitors). Monitor with 1920x1200 or more. Changing to a lower resolution will turn the creen into garbaje. OUT OF SYNC.

Nvidia knows about this and have erase all connects in their SLI site. If you have a SLI and DVI monitor try turning SLI "OFF" in the driver (NVIDIA TAB) reboot and then try to turn it back "ON" you will not be able to. So be very careful. Then you will get the two monitor like is mentioned here. The only was to go back is using system restore.

Playing games in those pure digital monitors can not be done with actual driver for SLI, changing to a lower resolution (most games are 1024 or less) will result in a garbage screen. The ystem will work fine if SLI is turn "off" but the other card will be there for the ride.

The only solution is to use a LCD monitor with dual connectors (that has both connector "analog and digital" ) or a CRT

The idea of SLI was to run games at higher resolution but Nvidia put the system put before the drivers where ready.

NVIDIA has failed miserably with this release.....
Text
 

DrRios

Member
Jan 16, 2005
59
0
0
Hi:

I have the similar trouble, is the monitor in most cases.

the Nvidia driver works different if you have a "analog connection - with the adapter" vs a DVI connection. Some tabs where turn "OFF" by Nvidia in the Nview DESKTOP MANAGER when you use the DVI connector and are not being supported until the release of the next set of drivers.

I have a Velocity Micro Raptor dual PCI-e with 6800 GT (2) and SLI "ON"

The machine will work fine if the monitor if I use an old dual monitor that has both DVI and "analog" connectors, even when connected to DVI.

If the monitor is pure digital, or one of the lattest model. The card will identify this and will use the Pure DVI driver subrutine. This has advance timming "off". As a result SLI only support high definition monitor at their native resolution (Apple Cine, HDTV -LCD, Plasma and some Viewsonic Monitors). Monitor with 1920x1200 or more. Changing to a lower resolution will turn the creen into garbaje. OUT OF SYNC.

Nvidia knows about this and have erase all connects in their SLI site. If you have a SLI and DVI monitor try turning SLI "OFF" in the driver (NVIDIA TAB) reboot and then try to turn it back "ON" you will not be able to. So be very careful. Then you will get the two monitor like is mentioned here. The only was to go back is using system restore.

Playing games in those pure digital monitors can not be done with actual driver for SLI, changing to a lower resolution (most games are 1024 or less) will result in a garbage screen. The ystem will work fine if SLI is turn "off" but the other card will be there for the ride.

The only solution is to use a LCD monitor with dual connectors (that has both connector "analog and digital" ) or a CRT

The idea of SLI was to run games at higher resolution but Nvidia put the system put before the drivers where ready.

NVIDIA has failed miserably with this release.....
Text
 

DrRios

Member
Jan 16, 2005
59
0
0
Hi:

I have the same trouble.

the Nvidia driver works different if you have a "analog connection - with the adapter" vs a DVI connection. Some tabs where turn "OFF" by Nvidia in the Nview DESKTOP MANAGER when you use the DVI connector and are not being supported until the release of the next set of drivers.

I have a Velocity Micro Raptor dual PCI-e with 6800 GT (2) and SLI "ON"

The machine will work fine if the monitor if I use an old dual monitor that has both DVI and "analog" connectors, even when connected to DVI.

If the monitor is pure digital, or one of the lattest model. The card will identify this and will use the Pure DVI driver subrutine. This has advance timming "off". As a result SLI only support high definition monitor at their native resolution (Apple Cine, HDTV -LCD, Plasma and some Viewsonic Monitors). Monitor with 1920x1200 or more. Changing to a lower resolution will turn the creen into garbaje. OUT OF SYNC.

Nvidia knows about this and have erase all connects in their SLI site. If you have a SLI and DVI monitor try turning SLI "OFF" in the driver (NVIDIA TAB) reboot and then try to turn it back "ON" you will not be able to. So be very careful. Then you will get the two monitor like is mentioned here. The only was to go back is using system restore.

Playing games in those pure digital monitors can not be done with actual driver for SLI, changing to a lower resolution (most games are 1024 or less) will result in a garbage screen. The ystem will work fine if SLI is turn "off" but the other card will be there for the ride.

The only solution is to use a LCD monitor with dual connectors (that has both connector "analog and digital" ) or a CRT

The idea of SLI was to run games at higher resolution but Nvidia put the system put before the drivers where ready.

NVIDIA has failed miserably with this release.....
Text
 

DrRios

Member
Jan 16, 2005
59
0
0
Hi:

I have the same trouble. It's the monitor.

the Nvidia driver works different if you have a "analog connection - with the adapter" vs a DVI connection. Some tabs where turn "OFF" by Nvidia in the Nview DESKTOP MANAGER when you use the DVI connector and are not being supported until the release of the next set of drivers.

I have a Velocity Micro Raptor dual PCI-e with 6800 GT (2) and SLI "ON"

The machine will work fine if the monitor if I use an old dual monitor that has both DVI and "analog" connectors, even when connected to DVI.

If the monitor is pure digital, or one of the lattest model. The card will identify this and will use the Pure DVI driver subrutine. This has advance timming "off". As a result SLI only support high definition monitor at their native resolution (Apple Cine, HDTV -LCD, Plasma and some Viewsonic Monitors). Monitor with 1920x1200 or more. Changing to a lower resolution will turn the creen into garbaje. OUT OF SYNC.

Nvidia knows about this and have erase all connects in their SLI site. If you have a SLI and DVI monitor try turning SLI "OFF" in the driver (NVIDIA TAB) reboot and then try to turn it back "ON" you will not be able to. So be very careful. Then you will get the two monitor like is mentioned here. The only was to go back is using system restore.

Playing games in those pure digital monitors can not be done with actual driver for SLI, changing to a lower resolution (most games are 1024 or less) will result in a garbage screen. The ystem will work fine if SLI is turn "off" but the other card will be there for the ride.

The only solution is to use a LCD monitor with dual connectors (that has both connector "analog and digital" ) or a CRT

The idea of SLI was to run games at higher resolution but Nvidia put the system put before the drivers where ready.

NVIDIA has failed miserably with this release.....
Text
 

SticknClutch

Junior Member
Jan 18, 2005
4
0
0
Im having problems with my SLI setup also. The first thing I noticed is that when I enabled SLI in the drivers a one pixel thick light blue line lit up just above the wallpaper. It wont show up in screen shots either. When playing HL2 or FarCry the screen jitters up and down *real* fast. The more stuff on the screen the faster it jitters.

Here are my specs:
Asus A8N-SLI
2 eVGA 6800GT's
Enermax 600W powersupply
Using the Forceware 66.93
Samsung 1600x1200 LCD screen

If I lower the resolution the little blue line goes away, and so does the screen jitters.

BTW guys thanks for the info, it has been invaluable. I feel much better knowing Im not the only one :)
BUt I guess this is the price we pay for being early adopters.