SLI questions and advice

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MrMetal_53

[H]ard|Gawd
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Apr 21, 2006
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i have an xfx 7800 gt. i have now decided to go SLI as a last upgrade before i go cold turkey and wait at least another year till the new hardware comes out and matures. so i am in the midst of picking up another 7800 gt (eVGA) from a member here on the FS forums. i am running the 84.21 drivers because they seem the most stable. i do have a few questions:

1) when i get the new card, if i want to pop it in my system to make sure it works (simply to make sure it wasnt DOA), can i just take out my old 7800 gt and swap in the new eVGA one and boot up? do i need to go through the process of removing the drivers just for this?

2) after i have installed both cards and installed the SLI bridge on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium mobo, do i just boot the computer? i was confused about this when reading the sticky. do i need to go through the process of removing the drivers, driver cleaner, reinstall, etc. (like i would do if i was installing a totally new card) or do i just install the second card and the SLI bridge and turn on?

3) what are the best (read: recommended) drivers for SLI?

thanks for helping a n00b out
 
I've got 2 BFG 7800xt's on the same mobo you have. I got the first card about 6 mo before the second. All I had to do was install the second and connect the bridge. I started the machine and the option for SLI was there on the nvidia control panel. If you have SLI ready drivers installed already ( and you do ), that should do it.

I don't think you will have to change drivers to swap cards to see if the second one works when you get it.

I used the 84.21 for a while till the 91.47 came out. As I understand it, the difference is SLI support for some newer games and a different nvidia control panel look. I don't know of any perfromance issues with any of the drivers.

BTW, the new control panel will not work on my machine. It will not overclock, enable 2 monitors, enable SLI or anything else I have tried. If I go to the classic view, the panel you see and use with the 84.21 drivers, it all works fine. Go figure.
 
alright, thank you very much for your information. it really helped a lot :D i cant wait to get my new card up and running. i guess ill have to read about the 91.47 drivers and see what the deal is with them

i do have a couple more questions:

1) to unlock coolbits for the 91.47 drivers, what value do you use? is it 3A?

2) once i have both cards installed, if i want to overclock each of them, can i just do it through coolbits? will it allow me to simply choose which card i would like to overclock?
 
The coolbits value is 2. I am also pretty certain that it is the same value as for the 84.21 drivers.

On my machine the overclock menu is the same with one or two cards installed. It gives no options to set the frequencies on the cards seperately, I have to assume it gets both at the same time with the same settings.
 
so what are the best drivers to use for SLI? the 84.21s that im using now or the 91.47s?
 
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