460 SLI Issues

S

Stormlifter

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Messages
2,968
What I'm working with.

  • X58M motherboard
  • 460 Palit
  • 460 Asus
  • Flexible Asus SLI bridge
  • Windows 7 64-bit
  • Nvidia 285.38 drivers (Battlefield 3 beta drivers)
  • two monitors
  • Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850-Watt TX Series


What has been tried:

  • Underclocking 600/1600
  • Switching 460 Palit and 460 Asus around in the MB slots (only effect was instead of blue discoloration I get yellow)
  • Managed to fix the issues where the driver kernel kept reseating by updating my drivers of my realtek sound and ethernet
  • Updating Palit BIOS with the ASUS BIOS
  • Removing Realtek network drivers and disabling in BIOS


Current state of things

  • Discoloration in full screen games
  • League of Legends being in borderless windowed mode works 100% perfect
  • Civilization 5: Yellow discoloration, but if I ALT-Tab and have my second monitor
  • Brink, Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, Assassins Creed brotherhood all tested all bad
  • Galcon Fusion 100% working

Crazy dual monitor querks

  • If I don't plug both monitors into one card I get green discoloration on windows (which is unique to this) on the primary monitor (no matter if it's in the top or bottom card)
  • When I load up a game when the monitors are plugged into two different cards the discoloration is the same as when they're in the same card.






Here is the current discoloration issues I'm getting with Palit on top and Asus on bottom
20sdro0.jpg


And with the Palit on bottom slot and Asus on top:
neb4hs.jpg
 
Last edited:
Okay so I'm going to post this here, because WTF.

Pulling out the SLI cable and pushing it just half way down fixed it.

EDIT: spoke too soon, seems like I get some gross discoloration in some games

Brink: circular blue and yellow discoloration (POS game so who cares)
League of Legends: No issues
Civilization 5: Yellow discoloration, but if I ALT-Tab and have my second monitor plugged in it'll clear, if I ALT-tab without my 2nd monitor it stays.
Left 4 Dead: some strange flashing on loading screen (seems smilar to Brink but less intense). In game is fine.
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood: Same issue as Brink
Portal 2: minor flickering

trying more...
 
Last edited:
Are both GTX 460s 1GB models or 768mbodels or is one 1gb and the other 768mb?

Also what power supply is running this setup? What motherboard model exactly?
 
Stormlifter said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130227 Motherboard
http://www.palit.biz/palit/vgapro.php?id=1337 < Video Card #1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...c=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-ASUS-_-14121391 < Video Card #2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001M3G42W/ref=wms_ohs_product < Power Supply
Click to expand...

1. Let's get to the mobo in a bit
2. Card looks okay
3. Same as 2
4. Plenty and a good unit

Okay the motherboard has 2 things that jump out to me right away.

1. It has 2 x16 slots and one full length x4 slot. Make sure the cards are in the 2 X16 slots specifically and not the x4 slot. That isn't supported for SLi

2. Realtek is the only nic this motherboard has. Realtek network cards/drivers have known problems with nvidia sli technology. Specifically the drivers. What I'd try is to; go into device manager, remove the realtek nic drivers, say no to restart if asked to reboot, remove the nvidia drivers and then reboot into the bios and disable the realtek network card. (I know it's the only one you probably have and without it you will probably not get internet but just do it for troubleshooting purposes.) Save/exit, when windows loads up, disable any antivirus software or software based firewalls and reinstall the nvidia drivers, reboot and try sli again. If it works you may have to buy a cheap nic card for the 1 pci slot you have, or a pcie x1 card which should work in that x4 slot.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
1) Yeah I think they're in there, the two blue ones I'd assume.
2) Interesting, something else I did was update the drivers on the realtek before I restarted to reset the SLI bridge.
I'm going to try what you said and if that's an issue I'll just get a new nic. That's so strange that the nic gets in the way, lamesauce. Thanks for the killer advice.
 
Stormlifter said:
1) Yeah I think they're in there, the two blue ones I'd assume.
2) Interesting, something else I did was update the drivers on the realtek before I restarted to reset the SLI bridge.
I'm going to try what you said and if that's an issue I'll just get a new nic. That's so strange that the nic gets in the way, lamesauce. Thanks for the killer advice.
Click to expand...

Here is what i would try, may or may not resolve your problem. I am willing to bet the cards are running two seperate bios. I would try flashing the bios on both the cards while you have both installed. If you cant flash them with them both installed at once, Do them one at a time. then try to SLI them up. If your cards are unstable just flash them one at a time, you dont want your pc to freeze in the middle of a flash. Right now your cards are running at two diffrent core clocks 675 and 700, The bios will flash them to 720 and will be recognized as the same card if the flash works.
You might get a warning saying the cards original bios doesn't match the new bios or something like that, flash it anyway.

I think this is the correct bios for your card ftp://ftp.evga.com/BIOS/1370_fpb_1.3.zip

Its from EVGA but should work on your cards. That should make them compatibly, and give it a performance boost. I take no responsibility if your flash fails :eek:

Here is link to Bios release thread, http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=498804&mpage=1

I dont think realtek is your problem,
 
Last edited:
You don't require the same bios to SLi, not sure what motivated the advice to do that but I suppose it's worth a shot, but I would try that only if software and more safe/simple troubleshooting fails. The Realtek issue is very document and widespread issue. You can read;

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=182996

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=485047&mpage=1

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/278016-33-problems

The only time I read about a bios issue stopping sli was on certain evga gtx 480s from back in the day that were fixed by a bios update from evga. As per the realtek issue I brought up... Simply google realtek nic nvidia sli issues and you'll find many many more threads and stories.

I'd hope that by now realtek and nvidia would have worked out their problems but as of recent I still see these issues arising.
 
Last edited:
If the nic was not the problem, try driver sweeper and fresh install of drivers, my 460 SLI are very touchy with new driver installs, that and dead island not using SLI have been my only problems so far and I have ran 460 SLI for around 9 months now.
 
Your second post is leading me to believe that it may be the connection that your SLI bridge is making with one or both of the PCBs of your 460s.

When your SLI bridge is attached, can you wiggle the connector at one of the the ends?

Sometimes the tension placed on the bridge due to the physical loop made by flexible bridges between two cards causes the PCB to be inserted diagonally into one or both ends of the bridge if the fit is loose. This results in one side of the PCB making little or no contact with the bridge.

If this is the case, then you will likely need a bridge with a tighter fit.

(I had this issue with the bridges included with my MSI XPower motherboard. I switched to an EVGA bridge I had around the house and everything was resolved instantly.)
 
Lord_Exodia said:
You don't require the same bios to SLi, not sure what motivated the advice to do that but I suppose it's worth a shot, but I would try that only if software and more safe/simple troubleshooting fails. The Realtek issue is very document and widespread issue. You can read;

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=182996

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=485047&mpage=1

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/278016-33-problems

The only time I read about a bios issue stopping sli was on certain evga gtx 480s from back in the day that were fixed by a bios update from evga. As per the realtek issue I brought up... Simply google realtek nic nvidia sli issues and you'll find many many more threads and stories.

I'd hope that by now realtek and nvidia would have worked out their problems but as of recent I still see these issues arising.
Click to expand...

I know all about realtek, i have realtek myself and considered it might be a problem when i had a faulty card of course it turned out to be the card.

The reason i mentioned flashing the bios is because i consider it unwise running two cards with two different bios and two different clock speeds. The cards will automatically default to the slowest card, if the cards sli at all.

Still stick to my suggestion, Flash your bios get a performance boost and more then likely get your SLI working. I would try that before messing around with all your drivers.
I have seen similar problems with other cards from diffrent manufacturers that would not sli up because of a bios conflict and a bios flash usually resolves this issue. If you go with flashing your cards, here is a guide to help you along. http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/149879-howto-nvidia-bios-flashing.html
EVGA will flash automaticly with a .exe file. But before you do that load your command prompt as administrator and enter this command nvflash -b <brand>.rom for each card before you flash.

This makes a backup bios for each card and label the backup file the cards brand name so if you have to revert back to your old bios for some reason you can easily do so with nvflash. If you have a faulty card flash it back before you return it so they don't find out you tampered with it :-P.

Its either that or one card is faulty in some way. I experienced that with a card that would run mostly stable solo, but totally unstable Sli'd . It took alot of testing to find the problem card. Lets hope that's not the case for you.

Ohh and one other thing****CHECK AND MAKE SURE NO WIRES ARE STOPPING ANY OF YOUR GPU FANS FROM SPINNING*****. This can also create a problem like your are experiencing. If your case is anything like mine its a possibility.
 
Last edited:
My 460's run different bios, EVGA runs 1.02v and 763 core, ASUS is all stock (.965v 700 core) never had compatibility issues and they do not default to slower card on my machine, both run at the EVGA volts/clocks.
 
Last edited:
SLI bridge, or the connectors on the cards, seems like the issue here. If you get the same issue with a new bridge, one of the cards might be bad.
 
Okay so far I've had great stability, my computer was on all day. So far all I can assume fixed it was the update to the realtek drivers. They were from a month or so ago off MSI's site. I'm going to be playing BF3 soon once it's out and that'll actually test it all, but I played a few rounds of League Of Legends and everything was fine.

So I'm going to keep going and I'll post back once I have my first significant issue.

Then I'll try the Realtek removal of drivers and turning the card off and hopefully that fixes life, I really hate messing with video card bios, I've done it before, but I prefer to avoid those things.
 
League of Legends? euugh. :D
I'd be lying if I said I'd never had some suspicions about Realtek drivers. Affecting SLI though, that is an odd one.
 
Adzsask said:
My 460's run different bios, EVGA runs 1.02v and 763 core, ASUS is all stock (.965v 700 core) never had compatibility issues and they do not default to slower card on my machine, both run at the EVGA volts/clocks.
Click to expand...

Seems the newer Nvidia drivers run both cards at stock speeds, the slower card will not automatically run at the faster cards speed. I believe that's an ATI operation, unless nvidia changed that too.

This is from a tomshardware article. its a older article so who knows how accurate it is. Also see newer articles confirming what i said earlier... I dunno, dont care anymore lol.

"Well it "was" like ATI with older drivers, but with new drivers its quite different.If you use 2(or more) Nvidia cards with different clock speeds in SLI mode,none of them will change their clocks and they will perform at their default clock speed."
 
Last edited:
Stormlifter said:
Okay so far I've had great stability, my computer was on all day. So far all I can assume fixed it was the update to the realtek drivers. They were from a month or so ago off MSI's site. I'm going to be playing BF3 soon once it's out and that'll actually test it all, but I played a few rounds of League Of Legends and everything was fine.

So I'm going to keep going and I'll post back once I have my first significant issue.

Then I'll try the Realtek removal of drivers and turning the card off and hopefully that fixes life, I really hate messing with video card bios, I've done it before, but I prefer to avoid those things.
Click to expand...

Nice!! Good luck with this and hopefuly this problem is behind you. Glad things worked out.
 
So I went to disable the SLI in the NVidia control panel and my computer had a BSOD.
When it turned back on my nVidia drivers were completely uninstalled, my dual monitors weren't recognized and I couldn't get my 1920x1080 resolution. Installing drivers now. Odd.
 
Strangest find.

If it's in a window no discoloration. As soon as I fullscreen something it goes bad. I have a screenshot of FurMark here.

20sdro0.jpg



So I got this great idea to swap the card positions. When I did, oddly (At least to me) I had to reinstall drivers for nvidia.
So this is what it looks like with the ASUS in slot one and the Palit in slot two

neb4hs.jpg


Which makes me think it's the connector since the issues stayed on the bottom. Though they oddly changed... not sure what to think about that.
However the discoloration in all games got WAY WORSE, and also green instead of yellow.
 
Last edited:
If your still having issues, flash them bro. You want to be able to run your monitors on two different cards so you dont have one card running at a high clock during idle, split the workload. Those connectors rarely are faulty, especially if its brand new.

When you switch the cards slots you should not have to reinstall any drivers. That tells me there is a software/bios conflict with these cards.
 
Last edited:
MadOblivion said:
If your still having issues, flash them bro. You want to be able to run your monitors on two different cards so you dont have one card running at a high clock during idle, split the workload.

When you switch the cards slots you should not have to reinstall any drivers. That tells me there is a software/bios conflict with these cards.
Click to expand...

You think that discoloration is due to BIOS issues? Not the SLI Bridge?
Also is it safe to flash a Palit and Asus 460GTX with that EVGA bios?

When I double click "update.exe" it opens and then closes instantly.
I typed it into cmd to see the output and it says, "No display adapters were found that are compatible with this update"

here are my cards as GPUz sees them.
bdjedy.jpg
 
Last edited:
Stormlifter said:
You think that discoloration is due to BIOS issues? Not the SLI Bridge?
Also is it safe to flash a Palit and Asus 460GTX with that EVGA bios?

When I double click "update.exe" it opens and then closes instantly.
I typed it into cmd to see the output and it says, "No display adapters were found that are compatible with this update"
Click to expand...

That is part of the problem i believe, the cards might be in conflict.

If you open the the bios flash tutorial, it will take you through the steps of forcing a flash. If the cards are the same it should be fine.

What you can do is use GPU-Z to copy the bios of one of the cards, and use that to flash the other card. Just back up the bios of the card you are going to flash. At least that way you won't have to flash both of them.

I'm not sure how to use the EVGA update .exe to flash manual. Maybe you just have to add the force flash paramater to the executable. But because you cant really see whats going on with the auto flash. I would try the GPU-Z /nvflash method. You will need to use nibitor to save the copied bios .bin as a .rom

So here is what you need,
1.GPU-Z
2. Nibitor
3.Nvflash

Steps
1.copy bios gpu-z
2. open .bin/bios with nibitor and save as a .rom in the nvflash folder c:/
3. Open command prompt as administrator
4.nvflash -b backup.rom" (Backup your BIOS)
nvflash -5 -6 1.rom" (Normal BIOS Flash)
nvflash -4 -5 -6 1.rom" (Forced BIOS Flash)
 
Last edited:
One last thing, before you try flashing. Try to enable SLI without the bridge.

If that doesnt resolve anything copy the Asus bios and flash the palit, since GPU-Z does not recognize the vendor on that one.
 
Last edited:
I downloaded NVFlash 5.100.0.1 from techpowerup.com, I gave NVFlash the command to display adapters it gave me

NVIDIA display adapters present in system:
<0> GeForce GTX 460 (10DE,0E22,1043,835D) H:--:NRM B:02,PCI,D:00,F:00
<1> GeForce GTX 460 (10DE,0E22,0000,0000) H:--:NRM B:03,PCI,D:00,F:00
 
MadOblivion said:
One last thing, before you try flashing. Try to enable SLI without the bridge.

If that doesnt resolve anything copy the Asus bios and flash the palit, sense GPU-Z does not recognize the vendor on that one.
Click to expand...

It won't even let me select the option without the bridge.
 
Okay updated it. Still no vendor listed on the Palit, but the firmware is the same, going to go test.
No change :( Still crappy. Didn't restart, but still same crap. Also still same discoloration if I plug a monitor into each one.
 
Last edited:
Stormlifter said:
Okay updated it. Still no vendor listed on the Palit, but the firmware is the same, going to go test.
No change :( Still crappy. Didn't restart, but still same crap. Also still same discoloration if I plug a monitor into each one.
Click to expand...

You have to restart for bios flash to take effect. From personal experience.

Also do both the clocks read the same? did a restart resolve anything?

If not, its gotta be the bridge.
 
Last edited:
Well interesting result. Apparently now... the SLI option is gone.

Also this is the GPUz now
biwl53.jpg
 
Yeah I had to update them since they went back to an old one. Yeah the bridge is on, just no SLI detection. Even before if the bridge was off it gave me the option to go SLI, just was greyed out. Now the drivers aren't even popping up with "if you insert a SLI bridge you'll get more performance" or whatever they say.

edit: as a nasty side effect switching between monitors on Civ 5 causes the extra screen to black out then I have to alt tab to get it back.
 
Last edited:
I wonder how those device ID's are assigned. My two gtx 460 768mb read the same id as your asus card.. but not the palit.

When you flashed the bios i believe the device ID should of changed as well. it is an option under nibitors adv option.
 
Last edited:
I think you have to flash it again. The device id was the same before you flashed. for both cards. After you flashed the id changed for the palit card.

When you load nibitor make sure under adv options the ID reads the same as your asus card 10DE - 0E22

Don't know why the id would change like that. Might be nibitors fault.

Load the rom file in nibitor that you used for the flash, see what the device id says. If it reads 10DE - 0E24 change it back to 10DE - 0E22. I assume this is why they wont SLI now.

don't backup the bios this time if you flash it again. so you don't overwrite the original
 
Last edited:
Well I did what you said. used nvflash to make a backup of ASUS then use that to flash the palit? Did I do that wrong?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top