Can't get SLI to work. Are these 2 cards compatible??

[Bladeface]

I recently got some of my old hardware back, so I decided to put my old 970 in with my new one in my current rig.
Both of the cards show up in the device manager, and from what I can tell both are functioning just fine.
For some reason the NVIDIA control panel won't let me enable SLI and says I need to connect an SLI bridge, but I already have the one that came with my motherboard on them, and I also tried the bridge that came with my old motherboard which worked for my 2 970's on that rig.
My motherboard is a GA-Z170x-GAMING 5 and the two cards I am trying to SLI are the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X OC EDITION and this EVGA 970 thing...

The reason I ask if they are SLI compatible is that according to the EVGA website here not all EVGA 970's are compatible with eachother, and I have no idea if the same goes for 970's from other companies. Can anyone help me out?

[Schattenlied]

Welcome to Nvidia, where the same card from 2 different manufacturers aren't always compatible for dual GPU use... AMD doesn't have this issue.


That being said, one strong GPU will always be a better choice than dual GPU.


Also SLI doesn't work in windowed mode, so that may be your issue, whatever game you're playing may just not support it as well... Are these the exact same 2 970s from your old rig, or is one/both of them different?

[Shaetha]

From all the things I've heard from my tech supernerd friends, never use SLI. It causes far more problems than any benefit you might gain from it.

[Bladeface]

Welcome to Nvidia, where the same card from 2 different manufacturers aren't always compatible for dual GPU use... AMD doesn't have this issue.


That being said, one strong GPU will always be a better choice than dual GPU.


Also SLI doesn't work in windowed mode, so that may be your issue, whatever game you're playing may just not support it as well... Are these the exact same 2 970s from your old rig, or is one/both of them different?

One from the old, and one from the new. Do I actually have to have a game open to enable SLI? I thought you could do it without that and you just DISABLED it on certain games?

- - - Updated - - -

From all the things I've heard from my tech supernerd friends, never use SLI. It causes far more problems than any benefit you might gain from it.

Well if there's a better way to utilize 2 GPU's I'm okay with whatever. I wish my MB supported 3 cards though because I have 3 since my old rig was SLI lol

[Schattenlied]

One from the old, and one from the new. Do I actually have to have a game open to enable SLI? I thought you could do it without that and you just DISABLED it on certain games?

No, you don't have to have the game open, some games simply don't support it, and it won't work, and if whatever program you open it in is in windowed mode it will not be able to use the second GPU, that's just a limitation of the programming, dual GPU cannot work unless it's a fullscreen application.

Well if there's a better way to utilize 2 GPU's I'm okay with whatever. I wish my MB supported 3 cards though because I have 3 since my old rig was SLI lol

So, you still have the third 970? It seems like the simple solution to your problem is to take out the new card, and pair back up the ones that worked together before and see if that fixes your problem... If it does, you will know the new card is not compatible.

[Bladeface]

No, you don't have to have the game open, some games simply don't support it, and it won't work, and if whatever program you open it in is in windowed mode it will not be able to use the second GPU, that's just a limitation of the programming, dual GPU cannot work unless it's a fullscreen application.





So, you still have the third 970? It seems like the simple solution to your problem is to take out the new card, and pair back up the ones that worked together before and see if that fixes your problem... If it does, you will know the new card is not compatible.

The new one is better though much better cooling and actually has a backplate. And it lights up which I just kind of like. Is having 2 cards pointless if they can't SLI? Or can the second card still do something?

[Deleted]

just go with one strong card rather than SLI or crossfire -- coming from a man who has crossfire and sli setup's its not worth that agro

[Barnabas]

your motherboard supports sli?

[Xs]

Is having 2 cards pointless if they can't SLI? Or can the second card still do something?

It can be setup to be a PhysX card, but with a 970 thats about as close to pointless as you can get.

[Fascinate]

Those two cards should 100% be compatible in SLI. Only time same model cards arent is if they have different memory buffers like the gtx 460 1gb and gtx 460 768mb you could not sli together.

[Arbiter]

Those two cards should 100% be compatible in SLI. Only time same model cards arent is if they have different memory buffers like the gtx 460 1gb and gtx 460 768mb you could not sli together.

Not necessarily. Not even all of EVGA's GTX 970s can SLI together.

http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmv...px?faqid=59534

I can't say for sure if the Gigabyte one is compatible or not, but it's entirely possible that's it not.

[Fascinate]

Not necessarily. Not even all of EVGA's GTX 970s can SLI together.

http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmv...px?faqid=59534

I can't say for sure if the Gigabyte one is compatible or not, but it's entirely possible that's it not.

Whats the reasoning for them not working together? Im gonna need more than that chart. If true, that is isolated to EVGA i have never seen that before on GPU's with the same memory buffer/GPU model.

[Arbiter]

Whats the reasoning for them not working together? Im gonna need more than that chart. If true, that is isolated to EVGA i have never seen that before on GPU's with the same memory buffer/GPU model.

And it's usually not the case but I think it has something to do with the different types of PCBs used on the GTX 970s. I'm not saying that the it's definitely the issue with OP (as it's very possible that it could be another issue), but I just wouldn't rule it out. If he tried a different SLI bridge and the motherboard is recognizing both GPUs, I'm not entirely sure it could be anything else. Flipping the SLI bridge as well as trying to the other port on the GPU could possibly work?

[Lathais]

If you have three 970's sell them all and buy a 1070. You'll get better performance out of a 1070 than SLI 970's anyway and no headaches when SLI doesn't work.

[Bladeface]

If you have three 970's sell them all and buy a 1070. You'll get better performance out of a 1070 than SLI 970's anyway and no headaches when SLI doesn't work.

If I was going to sell em for a new card I'd just wait for the 1080 ti to be released and get that :/

[Lathais]

If I was going to sell em for a new card I'd just wait for the 1080 ti to be released and get that :/

That will require money out of pocket. Just look at ebay, the only 970s that have actual bids on them are under $200. Even if we consider that you can sell them for $200 each and charge the buyer shipping, that's still not even enough money for a 1080, much less a 1080ti. So sure, if you are willing to throw more money into it. Personally, I'd just grab a 1070 though. A 1070 is still stronger than SLI 970s and more than enough for 1440p gaming for quite some time. I also have my doubts that even the 1080ti will be able to play current modern games at 4k. So why bother with a 1080ti at all? Seems rather a waste.

[Bladeface]

That will require money out of pocket. Just look at ebay, the only 970s that have actual bids on them are under $200. Even if we consider that you can sell them for $200 each and charge the buyer shipping, that's still not even enough money for a 1080, much less a 1080ti. So sure, if you are willing to throw more money into it. Personally, I'd just grab a 1070 though. A 1070 is still stronger than SLI 970s and more than enough for 1440p gaming for quite some time. I also have my doubts that even the 1080ti will be able to play current modern games at 4k. So why bother with a 1080ti at all? Seems rather a waste.

SO I CAN BE HIP! Lol. But also because when I can actually be fucked to make a video, its nice to be able to both render and game at the same time. Can I do that with a 970? Deffo, but it either makes the framerate iffy or it makes my card way more hot than I am comfortable with, even if it's still within safe ranges of temp. will a 1070 still be enough for that? easily. But I have always regretted buying 2 970's instead of 1 980 ti, and if I just get the 1070 I will feel the need to upgrade again when the 1170 or whatever comes out next is available.