Issue with SLI bridge?


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I'm having a weird issue with my sli bridge that is a specific card is in the top slot the sli bridge doesn't make a good connection and there's artifacting. When I switch the cards around the issue seems to disappear. I had to wiggle the sli bridge because some games were flashing colors which is due to the "loose" sli bridge. I'm experiencing epilepsy inducing artifacting or something else is skyrim where these bright colors will flash or spike out and textures flash or flicker. I wasn't sure if that was due to my graphics hardware or the realism enb mod but I don't remember it doing that prior to installing the enb mod so it might not have anything to do with my sli bridge. Another "issue" is both gpu's are essentially the same mode but with differing bios versions. One is an AR model EVGA 1GB GTX 460 superclocked EE and the other is a TR model.  I was wondering if it's possible to flash the card with the outdated bios with the bios revision from the other GTX 460 so the bios matches up? I worry that differing bios versions might be causing incompatibility but that likely isn't the case.

 

It seems as if I am experiencing worse performance that I should be whether single card or sli mode. My hardware may not be the greatest or even good nowadays but fps seems lower than it should be and has deteriorated with new driver updates. In some games I experience random fps drops for no good reason, stutter, weird fps fluctuations, freezes and now I'm not so sure if it's the games or my hardware/drivers.

 

Any thoughts or remedies and should I buy a new sli bridge? The sli bridge is the Asus bridge that came with my Sabertooth X58 motherboard. Any recommendations for an sli bridge for my graphics hardware? Thanks.

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I'm fairly certain it's either the bridge or worst case scenario the connector on one card. Doesn't happen when I switch the cards around but when I have a specific card on top and the other on the bottom the sli bridge doesn't make a good connection. This shows artifacts on a black screen when enabling sli, occasionally causes line artifacts on the bios when booting and have to restart. I was recently testing something and switched the cards back around, when I did the artifacting returned. I had to play around wiggling the sli bridge and pushing it in because my screen was flashing a green or blue tint in games due to the sli bridge.

 

I just wanted to know if there's any differences between bridges and if one would be better quality than another. I can try replacing the bridge then focus on troubleshooting further if that doesn't work. Any idea where I can pick up some spring loaded retention screws for my gpu heatsink? One GTX 460 has them while the other doesn't, the other uses normal screws like someone did a poor refurb then repackaged as new. I don't have money for new hardware or an upgrade so I'm stuck trying to make this work properly. Btw Skyrim is the only game I get that epileptic flashing of colors, spikey polygons or artifacts, flickering/flashing textures in. The issue seems to only occur after installing the realvision enb mod but since others haven't reported similar issues I'm looking toward something on my end.

 

Thanks. Is there a specific bridge I should consider getting?

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Does it have to be Asus? I think I probably should try something else as I have multiple Asus sli bridges exhibiting the same issue but only with the TR model on top and AR on the bottom for some weird reason.

 

Any idea about the issues I mentioned that may or may not be sli or hardware related?

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If you got multiple Asus sli bridges it not likely going to be a bridge problem maybe a bad PCI-e slot or GPU you can try having one card in the 2nd slot to see if it boots or have both GPU cards in non-SLI and connect your monitor to the 2nd one.

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Probably something wrong with the gpu but I'm still not sure. It's weird there's only an issue when each gpu is in a specific slot so that's why I was thinking there was something with the sli bridge not making a good connection. The pci-e slot or motherboard is unlikely to be the issue as I've been experiencing similar issues with dual gpu's since I bought the system and the motherboard has been replaced three times now. Both gpu's work and output video, for a while I was stuck with a LGA775 motherboard until I contacted Asus and they were nice enough to replace my Sabertooth X58. That board supported a single gpu and both gpu's worked fine in it, this issue seems to only happen with dual gpu's and haven't experienced it happening with a single gpu as far as I can remember. I was getting the weird graphics (artifacts?) on a black screen since I've owned this hardware but now am experiencing additional issues related to the sli bridge. Now I have to  wiggle the bridge and push it in even though it was fully pushed in and should've made a good connection. Maybe it's the connectors for the bridge on the gpu however I'm not sure why it only occurs with the cards in a specific slot.

 

I might try reapplying thermal compound and reseating the heatsink on the one gpu. Not a heat issue afaik since I monitor temperatures but I figure it wouldn't hurt to redo it with proper screws. Once again that begs the question of where do I find spring loaded retention screws for a GTX 460 heatsink? I searched Google and Amazon but couldn't find anyone selling them unless I'd have to get them from the manufacturer.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Re-posting this here as I have yet to receive a response or solution anywhere.

 

Switch gpu's back around in pci-e slot and issue goes away lol.

 
Can anyone tell me if there's bios updates for my Evga Geforce GTX 460 superclocked EE and how to flash. I think my issues (slowdowns, stuttering, low performance) may be bios related if not a faulty gpu due to one gpu being an AR model and the other a TR model with different bios versions. Ever since I got the TR model was when my issues started and I noticed when I got the TR card the heatsink screws were lower quality and not spring retensioned. I had no issues with the prior secondary AR card until I sold it and bought the TR as a replacement.
 
Thanks.

Well this is weird..
 
After switching the gpu's to the opposite slots Crysis 3 got a huge boost with very high settings and that's with only a single card. I also changed power management mode in Nvidia control panel to prefer maximum performance globally. However the latter doesn't seem to have anything to do with it since I tried that before.
 
I'm not sure what is going on unless one gpu is bad but which? It's tricky to diagnose since it occurs in sli mode and only with the cards each in a specific pci-e slot. Anyone have any clue as to what is going on here?
 
While performance improved in certain games and some graphic anomalies are gone the slowdown I am experiencing with The Evil Within in sli mode is still there.
 
Thanks for any assistance in diagnosing and resolving this issue.
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Since the TR GTX 460 has been in the top pci-e slot and the AR GTX 460 in the bottom pci-e slot I've been getting awesome performance with the latest Nvidia drivers. Even Crysis 3 with @ very high settings runs decent enough but have to tone down to medium with Dead Rising 3 which doesn't work with sli. I get alright performance in The Evil Within but have to play in 720p, 1080p would be possible with sli but force alternate frame rendering 2 causes some strange issues.

 

The issue with my gpu's are odd haha so it's no wonder everyone is likely as stumped as me about this.

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I give up lol. No one seems to have any idea no matter where I ask. I've asked at three forums incl. Neowin and the official Nvidia Geforce forums. :(

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I would assume one of your GPUs has issues. SLI is a master-slave configuration (probably the one in the "first" PCI-E slot defaults to master) so one of your cards isn't able to fill its role as master properly. If the defect is limited to that and otherwise the card runs fine then I guess you can live with it.

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I don't think it's limited to that despite running better after switching around. I still have some performance issues in certain games and probably am not getting the performance I should be. In some games I'll randomly lose fps or experience terrible stuttering when the game should run fine. For example performance will start off great in Bioshock Infinite then deteriorate and I'll start experiencing severe stuttering and weird fps drops. Skyrim has issues with low fps and severe stuttering the antilag fix and memory patch couldn't remedy, single gpu is horrible and sli not much better. For the most part 99% of my games run fine but I'm sure I could be seeing better performance if everything was functioning properly.

 

It doesn't help any that the top gpu runs hot at over 90C thanks the the pci-e slots on this Sabertooth X58 being so close together so the cards are sandwiched with little room for ventilation.

 

One gpu is an AR and the other a TR model GTX 460 with differing bios versions. The heatsink screws on the TR GTX 460 are inferior as in not spring retensioned, the TR GTX 460 uses Samsung GDDR5 memory while the AR GTX 460 uses Hynix GDDR5 memory.

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If something is wrong with one of the cards would it be fixable? I'm not sure what it would be or what to look for but apparently these cards have had such issues together since I got the TR model. At least the issue wasn't noticeable until I put both cards in an sli configuration. I've been chalking it up to compatibility issues due one card being AR and the other TR with differing bios version, if only it were that easy then I could flash one card to fix potential bios incompatibility/issues but even then I'm not sure it would help.

 

My case came with a gpu bracket that a small fan could be installed in for ventilation. My goal is to find someone that sells spring retensioned gpu heatsink screws then reapply thermal compound and improve ventilation. Then flash one GTX 460 so the bios versions match.

 

One GTX 460 is a TR model with bios v70.04.13.00.74 and the other an AR model with bios v70.04.1B.00.70.

 

Which bios is newer? Would the difference in GDDR5 manufacturers (Hynix and Samsung) between the two gpu's cause any major issues by flashing one with the bios from the other?

 

Thanks.

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  • 9 months later...

I know this is a necro thread (few months at least) but just wanted to post as there's not a lot of info about SLI bridges going bad on the net.

I had awful artifacting (screenshots at https://imgur.com/a/kHpbL) that turned out to be caused by a bad EVGA SLI bridge. I reseated the cards dozens of times and tried reconnecting them in every combination possible, along with trying different drivers, etc. etc.

It all came down to the SLI bridge. Swapped the EVGA one with the AsRock one that came with my mobo and 99.9% of my problems went away. Sometimes I think I still see a stray vertex off in the distance but it's almost imperceptible. EVGA is sending me a flexy bridge since both the one I have of theirs and the AsRock one are hard PCB-like bridges. It's only 10 bucks on their site and cheaper on eBay.

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