Hello everyone! I had my GTX 690 for a year now and it works great, recently I got my hands on another one and wanted to see how this would work in SLI. At first, everything was OK, no problems at all, and then the freezing... I'm not talking about playing games, my system freezes on desktop, while I'm on the net or just listening to music. After a reboot my resolution is set to minimum and in Device Manager I can see that my video cards are not working, the NVIDIA Driver isn't functioning at all. So, I did a clean Windows reinstall, installed the most recent WHQL driver from NVIDIA and I still have random reboots. Everything works fine if SLI is disabled in NVIDIA Control Panel, as soon as I enable it I have random freezing. Cards work great individually if I pull one out of my system, but in SLI it's a disaster. I am running out of ideas. My system specs are: MBO: ASUS Maximus V Formula CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K (not OC'd) HDD: 2 x WD Black 4TB SSD: 1 x Intel Series 530 240GB GPU: 2 x GTX 690 RAM: 4 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz PSU: Corsair AX850 Is my power supply too weak for this setup?
Install this driver - http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/geforce_314_21_beta_driver_download.html Play some games, browse the nets etc and see how long (if at all) before you get crashing. I mention this driver because 314.21 was the only driver until the 331.65 (latest) that didnt give me the exact same issues you've mentioned above. So, worth a shot maybe. As for your power supply, Below is the power requirements for the GTX690, Nvidia dot com. http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-690/specifications
I say it could be the psu struggling. Hilbert recommended a 950w psu for quad SLI on an overclocked rig iirc.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm using genuine Windows 8 Pro 64-bit. Thanks for that link, I will try it. I would also say my PSU is struggling but if I get a new one and I have the same issue I'm going to be pissed On ASUS website the PSU Calculator says I should have at least 1200W PSU, every other calculator says that 850 is enough, not sure what to believe. Anyway, thanks guys, I will keep in touch.
That calculator tends to overestimate PSU requirements so take it with a grain of salt....but yeah sounds like u need a bigger/better PSU. Try that different driver first tho....u never know.
uh, should have a 1100 watt Power supply, also, I had that setup and was very disappointed-posssibly the low ram for so many cards was the issue-not sure- works best unless new drivers have silved earlier problems with just one card
Well, installed that BETA driver, enabled SLI, ran 3DMark 11 and got a freeze at the begining I did a manual restart and my SLI was disabled automatically after that last freeze.
I don't think it's the PSU. When SLi is disabled, everything is fine, yet the second card still draws power at idle. Also, it's in idle, it's not going to be the PSU. Plus, these are 300W cards. 600W are drawn in full load scenarios and 250W are left for the rest of the system. A stock i7 3770K + other components will not draw anywhere near that. Tested each card alone? Tried a different SLi bridge? Tried a different SLi finger?
Cards run fine individually if I pull one out of my system, as I stated before. I did not try another SLI bridge since I don't have another one but I will get a new one tomorrow and try that out. And regarding the different SLI finger, these cards have only one.
I tried removing the SLI bridge to see if something changes, no effect, everyrhing is the same. Only strange thing is that sometimes I get a popup message from NVIDIA Control Panel that SLI bridge is missing even if it's fitted correctly. So it could be that the bridge is the problem. I will try the new one tomorrow. Either it's the bridge or the PSU. I'm running out of ideas.
That was my first thought my friend, Quad-SLI needs power! I'm just thinking about what yasamoka wrote earlier. Even if two GTX 690 need more power than my PSU can offer that still shouldn't cause problems on plain desktop since both cards are in idle. Funny thing is, as soon as I enable SLI you can see the performance drop even when resizing windows, there is a visible tearing while doing this simple operation. If I'm running only one card everything is super fast. Right now I'm only on one card, the new one. I will give it a little time to see if it starts acting funny. Tomorrow a new SLI bridge and then I should get my hands on a more powerful PSU. Any suggestions about that?
Yeah I also think a beefier psu is needed. It's quad sli after all.. 1000w would be ideal. I don't think that 850w psu of yours got the amperage to power those two (four) cards.
lol, same here, 1000w. funny thing is if I remove 3x HDD from my rig in that calculator, it goes down to 900 haha. OP, ignore that silly calculator, it's nonsense.
Suggest trying a different PCI-e slot before buying a new PSU, at least then u have all your bases covered before prior to spending any money......
sounds lke a driver issue, also try moving the dvi cables around on the gpus, i had a problem with my old 470 sli set up, they would olny work round one way its not going to be the psu if it dose it at desktop.
