Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello~

So I just purchased another GTX 460 so that I could run games in SLI. However, I have noticed that while some games look awsome, others simply wont work in SLI. For example, playing Wings of Prey in SLI is beautiful, but Bad Company 2 and FSX looks all green and jittery, almost like the game is automatically trying to render in Nvidia 3d vision. Definately un-playable. However, if I take it off SLI, the games work great. What gives? I thought that SLI would make all these games look better than with just one card. Are some games just not SLI compadible, or have I set something up wrong? Is this a problem with the TH2GO? Should I get rid of the TH2GO, and run all 3 monitors off of the 2 GTX's?

Any insight would be awsome, as I am new to the SLI world. It should also be known, that I am not looking to achieve the 3d vision at all. I just want to utilize my GPU's SLI potential while playing games.

Thanks

My system:
Intel Core 2 Duo 3.16Ghz
8GB DD3 1333mhz Ram
(2) GTX 460 Gpu's
Windows Vista 64 sp2

1) SLI is not supposed to make your games "look better", only improve performance (framerate) - unless you decide to drop the performance boost in favor of "SLI AA", but that's another thing.
2) Most games have SLI profiles, and in any event, unsupported games should not look "green and jittery" :?
Edit: I just got the same problem :lol: with two cards installed, although it never happened with three...
Simply swap the cards and everything should be fine. For some unscrutable reason, seemingly identical cards may require to be arranged in a certain order for SLI to work properly.
If that fails:
-test each card separately
-make sure your SLI bridge isn't damaged
-check PSU connections & 12V rails load
3) Yes, you can disconnect TH2G and give Nvidia Surround a try. Simply don't install the 3D Vision driver if you're not interested.

Hello~

Ok, so after experimenting I have figured out that by swapping the SLI bride 180 degrees, it seems to get rid of the green haze. Unfortunately the screen still have a strobe flicker while in SLI. Could this be a bad SLI bridge? I have swapped both cards on the motherboard, and independently tested each one by themselves. Both cards seem fine by themselves. What gives? If I take it out of SLI, no problems..... I can game across three screen with a 5040x1050 @59 hz resolution. Which is cool, but then it seems as though I wasted my money on purchasing another GTX460 and SLI bridge. :cry:

Next, I decided I would just omit the Matrox TH2GO and hook up all 3 monitors to my 2 identical GTX460 786mb cards and get 2d surround working. Unfortuantely when I did that I hit a brick wall. I can get all three displays working, but they are independent. Once in SLI, the games only wants to display on one screen. After many more hours of research, I have come to the conclusion the my Nvidia control panel does not even display the option to turn on the "surround" feature. Why?? Windows Vista sees all 3 monitors, but there is no option to make them 1 big display. Nvidia control panel treats them the same way. So.....why is my Nvidia control panel not detecting that I have 3 identical monitors and enabling the "surround" feature in the control panel?

I have an EVGA 790i Digital motherboard (3x SLI ready), and a thermaltake Toughpower 1000w psu (3x SLI ready). This should not be a motherboard problem, or a power problem. The jury is still out as to whether or not its a OS problem. I have multiple different forums stating that 2d surround can only be supported by windows 7. Is this true? nobody has stated such a conclusion. I am running Vista 64, and dont really want to pay for another upgrade just to get Nvidia 2d Surround to work. Sooo, unless I can figure out how to get the Nvidia control panel to allow the "surround" feature, I am back to square one with the Matrox TH2GO setup and trying to figure out why in the heck I cant achieve smooth gameplay (strobe flickering) while SLI is enabled.

Any ideas? I have support tickets out with Nvidia.....but that seems to be a bit of goat rope at the moment.

Please Help!

nVidia say that Surround is Windows 7 only, yes.

Ok~

So..... surround is windows 7 only. Thats good to know. So I guess I need to concentrate on the problems I am having with the TH2GO. I have a bad strobe flicker when SLI is enabled. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Hey Guys.....

So, I really could use some help on this one. I have support tickets out with EVGA and Nvidia and still have my problem. I have a bad green haze strobe flicker in games with SLI enabled. I have done everything, and still have no answers......... I have turned my SLI bridge around and got rid of the green haze, but my strobe flicker persists......

Nvidia told me to get rid of the Matrox TH2GO, make sure my motherboard BIOS was updated to current BIOS, ensure onboard video was disabled, and hook all 3 monitors to my two gtx 460 cards. I did so, but low and behold, only to realize that the Nvidia control panel ded not give me the option for 2d surround. After much more research, I have learned that is because Nvidia 2d surround is not supported in Windows Vista... Yayy.. :oops:

Ok, so back to the drawing board. For testing purposes I hooked up only one of my 3 exact same make/model monitors (ASUS 23" widescreen VH236H's) to the first video card, and guess what: Same problem. :shock:

This is my latest letter to the Nvidia folks: Could you see if anything catches your guy's eyes that I have not thought of? This problem has to be something completely simple that I have overlooked, or have not explained correctly.

Nvidia Customer support:

Hello~

Ok, so 2d surround only works on windows 7....that's good to know. I wish I would have followed the requirements for 2d surround closer prior to purchasing a second video card but I guess that that's on me.

However, that still leaves me with a video issue that I need resolved. So, lets go back to my original problem. I got rid of the Matrox TH2GO via your recommendation, tried to hook all 3 monitors to both video cards via your recommendation, but realized Nvidia 2d surround is not supported with Windows Vista. So, now back to the drawing board, I now have only one monitor connected to the pc for testing purposes. I have 2 Galaxy gtx460 786MB video cards. My monitor is a 23" Widescreen ASUS VH236H connected to the closest DVI output of the first video card that is installed into the 1st PCI-e slot on my motherboard. Now.....if I enable SLI, my monitor is experiencing a bad strobe flicker with any game I attempt to play. Desktop and other applications like internet explorer or any other non graphic taxing applications work fine with the SLI enabled. Changing the monitor resolution does not affect my strobe flicker anomaly. If I disable SLI, my strobe flicker goes away. However, If I enable SLI my strobe flicker is back. So, to review... No SLI = perfect picture, enabled SLI = flickering strobe. I have contacted EVGA and made sure that my motherboard bios is up to date, and that my onboard video is disabled via your recommendation. However, my problem still exists. What might I be missing here?

I have swapped cards from PCI-e slots 1 and 3 on the motherboard giving each a chance at main and slave, and get the same results. I have tested each of the cards independently in slot 1 and 3, they each work fine by themselves. What do you think could be causing my issue? Could this be a bad SLI bridge? In the beginning, I was getting a green haze with the strobe flicker with SLI enabled. I turned the SLI bridge around, and that got rid of my green haze, but I still have the strobe flicker. So what do you think? A bad SLI bridge, or are there minimum requirements that my monitors don't meet that is needed in order to display SLI correctly? The monitor I have hooked up is a 23" ASUS VH236H with 1920 x 1080 native resolution. I honestly don't know what the monitors refresh rate is. Is there a minimum refresh rate that is needed in a monitor to have SLI displayed properly?

Any help on this matter would be much appreciated.

Just FYI, I have order two different styles of SLI bridges just so that I could discount that as being the problem. I am currently awaiting there arrival in the mail.

My system specs are as follows:

Motherboard: EVGA790i Digital PWM FTW (3x SLI ready)
Processor: Intel E8500 Dual core 3.16ghz
Memory: 8Gb DDR3 1333mhz RAM
Video Card: (2) Galaxy GTX 460 786MB
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 1000 Watt (3xSLI ready)
DVD Burner: Samsung Super Writemaster DVD RW
Hard Drive: Western Digital Black 640GB
External HD: Maxtor 500 GB
Monitor: (3) 23" Widescreen ASUS VH236H
Operating System: Windows Vista 64

Thank you for you attention in this matter.


Brent


Please!!!!! Guy's, help me.

Hey guys~

Well I seemed to have fixed the problem. After all this testing, researching and heart ache, my new new SLI bridge(s) came in. After swapping out the bridge.....poof......problem gone.

I hope this thread is able to help someone trouble shoot their problems in the future.

:cheers