Rampage IV Extreme Quad Sli support

[MaadDaawg]

Shammy,

Does the R4E support Quad Sli of EVGA SC 580's, or are cards like the Classifieds or Lightnings required? In vNcp my options are to enable/disable 3 way SLI despite the fact that the 4 SCs are graphically dedpiced on the screen. I can run 3 way with any of the 4 cards but cannot get to 4 way.

In GPUz there are 3 cards shown as enabled but 4 cards listed in the drop down box at the bottom?

[Shammy]

yes, unless its an old driver?

[Massman]

Change the sli bridge connection maybe. If cards are like this

1
2
3
4

Connect: 1-2, 3-4, 2-4.

A while back, I had a similar problem when I connected 1-3 instead of 2-4.

[MaadDaawg]

Thanks guys - I've tried a couple of different bridge configs but I'll give this one a try. Was running a beta driver but just updated to 285.62 driver hoping that might help, but same thing

[MaadDaawg]

when I connect 2/4 it loads in what looks like vga mode and won't load the nvidia driver. With 1/3 it will load into the proper resolution but still shows only 3 GPUs enabled. The nvidia cp graphically shows the tri sli as GPUs 1,3,4 with GPU 2 there but not active.

Think I've tried all combos on connections, using both front and back sli connectors, but still can't get quad sli?

[SoF]

does the "static" bridge work?
only have 3x 8800 ultras here but when I see one I get it fs so quite interesting to know ;)

[Phatboy]

I think you need minimum driver version 290.36 (or 290.53) for beta support of X79 with Quad SLI.

[Andre]

All are the same vga bios?

[MaadDaawg]

does the "static" bridge work?
only have 3x 8800 ultras here but when I see one I get it fs so quite interesting to know ;)

The hard bridge that comes with the board does the same thing, and will only work mounted in one direction.

I think you need minimum driver version 290.36 (or 290.53) for beta support of X79 with Quad SLI. Just loaded 290.36 yesterday, made no difference

All are the same vga bios?
Now THIS is an interesting question that I don't know the answer to. They are all EVGA SC 580s but three were bought in the earlier days (black ops cards) while one is brand new - they may have changed the bios??
Think you may have hit on it.. it's the only thing left to check!

Thanks guys!

[Massman]

when I connect 2/4 it loads in what looks like vga mode and won't load the nvidia driver. With 1/3 it will load into the proper resolution but still shows only 3 GPUs enabled. The nvidia cp graphically shows the tri sli as GPUs 1,3,4 with GPU 2 there but not active.

Think I've tried all combos on connections, using both front and back sli connectors, but still can't get quad sli?

What if you reinstall the drivers with that SLI bridge combo?

[MaadDaawg]

What if you reinstall the drivers with that SLI bridge combo?

I've tried twice and the install fails. Switch it back to 1/3 and loads no probs. Loaded 295.63 this morning w/ no luck trying 295.73 soon. someone wrote that the old 290.36 solved their problem so that'll be next.

I'll try the 2/4 setup on all these drivers too.

this is frustrating :confused:

[MaadDaawg]

Changing drivers hasn't changed anything. In fact, 290.53 is not stable with Shammy's R4E BIOS of 1201.

the three older "black ops" cards have a bios of
70.10.12.00.82 while the new card's bios is
70.10.60.00.80

Could the variation of the bios in this one card prevent the 4 way sli? That GPU is included in the 3 way SLI while one of the older cards is excluded?

Note: there are a lot of posts on the nvidia forum from peeps with the same problem

[Shammy]

you tried disabling hpet in the bios?
upload the bioses and i'll flash them to ref cards to mimic

[MaadDaawg]

Shammy,

No I hadn't tried that, but I did use nvidiainspector to set the number of GPUs to 4, but it remains at 3 max enabled.

I found there are actually three BIOS versions, I had thought all three that I bought together were the same, but that just proves the old saying about never assuming

uploaded 2 zip files w/ the 3 BIOS. Really appreciate the help!

2 x the .12
1 x the .17
1 x the .60

[Gunslinger]

This is the exact same problem I had when I tried to bench quad 580 Lightnings, I finally just gave up and sold the Lightnings and replaced them with Classifieds.

[MaadDaawg]

This is the exact same problem I had when I tried to bench quad 580 Lightnings, I finally just gave up and sold the Lightnings and replaced them with Classifieds.

Someone on the nvidia forum is having the same issue with 4 Classys ?

[Massman]

This is the exact same problem I had when I tried to bench quad 580 Lightnings, I finally just gave up and sold the Lightnings and replaced them with Classifieds.

Hm, isn't that what Deanzo had as well? I recall him facebooking about troubles with the Lightnings and UD7 board. I tested it with my set of lightnings and ud7 and things worked just fine.

Never realised there were that many people with the same type of issue. Now I'm eager to find out the cause :)

[Gunslinger]

Someone on the nvidia forum is having the same issue with 4 Classys ?

What nvidia forum?

I had the same problem with the Lightnings, the Classifieds I switched to ran perfectly in 4 way. :up:

[MaadDaawg]

What nvidia forum?

I had the same problem with the Lightnings, the Classifieds I switched to ran perfectly in 4 way. :up:

http://forums.nvidia.com/

4 Classy's a little out of my reach right now :p

[Phatboy]

Just a thought have you tried a different SLI bridge or tried it the other way around?
I once had trouble on UD9 getting 4way working and the bridge ended up working around the other way. !?!?

[MaadDaawg]

Just a thought have you tried a different SLI bridge or tried it the other way around?
I once had trouble on UD9 getting 4way working and the bridge ended up working around the other way. !?!?

Unfortunately, yes I tried the bridge in both directions. It will only work in one direction which I thought was weird. I also used 3 flex SLI connectors and tried different combos but problem persists

[MaadDaawg]

In BIOS 1201, I deleted the nvidia apps 1 by 1 - 2 restarts required. Loaded driver 290.53 through custom load instead of express. Only loaded the video driver and phyx and rebooted. Was told the SLI connector was missing although it was firmly in place.

Turned rig off, turned the bridge around, and restarted, went into nvcp, and was given the opportunity to enable 4 way SLI :D

Massman, the bridge is with the 2/4 connection instead of the 1/3 like you suggested.