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CoolBits with SLI?

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Proxy

Pumpkin Ghost
Joined
Apr 24, 2005
Messages
4,308
Ok, I was wondering is CoolBits would still work with SLI, or would I need to OC some other way?
 
I'm pretty sure it still works, but you just OC both the cards at once...someon correct me if I'm wrong..
 
PhateX1337 said:
I'm pretty sure it still works, but you just OC both the cards at once...someon correct me if I'm wrong..
Click to expand...

Exactly right. Use coolbits and it will work fine. The OC is on both cards, not each one.
 
yep, it works fine, but make sure you use drivers 71.89 and above... I don't think it was an enablable feature on earlier rev drivers... also keep in mind, in SLI heat is more of an issue, so doubly so when OC'ing in SLI... make sure you have good cooling in place (lots of air, or water, preferably) or else don't expect to much of a stable OC.
 
Yeah, it is a little hit and miss with driver support for coolbits and SLI. The options are present for clock frequency, but anytime you change it it will detect errors and not allow you to save the changes. If the drivers you are using don't work with it, you have to try different ones (even beta ones) to get it to work. I haven't tried anything since 71.84, so I can't comment on newer drivers.
 
oh yes, 71.84 was the first rev which allowed SLI OC'ing... thanks for the correction. :) I am using 77.30's now and they work great.
 
I think I actually used the 75.90a beta because it was the only one that would OC for me :rolleyes:
 
With the newest 77.76 Beta drivers you need to disable SLI then overclock with coolbits. Then re-enable SLI in order to get SLI overclocked. Most other 7X.XX drivers will OC SLI fine.
 
revenant said:
oh yes, 71.84 was the first rev which allowed SLI OC'ing... thanks for the correction. :) I am using 77.30's now and they work great.
Click to expand...

SLI OC'ing doesn't work in 71.84, check the release notes.
 
Coolbits is sure to work, because until the next driver release the SLI AA modes are only available after Coolbits has been enabled.
 
With the newest 77.76 Beta drivers you need to disable LSI then overclock with coolbits. Then re-enable LSI in order to get LSI overclocked. Most other 7X.XX drivers will OC SLI fine.
Click to expand...
??? What is LSI? Do you mean SLI?
 
Dr_John said:
??? What is LSI? Do you mean SLI?
Click to expand...

LOL! I find type that errors quite regularly but this is a record. At leats I got one out of foru. Maybe I need a dislexai tets :)
 
Well, heat isn't going to be a consern to me, im thinking of getting a liquid cooled case form Koolance based off the Lain-Li cases. :cool: And PNY or eVGA 7800 GTX's dont know yet.
 
PikachuMan said:
SLI OC'ing doesn't work in 71.84, check the release notes.
Click to expand...

interesting... I guess it was the 71.89's then... I could have sworn the 84's were the first ones I loaded up, which allowed OC'ing when I added the coolbits reg info... oh well, I was right the first time. sheesh. :)
 
aeonrevolution said:
Hey I have a dumb question regarding cooling....would taking the side of my case off and sticking a rotating fan near it work very well lmao? I'm talking about a fan thats something like this size haha.

http://www.metalmart.co.jp/shop/item_image/L/metal_fan_l.gif


Seriously I'm not joking...would that work?
Click to expand...
It really depends on the ambient temperature in the room that the computer is sitting in and how much pressure the fan displaced. More pressure generally means the air is cooled more than with a lower pressure fan. Regardless, you will probably see some kind of benefit, but there are other factors, too. Like the type of HSF on the CPU, Northbridge, and GPU for instance.


To get back on topic: I have seen an SLI setup overclocked with coolbits. Everything stated by everyone so far is fairly accurate.
 
DejaWiz said:
It really depends on the ambient temperature in the room that the computer is sitting in and how much pressure the fan displaced. More pressure generally means the air is cooled more than with a lower pressure fan. Regardless, you will probably see some kind of benefit, but there are other factors, too. Like the type of HSF on the CPU, Northbridge, and GPU for instance.
Click to expand...


I agree, there could be a great benefit to blowing a floor fan right in there, but keep in mind, air behaves a lot like water, in that, it will "flow" where it's forced to, so when you open your case, you are letting the flow from your case intake fans go right out, and some of your components which were getting air flow because it was being forced to those areas (because the case is sort of a "sealed unit", parts of it) might not get as much... probably not too big of a deal, but just something to think about... if you have that external fan on high, then you'll probably be drenching the whole inside of your pc with air, so that should keep it all cool... I know many people who have tried this, and it generally only worked well if the fan was strong and it really got a lot of air in there...

PS: using a fan card like the 3D edge might be able to provide the same sort of cooling effect with less clutter... http://www.xoxide.com/3dedge.html very good for SLI setups. :)

ok - sorry for more OT blabbing
 
SLI doesn't work with 77.76, even if you disable SLI, OC then re-enable it. Something with the cards gets buggared up and the cards slow down big time, almost as if one card shut off (but it is in fact even slower than 1 card at a time).

To see what I mean, install 77.76, don't OC. Go run 3dmark05. Don't pay attention too much to the framerate counter, just the general "smoothness" of the graphics.

Now disable SLI, OC, and re-enable SLI. Turn off your computer completely. Turn it back on. NOW run 3dmark05. Bet you any money its much slower than before you OC'd.
 
wow - that's good to know... no issues at all with the 77.30s...
 
Smallies said:
SLI doesn't work with 77.76, even if you disable SLI, OC then re-enable it. Something with the cards gets buggared up and the cards slow down big time, almost as if one card shut off (but it is in fact even slower than 1 card at a time).

To see what I mean, install 77.76, don't OC. Go run 3dmark05. Don't pay attention too much to the framerate counter, just the general "smoothness" of the graphics.

Now disable SLI, OC, and re-enable SLI. Turn off your computer completely. Turn it back on. NOW run 3dmark05. Bet you any money its much slower than before you OC'd.
Click to expand...


UM I have an SLi rig and I can OC fine with coolbits and 77.76....
 
clearly then it has to do with some system (OS) level configuration... I just chatted with a few others who can OC with those drivers just fine also. Perhaps you guys are not removing your old driver with "driver cleaner" (or equiv) before installing the new ones... that really makes for a headacheless transition from driver to driver, imo.
 
I've certainly tried driver cleaner pro... but ive even tried a totally fresh format.

Perhaps you THINK your sli is working just fine... do the 3dmark test like i talked about. go run 3dmark right now if it's OC'd, then reinstall the driver totally and disable OC'ing.

Bet you it runs faster... I've got 2 7800 GTX rigs here that both do it, one an asus SLI and the other a DFI NF4 SLI-D. diff processors, diff power supplies, totally different peripherals...

in short, 77.76 = it broken.
 
Well Ill tell you that Im pretty sure 1 of my 2 6600Gt is not getting 7K in 05.
Thats just silly ;)
 
Having had two 6800GT's in SLi I can tell you that most of the drivers I've used since SLi came out DO NOT overclock with coolbits. The few that would, normally weren't stable.

I used Powerstrip to OC and I never had a problem with that on those same cards. So I know it was the drivers.
 
ok - after scouring my machine - I found I have used the following drivers with coolbits2 with no issues at all:

71.89 whql (great IQ + no great perf)
76.50 beta (great perf + so-so IQ)
72.12 whql (decent all around)
77.13 beta (great perf and IQ) <-- using now

I thought I was using the 77.30's or had used them, but I see them nowhere on my machine, so I guess I did not. Anyways, I think Sir-Fragalot is right, in that, using powerstrip or rivatuner is a good idea if the drivers are giving you a headache with OC'ing. They both work well.
 
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