Return 460 Sli and go for 5870?

nanobeast

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
351
I built a system last week with the following specs:

i5-760 CPU
eVGA P55 SLi MB
G. Skill ddr3 1600 (4x2GB)
XFX 750W PSU
1920x1080 Resolution
Win 7 64 bits

Gigabyte 460 1GB in SLI

It seems I can run one 460 and other for PhysX fine but whenever I try to enable SLI, the system just freezes on me. I have upgraded the drivers. It also seems I am also not the only one who is running into this problem. Some other folks are having problems with it in 64 bits.

Frankly, I am quiet frustrated and I am beginning to question the whole SLI thing. Even if Nvidia releases a decent driver for SLI for 64 bits Win 7, how reliable is SLi exactly? Will I keep having to fiddle with it and keep troubleshooting it in the future? I don’t want to babysit the system.

With that thought in mind, I am wondering if I should return the pair of 460s and get the XFX 5870 for ~$370 instead and not even worry about dual card setup?

What are the pros and cons if I were to go this route?

Any compatibility issues with my current hardware?

How is XFX 5870 in Windows 7 64 bits?
 
Honestly I would settle for a single card solution. The added expense and frustration dealing with dual card setups is nothing more than a ploy from AMD/Nvidia to gain more of your cash. Power supplies are taxed beyond belief, motherboards split signals between the two cards etc...

The only advantage I really see is if one card fails you still have a backup while your waiting for an RMA to be completed.
 
Have you tried pulling a card and running them both individually to verify they are both good cards? I see this bite people in the ass sometimes because they assume both cards are good since they're new. So they automatically blame software for the problems.

I've had no problems running SLI with two different card variants on Win7 Ultimate 64-bit. But, I would still agree with Woodscomp, I always prefer one more powerful card over 2/multiple cards just for simplicity's sake (no worrying about specific game support, driver/patch fixes, micro stutter, easier to troubleshoot to name a few). I'm considering selling both my 285s for a 480 even though 2x 285s slightly out-perform a 480 in most games, just so I have less heat and power draw too.
 
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1541111

Its probably an issue with your specific gear, like one of the cards is bad.

Seems like you are expanding your problem to say that all SLI always has problems with 64bit, or just has problems in general. Neither is the case. Something is wrong with your gear, one of the cards is bad or the motherboard has a bad slot of whatever. If you return the cards for single slot, the problem will go away, but you didn't really fix it. ;)
 
I built a system last week with the following specs:

i5-760 CPU
eVGA P55 SLi MB
G. Skill ddr3 1600 (4x2GB)
XFX 750W PSU
1920x1080 Resolution
Win 7 64 bits

Gigabyte 460 1GB in SLI

It seems I can run one 460 and other for PhysX fine but whenever I try to enable SLI, the system just freezes on me. I have upgraded the drivers. It also seems I am also not the only one who is running into this problem. Some other folks are having problems with it in 64 bits.

Frankly, I am quiet frustrated and I am beginning to question the whole SLI thing. Even if Nvidia releases a decent driver for SLI for 64 bits Win 7, how reliable is SLi exactly? Will I keep having to fiddle with it and keep troubleshooting it in the future? I don’t want to babysit the system.

With that thought in mind, I am wondering if I should return the pair of 460s and get the XFX 5870 for ~$370 instead and not even worry about dual card setup?

What are the pros and cons if I were to go this route?

Any compatibility issues with my current hardware?

How is XFX 5870 in Windows 7 64 bits?

If your system is freezing when you try to enable SLI, you have bad hardware. Just get it RMAed.
 
Honestly I would settle for a single card solution. The added expense and frustration dealing with dual card setups is nothing more than a ploy from AMD/Nvidia to gain more of your cash. Power supplies are taxed beyond belief, motherboards split signals between the two cards etc...

The only advantage I really see is if one card fails you still have a backup while your waiting for an RMA to be completed.

Complete bs.
 
Complete bs.

To each there own, it's not bs in any form or manner. But if you want to spend 30-40% more on your system to play games at ultra high settings than just use a single card solution that's your choice.

I prefer to use a single card solution because no matter what my hardware today is if I want to change it out later on I can do so without "feeling the need" to replace two pieces of hardware with the latest and greatest. Half the time software is not up to what the hardware is capable of doing and vice versa, it's nothing more than a rat race to see who can gain more of your money.

Why does PC gaming have to cost hundreds more than console gaming? Picture quality is slightly better, most people have some sort of choke point in there system, either the CPU, not enough memory or a monitor that does not display anything over 1920X1080. So while they are buying two and three video card solutions to output at 1920X1080 they are capped out with what they could have done for hundreds less with no notable loss in quality.

I suppose you can put all those cards in a box for the benchmarks, some synthetic test that proves nothing to how you are as a player. Just an epeen thing I suppose.
 
^^^
Wow that post is the largest steaming pile of crap I've seen yet on these boards, in four years.
 
For what its worth, I've been running Crossfire since my x1600xt, 2600xt, and my current quad (4870x2 x2).

There is no complication. Its just as easy as dropping in a 2nd vid card into the slot its designed for. This "Split signal" issue you speak of is...um...by design? Power supplies are again...designed for multiple vid cards?

And the performance well worth the money spent in the ability to crank up the resolution and eye-candy features.
 
Seeing you have only been on here for 3.7 years I can see your point.

troll much? this is [H], the land of multiple video cards, dual procs and water cooling. we like extreme systems here, even if not all of us can afford it. if you dont see the point in SLI and CF you are probably in the wrong place.
 
To each there own, it's not bs in any form or manner. But if you want to spend 30-40% more on your system to play games at ultra high settings than just use a single card solution that's your choice.

I prefer to use a single card solution because no matter what my hardware today is if I want to change it out later on I can do so without "feeling the need" to replace two pieces of hardware with the latest and greatest. Half the time software is not up to what the hardware is capable of doing and vice versa, it's nothing more than a rat race to see who can gain more of your money.

Why does PC gaming have to cost hundreds more than console gaming? Picture quality is slightly better, most people have some sort of choke point in there system, either the CPU, not enough memory or a monitor that does not display anything over 1920X1080. So while they are buying two and three video card solutions to output at 1920X1080 they are capped out with what they could have done for hundreds less with no notable loss in quality.

I suppose you can put all those cards in a box for the benchmarks, some synthetic test that proves nothing to how you are as a player. Just an epeen thing I suppose.

Maybe you should just buy an XBox 360 then?:eek:

Even if Nvidia releases a decent driver for SLI for 64 bits Win 7, how reliable is SLi exactly?

I've run SLi in Vista x64 and W7 x64 without a single problem. I currently have two systems running W7 x64 with SLi'd GTX 260s and 285s.
There may be an issue with the 460 and the EVGA P55 mainboards, as I have been helping a guy all day and we can't seem to figure it out......it may be driver related and it may be a combination of the 460 SLi and the particular board.
I'd call EVGA and see what they have to say about it.
 
woodscomp is right to an extent, and heralerf is again, right to an extent. The amount of money one pays for his system does not directly scale with the performance that the system will yield, but on [H] everyone is a hardware junkie and won't mind paying big bucks for performance improvements, however minuscule it is.
 
I can say I just switched from a single 5870 to two GTX 470's (flashed MSI GTX465 GE's) and have been reminded of how good Nvidia's drivers can be.

Do more methodical testing of your hardware and be sure that you don't have a bad card, bad power supply, unstable OC, or bad board.
 
Yea sounds like you need to spend a little time figuring this out. 460GTX SLI is hands down the best value out there right now. Once you get it working it will be faster than any single card solution including the 480 assuming that the game can take advantage of the extra processing power.

I understand your frustration but it's part of being an enthusiast :). Test each card individually and each PCIE slot you are using to make sure everything is ok. Make sure your BIOS is set correctly, sometimes there are SLI settings in there. If nothing turns up then it's software time. Uninstall drivers, try other driver versions, run driver cleaners, etc. I was prepared to sell my 5850, get a new motherboard, and a new power supply to go 460GTX SLI. Going to go Crossfire now though since the performance difference isn't worth the time/money of switching to the green team.

You are close man don't give up just yet!
 
Maybe you should just buy an XBox 360 then?:eek:



I've run SLi in Vista x64 and W7 x64 without a single problem. I currently have two systems running W7 x64 with SLi'd GTX 260s and 285s.
There may be an issue with the 460 and the EVGA P55 mainboards, as I have been helping a guy all day and we can't seem to figure it out......it may be driver related and it may be a combination of the 460 SLi and the particular board.
I'd call EVGA and see what they have to say about it.

I play on a 360 as well as the PC, you missed my point. And that was to each there own, I do not see the justification to spend all that extra cash on sli etc.. But that is no reason to get snippy with me, because my opinion does not line up with others does not make it wrong. What works for me may not work for you, so what.
 
"all that extra cash"

You get better performance at a lower price compared to a single card in the case of the 460 SLI
 
I was running with a single 5870 for a while, it's ok but it depends on if you want to max your settings. It works fine but I didn't play any of the demanding FPS games (crysis, mafia ii, etc..). Otherwise it works fine. I got an extra 5870 and crossfired them just in case I want to go for those types of games though.
 
Okay, I just finished flashing the bios with the latest update and that corrected the issue.

The other guy who has your same motherboard and same problem, fixed his problem with a BIOS update.
Here's the web page you need, select the BIOS specific to your board: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=389442
Update your BIOS to the most current on the EVGA website by following their instructions (I use the CD method, it's very simple).

If you have the triple BIOS option on your board and have never flashed a BIOS before, switch the jumper to BIOS number two or three and then flash the board....that way if it gets FUBAR'd you have the original BIOS on number one.

I play on a 360 as well as the PC, you missed my point. And that was to each there own, I do not see the justification to spend all that extra cash on sli etc.. But that is no reason to get snippy with me, because my opinion does not line up with others does not make it wrong. What works for me may not work for you, so what.

I think you may have missed the point too, SLi and Surround will make a total wash out of any console and most PC based single monitor gaming......that's the value. I have an old system I resurrected based on a 680i MB and a Q6600 that runs two GTX 260s and does Surround very well. It can't hold up to my 5870s but it's damned close. unless you have an ATI GPU you simply cannot run Triple headed gaming, which is where SLi has it's true advantage.
 
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It is def a problem with one of your cards. I ran in SLI since the 8800 GTX's. Never had any issue's until the machine started freezing up on me. It was a hardware issue. I RMA'd one of the 8800 GTX's and was back in business.

As to the guy who said why does it cost much more to run 1920x1080? Because we can and we will. I love having my graphics cranked to the max. Kinda like "Why does a dog lick his balls? Because he can..." As Andrew "Dice" Clay once said, "If I could stick my tongue up my ass I'd never leave the house"

:)
 
You might want to check BIOs settings as well. They sometimes include SLI enhancements can can cause problems like enabling SLI ram or something along those lines.

Never once had a problem with SLI. 7600gt, 8600gts, 9600gt, 8800gtx, and I currently have 1 460gtx and will sli that as soon as the price drops.

But considering your frustration at problems A single card may be better for you, I personally love trouble shooting issues but others likely yourself may not.
 
I'vd had zero issues since I went SLI. Occaisionally I have to go into the NV control panel and force alternate frame rendering one or 2 to get a game to work properly, but that's it.
 
Actually... OP I have run into the exact same thing with an EVGA P55 SLI 132 board. Wouldn't work with 2 GTX 275's, we bought another board a MSI Pro - E and it worked great so the cards work fine. I would try to update the BIOS on the board if you haven't already, I was having other issues with memory etc and then after a bios flash everything seemed to work alot better. Now I still need to get 2 cards and see if SLI works cause I'd like to replace my 4890 with a new SLI 460 setup but I need to know it works first.
 
Maybe you should just buy an XBox 360 then?:eek:



I've run SLi in Vista x64 and W7 x64 without a single problem. I currently have two systems running W7 x64 with SLi'd GTX 260s and 285s.
There may be an issue with the 460 and the EVGA P55 mainboards, as I have been helping a guy all day and we can't seem to figure it out......it may be driver related and it may be a combination of the 460 SLi and the particular board.
I'd call EVGA and see what they have to say about it.

I've been running SLI in Vista x64 for over 2.5 years on my current rig. I've had very little issues (I'm struggling to come up with any example of a problem I've had with SLI in those 2.5 years) with SLI.

Sounds like one of your cards needs an RMA. SLI 460s will beat the tar out of a single 5870.
 
I play on a 360 as well as the PC, you missed my point. And that was to each there own, I do not see the justification to spend all that extra cash on sli etc.. But that is no reason to get snippy with me, because my opinion does not line up with others does not make it wrong. What works for me may not work for you, so what.

Actually, there are examples where Crossfire or SLI can actually save you money if you are looking at a certain level of performance. 2x 5770's would be performance wise in the area of a 5870 and not cost as much. 2x GTX 460's would beat a single GTX 480 and cost about the same (or less) making it good value for money. So yea there can be a monetary justification for SLI and Crossfire.
 
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The other guy who has your same motherboard and same problem, fixed his problem with a BIOS update.
Here's the web page you need, select the BIOS specific to your board: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=389442
Update your BIOS to the most current on the EVGA website by following their instructions (I use the CD method, it's very simple)..

HAH I just realized I failed to read the first page, Gah /facepalm
This is what I wanted to hear tho.
 
Nanobeast (OP) you haven't posted back since the beginning. I hope you take time to troubleshoot, the issue. Sometimes you need patience in these kinds of things.

It seems like a bios update would be your first step.

Step 2 would be to try each card 1 at a time to see if they both work, and one of them is not a dud.

Step 3 would be to update your drivers to the latest forceware instead of using the driver on the CD (if you haven't already done this)

There may be additional steps required but AFAIK There currently is no single card that will outperform a GTX460 1gb Sli pair at $460 or less so you have the better value.
 
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