What is the reason for the need to turn SLI off before going to a single GPU with the same GPU?

Master_shake_

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Yesterday I tried to re-install my GTX 1080 that was the secondary card in an SLI

Windows kept coming up with an error that the card could not start.

Tried the primary card in the same slot and it was fine (Nvidia control panel launched MSI afterburner was able to over clock the card RGB LEDs lit up.

Swapped back to the first card and still nothing. Tried different slot, cables, etc.

Put both back in turned off SLI and tried the first card by itself again and now the driver started windows had no error MSI recognized the card and the LEDs turned on.

Is SLI more than just a software thing? Is there a hardware change too?
 
SLI has a long tradition of pissing people off. The fact that you can get a pretty penny for decent hardware right is reason enough to sell both of them. Buying one RTX 3000 series or AMD equivalent card which would out perform both of your 1080's in SLI would be reason enough to upgrade and avoid the headaches.

No offense to the 2-3 of you out there that never had any issues with SLI.
 
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SLI has a long tradition of pissing people off. The fact that you can get a pretty penny for decent hardware right is reason enough to sell both of them. Buying one RTX 3000 series or AMD equivalent card which would out perform both of your 1080's in SLI would be reason enough to upgrade and avoid the headaches.

No offense to the 2-3 of you out there that never had any issues with SLI.

I had generally good experiences with multiGPU. I've also experienced a lot of headaches with it too. More so on the AMD side, but I've had my share of problems with SLI.
 
I used CrossfireX and SLI for over thirteen years now (wow). I had 4x R290x's that ran like wonder early on with support (worked with the AMD team for some bugs here and there, but they helped out). Eventually they stopped really supporting those cards, then I went back to NVIDIA. When I had 1080 TI's I swore off dual cards forever because it was a stutter mess. Then when I upgraded to a 2080 Ti I got a second Founder's Edition for a good price and decided "Why not?". I fell for the trap again. However, this time I didn't have stutter issues. Instead, the second card barely did anything - no support for the new titles that needed SLI, and all the old games that ran SLI ran amazing with a solo 2080 Ti. I'm not following for it again with the 3090, even if I got another one half price...
 
I used CrossfireX and SLI for over thirteen years now (wow). I had 4x R290x's that ran like wonder early on with support (worked with the AMD team for some bugs here and there, but they helped out). Eventually they stopped really supporting those cards, then I went back to NVIDIA. When I had 1080 TI's I swore off dual cards forever because it was a stutter mess. Then when I upgraded to a 2080 Ti I got a second Founder's Edition for a good price and decided "Why not?". I fell for the trap again. However, this time I didn't have stutter issues. Instead, the second card barely did anything - no support for the new titles that needed SLI, and all the old games that ran SLI ran amazing with a solo 2080 Ti. I'm not following for it again with the 3090, even if I got another one half price...

I'm not running multi-GPU anymore. After the 1080 Ti's barely ever worked in SLI I abandoned it when I went to the RTX 2080 Ti and stuck with a single card. Before that I was a fan of multi-GPU despite its limitations and issues.
 
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And we do have to admit, two cards looked better than one. Haha
 
And we do have to admit, two cards looked better than one. Haha

Oh yeah. If money wasn't an object, I'd have a second RTX 3090 in my machine just for aesthetic purposes. I'd probably have to be a multi-millionaire before I'd consider doing something like that for purely aesthetic reasons.
 
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