8600 GT Problem

[Simms]

I have 2 Nvidia 8600 GT cards SLIed but the drivers keep crashing out and now when I look at GPU Z one of them is running at bus speed PCI express X16 @ 8 and I am wondering if there is anything I can do to solve the problem or do I just have a bad card. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[spearman914]

PCI Express 16X does NOT mean it always runs at 16X. Its just a newer version of PCIe and/or PCI. Some PCIe 16X run at 8x 12x 4x etc...

[erocker]

What motherboard are you using? Did you uninstall and reinstall new drivers with the second card?

[hat]

Lots of motherboards don't run full 16x/16x SLI. A lot of times you'll get 16/8, 8/8, etc. You're fine.
As for drivers use the latest official supported ones found here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

These are the latest WHQL non-beta drivers for the 8600gt. I used it on my 8600gts (the 8600gts uses the same drivers as the 8600gt) and they worked fine for me, aside from some random ass quirk that wouldn't let me pick 4xaa after I flashed my BIOS. Reinstalling drivers fixed that.

[Solaris17]

i smell 8600 GT trouble so i came online..my specialty!! :D...your problem is not of the cards nature but of the mother boards...does the other one show up as x16? either x16-x8 and x8-x8 are accpetable its a mothrer board limitation cured with the newer mother boards. my mobo runs both my 9600's at x8 bandwidth but its nothign to be worried about as the card doesnt use that much bandwidth your cards are working fine as for your driver crash issue i may be able to help their xp or vista?

[Simms]

Vista Business Edition is my OS

[hat]

We really need to know your motherboard model to determine wether this is normal or if your motherboard is cheating you out of some PCI-E bandwidth. Download CPU-Z and hit us up with the info on the Motherboard tab, if you can give us a screenshot that would be great. Or if you know your motherboard model off-hand you can tell us that. :)

Here's a download link for CPU-Z:
http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpuz_144.zip

[Simms]

C:\Users\Simms\Desktop\CPU Info

Not sure if this worked so might be a test

[Simms]

Nope did not work

Motherboard: Biostar TF570 SLI

Graphic Interface: PCI-Express Link Width x8 Max. Supported x16

straight from CPU Z

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Nope did not work

Motherboard: Biostar TF570 SLI

Graphic Interface: PCI-Express Link Width x8 Max. Supported x16

straight from CPU Z

Yeah, your mobo doesn't support 16x-16x, only 8x-8x. It's because of your 570i chipset.
What version of forceware are you using and what type of cards are they, are you using modded bios?
edit: By type of cards I mean what brand.

[Simms]

whichever version is the newest download from the Nvidia website but not really sure how I got the driver since the one listed on there is for XP/2k and I have Vista. And my Bios is unmodded.

[OzzmanFloyd120]

whichever version is the newest download from the Nvidia website but not really sure how I got the driver since the one listed on there is for XP/2k and I have Vista. And my Bios is unmodded.

That's probably your problem right there, go back to nvidia's website and download the 174.74 drivers, but make sure they're for vista, be sure that it matches whether you're running x64 or X86. I actually once downloaded the XP x64 drivers instead of the Vista x64 drivers and every time I started a 3D application I would get a BSOD.
Edit: Also go to your UserCP and fill out your system's specs, we'll be able to help you faster if you do. :)

[hat]

C:\Users\Simms\Desktop\CPU Info

Not sure if this worked so might be a test

No. To take screenshots of stuff in Windows:
press print screen to take a pic of the whole screen, or alt + print sreen to take a pic of the active window only
Open up a program like irfanview, paint, slowview etc and press ctrl + v, your pic will appear
save it as a jpg
upload it somewhere, I like using www.techpowerup.org
once it's uploaded, a screen will come up providing you with links to the pic

[hat]

about drivers, yeah just select appropriate info from the drop down menus, sorry about the slip-up
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

[OzzmanFloyd120]

No. To take screenshots of stuff in Windows:
press print screen to take a pic of the whole screen, or alt + print sreen to take a pic of the active window only
Open up a program like irfanview, paint, slowview etc and press ctrl + v, your pic will appear
save it as a jpg
upload it somewhere, I like using www.techpowerup.org
once it's uploaded, a screen will come up providing you with links to the pic
Or you could just upload it with your post use the "Manage Attatchments" button, it's right down there on the reply page
V
V
V
And by the way, welcome to TPU

[hat]

Thanks, but you're a year and a half late :rolleyes:
:roll: ;) :roll:

[OzzmanFloyd120]

I wasn't talking to you, douchebag.
Hey, how's the new card treating you?

[hat]

You seem to fail to understand the purposes of the smileys.

Simms, your cards/mobo is fine. Now just get the appropriate drivers from that place.
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

[OzzmanFloyd120]

I seen them and understood the purpose, you're still a bag of vinegar water.

[hat]

Oh no, you called me a bag of vinegar water. How will I go on with my life?

[Simms]

ok downloaded the newest driver and it was different then the one I had before hopefully that will do something.

[hat]

Well like we said it won't fix your "problem" that you're not getting 16/16 PCI-E bandwidth. That's the motherboard, it's in the hardware. The motherboard was designed that way. Everything is perfectly fine. If you want 16/16, you need a new motherboard. But buying a new motherboard just so you can run 16/16 instead of 16/8 isn't really justifiable imo.

[Simms]

Ok, well let me explain the really only problem I am having now is that if I enable SLI and then try and run WOW the screen is completely lined like the lines of graphics do not line up correctly and I was not sure if maybe the fact that one is at x16 and one is at x8 would be causing this distortion.

[hat]

Can you take a screenshot of it? If you mean the edges of objects look "edgy" try going into the nvidia control panel and enabling antialaising.

[Simms]

everytime I take a screen of it it just looks like the normal login screen but it is like there is the one copy of the graphics in the right spot and then another set that are shifted to the left about an inch and it gets weird distortion lines going through basically the entire screen.

[Darren]

I have 2 Nvidia 8600 GT cards SLIed but the drivers keep crashing out and now when I look at GPU Z one of them is running at bus speed PCI express X16 @ 8 and I am wondering if there is anything I can do to solve the problem or do I just have a bad card. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Your card is fine but unfortunately your motherboard only supports PCI-E 16x with single cards. It downscales to 8x when PCI-E SLI is enabled. It's just a feature, most motherboards except for the really expensive ones do this. It's normal, problem solved.

Read this product description from Biostar's website

EXPANSION SLOT

3 x PCI Slots
2 x PCI-E x1 Slot
2 x PCI-E x16 Slot (SLI x8)

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/t-series/content.php?S_ID=181

As for the crashing issue your going to have to give us more information, does it crash in games, dvds, on desktop? What is your full system specification?

[Simms]

Well I am not sure about crashes anymore I downloaded the 174.74 driver last night after someone said too and I have not seen a vista recovery yet so that might be solved my only issue now is if I have SLI enabled when I log into World of Warcraft it looks like there is 2 copies of the graphics going: one in normal position and one that is shifted about an inch to the left and gives it this very weird distorted look but every time I screenshot it the screenshot looks fine.

[Solaris17]

WoW has a known issue with sli its better to run it in single card mode.

[MKmods]

I have had many Biostar Tforce 570 mobos.. They run the 8600 and 7600 series fine in SLI. (the PCIX 16 is more for 8800 series and up)

Try reversing the cards,

What PS are you using?
Are you using the 8pin for CPU power?
Are you using the extra 4 pin molex for SLI?
Are you using a 24 pin for power or a 20 pin?

When you remove the drivers (before installing the new ones) make sure to run Driver Sweeper first
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Guru3D---Driver-Sweeper-(no-installer)-download-1672.html

[OzzmanFloyd120]

My best friend had that exact same problem with two Inno3d 8600GT cards, he had a 590i chipset though. We never could figure out how to fix it, we reinstalled windows, installed diff versions of drivers, game patches. Nothing worked. We finally decided that it was time to turn off SLI during games that did that.

[hayder.master]

my frind mother board support 16x@8x mean tow way of 8 bit
i have abit nf-m2s it is same speed and bandwith if have 16x@16x cus 16x@8x give you 2.5g bandwith the 16x@16x give 5g only if have a pci-x 2.0 and only work with mobo support this just like x38 and p45 ond other new mobo

[hayder.master]

for more information try to search in tomshardware use keyword pci-e 1.1 and pci-e 2.0
will come