Two Ginward GTX 460 in SLI mode on ASUS Rampage III Formula do not work

[cavardiras]

Hi
I dont know what to do now.
Yesterday I assebled my first SLI computer:
Mainborad: Asus R.O.G. Rampage III Formula, X58
CPU: Intel Core i7 990X BOX, 3.46GHz, LGA 1366, 6C/12T
RAM: ADATA XPG Gaming v2.0 3x4GB Kit, DDR3-1600
HD: OCZ SSD Revo-Drive RX2 240GB and Barracuda XT 3.5" 2TB SATA-3
Power: be quiet! DARK POWER PRO, P9 850W 80plus Gold
And 2x Gainward GTX-460 GLH 1GB DDR5, PCI-E 2.0 x16

I assebled first the grafic card on the first PCI-Ex16 slot, the Revodrive on the second and the second grafic card I didn't put in.
Everything was OK, I coud install Windows 7 64 bit without any problems on the SSD. The bios I put on default walues and to install the windows on SSD I had to add a driver at the beginning of the installation. Then I added all necessairy drivers, also the actual grafic driver from nvidia-hompare (not the CD from Gainward).

Then I put in the second grafic card on the 3rd slot, added the 2 x 6-pin power supply for this card too, added the SLI bridge between the two cards and started the computer. The messages from the bios were OK until windows should start, but there was only wisible a wihte small dash on the black screen and nothing else happend.

What shall I do now? Its my first attempt to install a SLI system. Should I sell the two grafic cards and by a better in single-mode use? I will loose some hundreds of dollars with that...

Greetings
Martin

[wazza300]

Re: Two Ginward GTX 460 in SLI mode on ASUS Rampage III Formula do not work

It should work in sli,have you tested both cards one at a time in the pc to makesure they both work? Are you using the latest mb bios?

[cavardiras]

Re: Two Ginward GTX 460 in SLI mode on ASUS Rampage III Formula do not work

Not yet tested. I will do this this evening and also load the latest BIOS. Normally I load only the latest BIOS if it is necessairy.
Thanks, perhaps the second gra ca is bad. I will see.

[cavardiras]

Re: Two Ginward GTX 460 in SLI mode on ASUS Rampage III Formula do not work

It works!
This was not the problem. The problem was the followoing: At the same time adding the second gra ca, I added also a harddisk and plugged it into the one of the red (instead of black) SATA connectors because I thougt that the red one would be those with SATA-3.
The graphic cards worked well togeather.
But still there is a problem: they get wery hot, especially the first one that is covered by my Revodrive in the second slot. I'm not happy with the cooling of that gainward card! During the 3Dmark 11 the comp shot down because of overheating. I think I will throw them away and buy a better new one (single card) with a better cooling system. With that I can also add a sound card.
Thanks for you help and I whish you all good games!
Martin