I have a 2008 Dell XPS desktop that came with a pair of Nvidia 9800 GT cards, configured SLI. I recently updated my display drivers and it appears that there have been many changes in the past couple years. I tried to read about them, but could not find information in one place, in layman’s terms. The one thing I do know, is that the option for SLI is greyed out now.
Instead of having display drivers lumped in with the other Nvidia drivers, as listed in Vista’s Control Panel Programs, I now have 3D Vision Driver 260.99, Graphics Driver 260.99, PhysX System Software 9.10.0514, Performance, and System Monitor. And it appears that SLI is not an option for me anymore, because the GPU is chosen automatically.
Can someone please explain to me in layman’s terms:
what happened?
is the default configuration okay to leave as is?
how I would go about updating drivers in the future (which ones to delete before installing new ones)?
I’d suggest asking on NVIDIA’s boards. I searched there, but all I found was this thread, which mentions something about CoolBits–which I believe is a way to tweak those automatic settings.
I’m probably not being very clear, but I’m wondering what all these new driver files are for, and whether SLI is no longer the preferred approach to graphics cards, since the option is grayed out. Do all these new drivers mean a better use of the existing cards is being made?
Drivers are constantly being upgraded and are often repackaged (for marketing purposes I presume). The new names are simply new names - 2008 is a long time ago in the driver world. Some of it might be fluff, but basically there is a 3d driver, and a 2d driver. The PhysX thing is for more realistic physics behavior supported by some games. As long as you download the proper drivers for your video card and installation (SLI) from Nvidia you should be good.
Check to see that everything is properly connected inside. The cards should be properly seated, and connected to each other with an SLI bridge. Many cards also are hooked up to the power supply.
Bad driver installs and conflicts with remainders of previous installs are classic video card problems. Do a clean install of the drivers. You need to uninstall the old drivers, probably use Driver Sweeper or something similar and reinstall. Google ‘Nvidia clean install’.
The system “sees” both cards. I have 2 choices: Maximize 3D performance, and Disable SLI (which is the default). If I select Max 3D, SLI becomes enabled. I guess that’s the setting I should be using?
The PhysX settings “recommend” to auto-select the processor.