Hi all.
 
I am having some BIG issues with my EVGA 980 SC cards. I have the ASUS Rampage EXTREME V motherboard, i7 5930K 3.5Ghz, 16GB 2600Mhz Corsair Vengeance DDR4 Ram, X 61 Kracken CPU Cooler, 2x EVGA 980 SC cards.
 
The above is my main setup with some extras which probably wouldn't affect the 980's.
 
Right. Now for the problem. My cards keep crashing my system. The images show the errors being produced (Please see attachments). In any game from low-end Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 to mid-end Borderlands 2 to high-end Final Fantasy XIV or GTA 5, all of these games will crash almost straight away or after an hour. The crashes in Windows 8.1 64bit would completely lock my PC. I changed my OS to Windows 7 Ultimate and even though the nvidia driver is constantly crashing, it does recover better than on Windows 8.1. I hear a Windows sound when the graphics driver crashes and it sounds like something is being unplugged/plugged in via USB. It will sometimes produce a grey screen, lock out my PC entirely forcing a power disconnection, will stutter/lag then recover (every 5 minutes) or will crash so only the start menu is clickable (Task Manager freezes).
 
I've spent 5 weeks try to get some help from a multitude of sources which include some facebook groups like: Modders Anonymous and tech help forums allover the world. I see that my issue is actually quite common, reading many people having issues. I've emailed EVGA many times but a solution hasn't been found. I must tell you though that NO GAME currently is stable with my cards. Every single game crashes in some way, shape or form. I really need some help to fix the crashes. I spent £2750 on the machine and I haven't had it stable yet. 
 

 
The above images are the errors produced with both nvidia driver 347 and 350.12 - Below is a photo of the parts before assembled and the PC assembled (Internals)
 

 

 

I've tried everything you've mentioned apart from down clocking the cards. So I'll down clock the cards and see what happens - I went from Afterburner to EVGA Precision and there was no change. I've changed the SLI bridge and reversed it. Tried removing the cards and repositioning them. Wasn't sure if changing the PCIe slots would help since it's DUAL Sli and the mobo suggests Slot 1 and Slot 3 for X16 compatibility. Set the clock to -105 and will test over 24 hours and let you know what happens.
 
Windows has been installed 3 times. 2 installs of Windows 8.1 and 1 Windows 7 Ultimate. Problem persists on both OS.
 
Tried many Nvidia drivers from 344.11 - 350.12.

No one calls it "dual sli", it's "sli", but thats not the problem, have you tried 1 card at a time to try to narrow down the problem card? Even tho you downclock the cards, you won't find the defective card. Best bet to try 1 card, if both cards run fine, maybe it's the mobo? So many variables hopefully luck and forum members knowledge will help you find you solution soon.

hindhaughlee
I've just found 2 new and sealed SLI bridges in my mobo box. A 3-way bridge and a 4-way bridge. I am unsure why the 3 way bridge has 3 dual ports whilst the 2-way bridge only has 2 single ports. I've tried the 3-way bridge since it was still in it's protected bag and unlikely to be faulty. I'll test it with the new bridge and lower clock speed and then let you know. If it doesn't improve, I'll test each card by itself.
 
I would like to know why the 3 way bridge connects to 2 ports on each card rather than 1 port.
 
P.S I also found out that I had a DVI to USB adapter still plugged in, so I have now removed it, incase it was the culprit.

If I am not mistaken, it is so the master card can talk to the slave cards and data can be transferred without using the same link between the cards.  With simple SLI, you only need the single port since there are only two cards.  With tri, you have a seperate link for each, and with quad it switches between 2 and 4 while talking to card 3.  Hopefully that makes sense.
 
Edit:  I really over simplified that, but you get the idea.

You have two sets of SLI Ports you can test on each set.

Right. So far everything is great (touch wood). So either the bridge worked or the lowering of the clock speeds by -105Mhz worked. Probably will never find out as I am not touching anything. I still need to test the cards over a few hours, but an hour in Borderlands 2 without a crash was a miracle. I'll keep you posted but right now problem solved.

Yeah, makes sense. I'll up the clock speed now the new bridge is on and let you know.

You will not achieve the highest OC in SLI.
I have had 2 matched 980 sets from different manufacturers and neithewill clock as high as the weakest card does alone.

SS

Well. So far <touches wood> the problem has vanished. I plugged in a 3 way 2 port SLI bridge and so far, no crashes, no lag and the clock speed has been returned. For now, it looks like the SLI bridges were too blame, currently I have 3 single port SLI bridges which have 3 different manufacturers and they all cause crashes with the Nvidia driver. However the 3 x 2 port bridge works perfectly, I am even getting better FPS. As a test, I uninstalled it and put the single port SLI bridges in, they still caused crashes. Completely weird to say the least, but the problem is fixed <I hope>.
 

ssiperko1

bcavnaugh

ssiperko1
You will not achieve the highest OC in SLI.
I have had 2 matched 980 sets from different manufacturers and neithewill clock as high as the weakest card does alone.

SS

This makes no since, with SLI Disabled you are only Benchmarking the Primary Card and the other cards are not used.
2 Cards running SLI will beat out any Single Card of the same Model.

You are correct. You also didn't understand my point. A pair will not reach the same OC as a single.

SS

OK this somewhat correct, each card will overclock differently is true.
The SLI part is what you should not have added is all.
On my 4-Way Rig using EVGA PrecisionX 16 I break the Chain (unlink the cards) and overclock each card separately but setting EACH card to same Clock Speeds.
 
If you look at the image the 4th card has a higher Voltage(VDDC) then the first 3 cards.
Click on Image for a Larger View.

ssiperko1

bcavnaugh

ssiperko1

bcavnaugh

ssiperko1
You will not achieve the highest OC in SLI.
I have had 2 matched 980 sets from different manufacturers and neithewill clock as high as the weakest card does alone.

SS

This makes no since, with SLI Disabled you are only Benchmarking the Primary Card and the other cards are not used.
2 Cards running SLI will beat out any Single Card of the same Model.

You are correct. You also didn't understand my point. A pair will not reach the same OC as a single.

SS

OK this somewhat correct, each card will overclock differently is true.
The SLI part is what you should not have added is all.
On my 4-Way Rig using EVGA PrecisionX 16 I break the Chain and overclock each card separately but setting EACH card to same Clock Speeds.
 
If you look at the image the 4th card has a higher Voltage(VDDC) then the first 3 cards.
Click on Image for a Larger View.

 
Interesting. I'll have to learn how to do that.
 
My point is that in SLI you won't generally reach the same OC as the single weakest card.
 
For instance (this is just an example) my best card will run 1650/2050 on air and my worst card will run 1575/1975.
 
When I SLI them I can only manage 1550/1950 BUT that's with the same voltage to each card as I've not learned how to run them separately and didn't even know I could.
 
So now I need to figure out how to do that!
 
SS

All you have to do is unlink the cards inside afterburner/precision.

McMada
No one calls it "dual sli", it's "sli", but thats not the problem, have you tried 1 card at a time to try to narrow down the problem card? Even tho you downclock the cards, you won't find the defective card. Best bet to try 1 card, if both cards run fine, maybe it's the mobo? So many variables hopefully luck and forum members knowledge will help you find you solution soon.

Actually you do. What are you going to call Triple SLI? "SLI"? Quoting Dual SLI lets everybody know what he's working with. You can't assume if he were to say "SLI" that he is only SLIing 2 cards. We wouldnt know that. When i get my 3rd 970, am i going to say SLI? No, I'm going to say 3-way SLI.