I have three monitors
 
28" Hanns G 1200p monitor
Dell monitor 1680x1050
LG 55" TV
 
When I activate SLI, it disables my two monitors plugged into the second GPU (GPU #1).
 
My cards are plugged in the following way
 
GPU 1: Dell / LG (these two turn off)
GPU 2: Hanns G (this one stays on)
 
I'm not exactly sure why this is happening, I've never really experienced this issue before.
Here is a screenshot of my Nvidia control panel. Choosing 'activate all displays' disables SLI from what I can tell.
 
I have already tried reinstalling the drivers using a clean install.
 

 

Brian Walker
All your displays should be hooked into the top card, and only plug in the 55" when you want to use it, If not the card heats up, even if the tv is not on.
Also, re read your thread, you say when you activate sli your 2 displays in your 2nd card turn off, but then you show that you only have 1 monitor on GPU 2 and say it stays on.
You`re not making sense.
 
But anyway, all your displays should be hooked up to card 1, (the top card) there is no reason to hook them up to card 2 (the lower card).

Second card as in second 980 Ti, not GPU #2.
 
It really doesn't matter if you leave monitors plugged in or not, these things still idle around 30 degrees. Plugging and un plugging things is a hassle and you really don't have to do it.
 
If I had the ability to plug them all into the top card I would, but there is only one HDMI input per card and I have two HDMI monitors and one DVI.

darkkterror
As far as I'm aware SLI still only supports a maximum of two monitors and they both must be plugged into the primary card, unless you use Nvidia Surround.

Yeah, i'm not 100% sure. I had this exact setup with my 670 FTW's and all 3 monitors worked just fine using SLI. Maybe I had them plugged in differently but I definitely had one plugged into GPU 2 and whenever I turned it on it would pop right up. Hmm...
 
Edit: Think they were all plugged into the same card after all.

Brian Walker
You have to do what you have to do to get all 3 monitors hooked to GPU #1
 
Second card = GPU #2 same thing, the whole purpose of sli is to combine the power of the 2 cards and the output goes through the top card.

Yeah, I literally just remembered how my old config was on my 670 FTW cards and they were all plugged into the top card. I'll try the surround trick and see if that works.
 
Thank you very much, I appreciate the fast responses.

I have no problem with my 2 sli`d 770`s and 3 monitors.
All hooked up to the top card. I only use a 3rd port (display port adapter to a Monster DVI to HDMI cable) to hook up to my Sony Bravia 40" when we want to watch a movie on it.
Large monitors make for a horrible PC monitor.
 

True story. Grab a few cables to make it work for now, and aim for 2560x1440 at 144hz minimum.  The ROG Swift and other GSync Monitors are awesome.  Even without GSync, which I keep disabled for some games, the monitors look great.  The more strain you put on the GPUs, the better they will perform.  The Res you have now isn't giving it that push.  I would love to see your thoughts with a full on push with a good high res monitor :-)

This is what I use along with a Monster DVI to HDMI cable to hook to the Sony.
I have no clue why card makers are getting rid of a DVI port and having 3 Display Ports, there are very few monitors with a Display Port input.
But you should never get a monitor without at least 1 DVI port along with an HDMI or Display Port input port.

Where do you see them switch from 3.0 to 2.0?

double post.

I`m all a quiver, my 2 Ti`s will be here Thursday 

Sajin
It's normal for the bus interface to read PCI-E 3.0x16 @x16 1.1 when idle. When running the GPU-Z render test you should see the bus interface change to PCI-E 3.0x16 @x16 3.0. If it's changing from PCI-E 3.0x16 @x16 1.1 to PCI-E 2.0x16 @x16 1.1 on reboot that is strange.

Yeah, that happened for a bit, then they both read 3.0.
 
Now I can't get them to NOT read 2.0. Just re-seated them and the end result is the same. I am wondering if my sound card in the X1 slot is somehow downgrading them to 2.0. I don't see how though, because they are both running at x16 I would think that would just throttle them down to 8x from 16.
 
GPU-Z is sadly reporting PCI-E 2.0x16 1.1 on my first card and 2.0 on my second card. Not exactly sure the reason here but I know a bit ago they were both reading 3.0.
 
Seems my benches are scoring roughly the same as when they read 3.0, but it reading 2.0 bus in the nvidia settings sort of urks me as I should be getting 3.0.
 

Sajin
Sounds like your first card is idling while your 2nd card is under some type of load. Might want to try going into your bios and setting the pci-e slots to gen3 from auto.

Yeah, first card has my monitors so that explains it, the rendering tool used by GPU-Z doesn't even clock my second card at all so it stays at 1.1.
 
I looked around for that setting but I could not find it to switch to gen3 sadly. I'll see if I can find the manual and do a quick ctrl+f.

Duarian

Sajin
Sounds like your first card is idling while your 2nd card is under some type of load. Might want to try going into your bios and setting the pci-e slots to gen3 from auto.

Yeah, first card has my monitors so that explains it, the rendering tool used by GPU-Z doesn't even clock my second card at all so it stays at 1.1.

You must run the render test on the 2nd gpu by selecting the 2nd gpu from the drop down menu otherwise it will be running on gpu 1.

Scarlet-Tech
Gpuz won't load a second card if sli is disabled. It must be enabled to utilize both gpus.

In bios, it should be in the advanced section under devices or north bridge, if I am not mistaken.

Sajin

Duarian

Sajin
Sounds like your first card is idling while your 2nd card is under some type of load. Might want to try going into your bios and setting the pci-e slots to gen3 from auto.

Yeah, first card has my monitors so that explains it, the rendering tool used by GPU-Z doesn't even clock my second card at all so it stays at 1.1.

You must run the render test on the 2nd gpu by selecting the 2nd gpu from the drop down menu otherwise it will be running on gpu 1.

It definitely starts at 2.0 when I run the test, and then the card idles down and drops to 1.1 so it's working correctly i'm pretty sure.
 
2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1, PCIEX16_2) * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots. Š
 
2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1, PCIEX8_2) * The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 slot and the PCIEX8_2 slot with PCIEX16_2. The PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2 is populated. (The PCI Express x16 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.) * To support PCI Express 3.0, you must install an Intel 22nm (Ivy Bridge) CPU. Š
 
2 x PCI Express x1 slots (The PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
 
I definitely have my cards plugged into PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2. My sound card is plugged into PCIEx1_2. I can try removing that and seeing if it bumps the other two up to 3.0 but i'm not sure why it would drop them down to 2.0. Can't find anything in my bios related to PCIE slots.

And my Sabertooth Z77 always stayed at PCI-E 3.0 with a 3770K, so ya check the bios.
 
Time for a new board if you can`t fix it.
I recommend a Sabertooth Z87 and a 4790K 
 
http://www.newegg.com/Pro..._-13-131-976-_-Product
 
http://www.asus.com/us/Mo.erboards/SABERTOOTH_Z87/