SLI issues. Two 980's

[Prestonification]

Hello LTT family,

 

  I have never been stumped by something like this before. I have sli'd in the past with no hitch with this board. I have a Zotac GTX 980 AMP! Extreme and just acquired the Strix OC Edition. I have this issue where I can't enable SLI at all in the control panel even though both cards are being detected. It gives me a message about connecting the SLI bridge, but it's in there... trust me. I ran GPU-Z and checked the bus interface info and it shows 1 card at 2.2 while the zotac is at 2.0 for a split second then 1.1 or just stays there. I ran the render test and it doesn't move up.  I've tried pretty much "everything" ; from swapping slots and orientations to reinstalling drivers clean and bridge swapping. My motherboard is a P8Z77-M Pro by ASUS and bios is updated. Screen below. Any help is appreciated. Might just get a second strix.

 

[Senzelian]

Do you have anything else apart from your GPUs plugged into the PCI-e slots?

Btw.: You have to use the blue and white slot for your GPUs. These are the only ones that support 8x.
The black slot at the bottom does only support 4x

[Oshino Shinobu]

The issue is the card running at PCIe 1.1. Nvidia requires PCIe 2.0 8x as a minimum for SLI to work. 

 

What happens if you remove the Strix? Does the AMP then run at 3.0 or 2.0? Also, is it always the AMP running at those settings, or does it change based on the slot they're in? 

 

There may also be a setting in the BIOS for enabling 3.0 on the PCIe slots, so it's worth looking around there. 

[Prestonification]

The issue is the card running at PCIe 1.1. Nvidia requires PCIe 2.0 8x as a minimum for SLI to work. 

 

What happens if you remove the Strix? Does the AMP then run at 3.0 or 2.0? Also, is it always the AMP running at those settings, or does it change based on the slot they're in? 

 

There may also be a setting in the BIOS for enabling 3.0 on the PCIe slots, so it's worth looking around there. 

Well I have tried switching the settings for the PCI from 1-3 instead of auto. The cards work fine when not plugged in together. I figured the speed of pci might have been an issue.

[Prestonification]

Do you have anything else apart from your GPUs plugged into the PCI-e slots?

Nope just the two GPU's

[Senzelian]

Nope just the two GPU's

I edited my post. Have you seen what I wrote? 

[Prestonification]

I edited my post. Have you seen what I wrote? 

I read what you wrote. I did cycle through all of the options and repeat the steps I explained, but to no prevail. Sigh. One other thing is I am using a molex to 8pin and a molex to 6 pin on it. Ill swap those and see what happens. its a 650 Watt psu.

[Senzelian]

I read what you wrote. I did cycle through all of the options and repeat the steps I explained, but to no prevail. Sigh. One other thing is I am using a molex to 8pin and a molex to 6 pin on it. Ill swap those and see what happens. its a 650 Watt psu.

I don't think that is the problem, but it's a good idea to try it.

[Prestonification]

Welp. I am just coming to the conclusion that you can't mix these two vendors or specifically the extreme with the strix. Will part ways with it and get a second strix as intended. Thanks for the help everyone.