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[solved] Hybrid SLI - How do I get it to work?

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First post, by Yasashii

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I have an Asus M3N78-VM motherboard with GeForce 8200 onboard graphics. I also have a GeForce 9800 GT in the pcie 16x slot.

Up until this point I've been using just the 9800 GT and had the onboard 8200 turned off in BIOS. Today, I've decided to see whether I can squeeze out anything else out of this rig so since the motherboard is Hybrid SLI-enabled, I'd like to see whether I can use the technology to that end. Some people say that Hybrid SLI is only supported by Windows Vista, others say that it also works on Windows 7, I wanted to see for myself.

So, I followed the manual and that's what I did:

- I uninstalled the display driver.
- I went to BIOS, set the "Primary Graphics Adapter" setting to "Internal VGA First", and the "Hybrid SLI Mode" setting to "mGPU always enable".
- I saved the settings and turned off my computer. I unplugged my monitor from the 9800 GT and plugged it into the onboard 8200.
- I went to BIOS again to make sure that the "Hybrid SLI Frame Buffer Size" setting is set to 256MB.
- I installed the 258.96 version of forceware (apparently the last version to support Hybrid SLI).
- I restarted the computer and expected to see a Hybrid SLI icon in the tray. The manual claims that it should be there. It isn't.

I haven't been able to find anything SLI-related in the Nvidia Control Panel either.

Did I do something wrong? Is there a compatibility problem? Should I use a different version of forceware? Is the opinion that Hybrid SLI works on Windows 7 not true?

Last edited by Yasashii on 2014-09-07, 18:12. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 6, by Yasashii

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Oh well. It was a long shot anyway, most things like that never work as well as promised or... at all. Take the useless Physx, for example (or at least it's useless with my gfx card).

Reply 3 of 6, by swaaye

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Geforce 8200 is useless for anything more than running Aero really. I used to have a ASUS M3N78 myself and tried using the 8200 as a dedicated Physx processor alongside a 8800GTX. Mirrors Edge would turn into a slideshow when any Physx effects happened.

Reply 4 of 6, by obobskivich

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Hybrid SLI, like any other SLI, requires equivalent graphics cards (I think the 8400GS is what you'd need here) - you can't just gang up a fast and a slow card and have them somehow "share the load" - it doesn't work that way. You should be able to enable the onboard graphics for additional monitor outputs though. 😀

PhysX isn't worthless, but GeForce 8/9 lacks the performance to run PhysX + 3D all by itself; you'd need an additional card (which doesn't have to be a rockstar) or to upgrade to something more powerful. Not many games use PhysX though, so unless you really like Batman or Ghost Recon it probably isn't much of a loss. 😊

Reply 6 of 6, by obobskivich

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swaaye wrote:

Yeah that's what F2bnp said and it's right. Imagine the mind-blowing power that results from the SLI pairing of an 8400GS and the 8200 IGP....

A bit more reading and there should be a "HybridPower" mode with the 8200 IGP and more robust cards than the 8400, but the 9800GT doesn't support it - 9800GX2 and GTX apparently do though. See here: http://www.legitreviews.com/nvidia-hybrid-sli … d-explained_708

Looks like it kills performance, but reduces power consumption somewhat in the process. 🤣

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