m17x r1 dual 260m sli problems =[ please help

*sigh....ok so where we go.

first off this are the specs of my machine

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9000 @ 2.5GHz (overclocked)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB Gskill 1333
OS Name Microsoft Windows 8 Pro with Media Center 64bit
BIOS Version/Date Alienware A03, 1/6/2010 <--- current but i've tried every single one available up to A07
2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M Driver Version 9.18.13.3221


so here is the problem, i am able to successfully install any nvidia driver version on the gpus without a problem, and the performance without sli enabled is good, well as good as it gets that is, but when i enable sli the performance is terrible, i have used a few different benchmark/performance software to try it out and test the performance of sli, main software i use is OCCT in full screen so that sli is used, i also enable the sli visual indicator. when sli is disabled and i run occt on 1920x1200 complexity 1 directx11 i get about 40fps, but when i enable sli i get no more than 20fps and if i go and check the photos with results i can clearly see that both gpus are being used, gpu memory frequency on both up to 960ish and gpu frequency on both around 560ish so i know for sure both gpus are being used. i have both pci-e gen2 and the other power management option disabled under bios so and i dont really get crashes when theyre both off. i have tested so many drivers its not even funny. at some point i thought maybe my sli connector was messed up but then when i run occt that completely contradicts that possibility. If i install the last supported drivers from dell and i enable sli the results are about 40fps but here is my issue with those drivers, i work with after effects and i need to be able to use gpu acceleration (cuda, opengl features) in it. by default after effects does not recognize my gpus but i did a little research and found a guide so i can actually get ae to recognize them therefore i can use this features. i cant however use this features running the dell drivers, it tells me driver version not supported so i need to run newer drivers. and besides how come i get no more than 40fps with sli using these drivers?

i've heard of gpu cpu bottleneck but not fully understand it. if that may be my problem here how can i fix it?

does anyone know of any drivers that are sure to work with these gpus with sli enable and that will perform like they should? if so can someone please tell me which drivers i should be using.

anyone any ideas, throw anything at me ill try it out. i use a driver cleaner every time so that i dont run into problems when installing drivers, i also do disable driver signature verification...i am going crazy over here idk what else i can try

 

You could try the DELL drivers, also try one GPU at the time. It could be that one of them isn't working properly. As the last resource, you may replace the SLI cable.

 

i have tried the dell drivers but still the same problem, with sli enabled fps are no more than 40 and i am unable to use the after effects gpu acceleration features because theyre really old drives. does anyone with my same config have or know of any drive version sure to work with sli? i want to try everything before i buy another sli connector

 

Your second card may be faulty. Swap the heatsinks of both cards and then only use the second card and see if that gives you problems. If it doesn't then it is most likely your SLI cable.