Guru 3D SLI Users Guide - Page 35

Marri · 05-08-2005, 14:23 | posts: 3,467 | Location: Moon

Quote:

Unreal2004 runs better when SLI is disabled...the minimum fps stays above 55FPS on full settings..

guys just wanted to know weather if this kinda behaviour is normal or not...

What games would you recommend me to try out...for a true SLi experience...
thanks...

phrozin · *Last edited by phrozin; 05-08-2005 at 14:51.*

some times marri so you got the sli then? may take you a couple weeks to get your head around sli it does for every one and yes it is true in some games sli only really help in the high res can you do 1600x1200?Try that and use the profiles in the drivers

splinter cell pan to is amazing px3 sli and cron of riddick hl2 aint half bad either

Marri · 05-08-2005, 15:56 | posts: 3,467 | Location: Moon

yeah.. got the SLi...
I tried NFSU2 on 1024x768 and i had lower FPS dips with SLI enabled...then disabled...
Why the low res..becasue its not working on higher res..for some reason...
I have a Dell2005FPW and it can go up tp 1650x1080
aint that sad..
Unreal goes to High Res...but i was shocked to see it do better with a single card...on high res then with SLi

I've noticed NFSU2 being Skippy with SLi and smooth with Single..
i dont know if thats got to do with the latency or something..

I've recently tried the profile thing...but i guess it makes a small difference over Global Settings ...that is if i preselect the exact profile...

Im so darn worried...about the resolution problems that im having...and about the Single doing better then Double..
the only difference i get or see is in benchmarks...and benchmarks only...
Doom3 got me 84FPS on 1280x1024 AA2x with single.
got 101FPS on same settings with Dual cards
The only problem that i think im in is that my local retailer
told me that i could return the card up to 2 days not more..
but **** its been 5 days and i have'nt seen my SLi shine...
damn...its not my fault ..i was trying out different drivers and reading stuff about fixes etc...
But damn im where i was in the first place...
Here i am thinking....
if the X850XTPE is much more powerful then a single GT and my SLi is'nt out shining a single GT
Ouch...that would mean i'd get more with the X850XTPE besides
Doom3 or Riddick on 1600x1200.....

well...im one big fool..i must say....its my fault...nobody elses...

revenant · *Last edited by revenant; 05-08-2005 at 17:10.*

gump - sorry - I had mande an assumption you were talking about 6800gt or u's.

Phrozin - this is great news... wow... hmmmm... I will have to try that 3.3 and 5v trick on my setup and see how it does... adding the better psu helped, but I still don't get anything higher then 400/1100 stable... I will give that a go sometimg and se what happens.

EDIT: actually -- did you make those changes to your voltages in the bios or with software in windows?

MikeMK · 05-08-2005, 18:05 | posts: 10,497 | Location: London

Quote:

Originally posted by phrozin
Mike and some of you sli guys, on the weekend I had some time to do some testing on the ultras did some tests some may not even try but I was having probs getting the ultra's mem over 1270 stable sli, so me being me I raised both the 3.3 to 3.6 and my 5v to 5.5v bang ultras went 1325mhz core went 508mhz stable, I then raised the 12v to 12.1 no go didn’t like it so 12.03 was where it liked it.

Jesus phrozin, thats crazy, some nice clocks on those ultras! What PSU are u using again? is it an OCZ with the adjustable rails, or did u mod the PSU? Im gonna have a fiddle with my PCI-E clocks like u said too, and see what that does. Thanks for the heads up!

revenant · 05-09-2005, 05:40 | posts: 1,217 | Location: Bay Area, CA

MikeMK - I was kind of wondering the same thing... I thought it might also be something I can't do with my MSI mobo... I know the DFI has loads of crazy options in the bios... anyways... I thought there might be some other util, then I remebered seeing that OZC .. I think it's the 600watt one... anyways, those clocks he got are amzing!!

marri - have you tried the drivers which have the wide screen bug fixed in them? I think they're the 76.50's... I also think you will not really see SLI shine until you run at 1600x1200, as phrozin was saying... that extra horse power really is felt at those extremely high resolutions...

revenant · 05-09-2005, 05:56 | posts: 1,217 | Location: Bay Area, CA

Marri - check this thread...
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread....02#post1231702
this guy switched UT2004 to render with OpenGL and it fixed a few issues foir him... no more stutter and fps increase.. I thought maybe you might try that to see if helpls with your SLI woes with that game.

Marri · *Last edited by Marri; 05-09-2005 at 08:57.*

revenant thanks...

and i did try those 76.50drivers and guess what...it had all the wide screen problems in motion but not fixed...my luck

It had the jittering and stuff..but thanks for asking...

im seriously worried...
Damn...i've tried to do everything right....i've got a fresh windowns install..new hard drive....and stuff...
and some how SLI seems to be doing worse when enabled even on high res....it either feels the same most of the time...or has sharper FPS drops when compaired to a single card...

I tried Battle Field Vietnam , Unreal2004 ,NFSU2 all with AAx4 AFx8 and it ran smoother with a single card enabled....
Im confused...
When i say smoother it does'nt mean the SLI enabled setup ran bad...but it did'nt run better...and had a higher lever of FPS dips...

NFSU2 had dips that went till 36FPS with SLI
but with a single card it did'nt go under 42FPS and it felt much smoother overall....
Unreal same story...even with AA and AF enabled
Battle Field same story.....more dips with SLI and the game felt less smooth with it enabled...even with AA and AF enabled

im blank....i honestly dont see how i cant fix this....

I've tried running each profile as i play...but nothing changed..no gains what so ever...
Clean driver..install etc...
using 71.89

My scores
3Dmark03 19187
3dmarko5 8837
3Dmark03 SE 25054
Aquamark 74000 (newer drivers took it to 76k but im not using those) SLI
Aquamark single card 64000

All on Default Bios settings...
thanks...for the help...

Lane · *Last edited by Lane; 05-09-2005 at 09:57.*

Hmm the time i read again the score, i have not see the 23****

MikeMK · 05-09-2005, 09:54 | posts: 10,497 | Location: London

Well, you benchies are fine, 03 looks good, Aquamark is around what I got on my A8N @ stock untweaked with GT's, although 05 is a bit on the low side. I was getting over 9000stock on my A8N/SLI.

As for the games, sorry if i missed it but what res are u running @? Also, with BFV, that game supports SLI, so u should have no real issues. I play it a fair bit and it runs great with everything maxed AA and AF @1280x1024 (grrr....need better monitor). and it runs great. I dont get the greatest performance boost (I wouldnt expect to at that res in this game) but it runs fine.
UT2K4 I used to play ALOT, but havnt done recently. Last time i played SLI wasnt supported so it was using a single card in SLI mode. I did get a performance drop but only by a few fps nothing major. To be honest, this is always going to be the case @ low res or in games that dont support SLI. There will be a minor drop in performance (5fps max) due to the CPU overhead of managing two cards, but gaining now real world performance from it.

Marri · *Last edited by Marri; 05-09-2005 at 11:53.*

yeah....i get it now....thanks...
I played battle field @ 1024x768 ..lol
Why becasue my darn cards r having problems with my LCD monitor.. it does'nt show high res in the menu...

Unreal @ 1680x1050...i tested...

NFSU2 same as BattleField becasue higher res was'nt avalible...my luck....

I just went to the store and they were putting the X850XTPE ...from some body else..the one i had managed to keep in store for me..just incase...darn...
I still can take it out...becasue i usually buy loads of stuff from the store and the guys nice to me inexchange..obviously...

I have a Dell2005FPW....and im confused... cant give up over this monitor...becasue i already have it..and its darn expensive here...

So if im to have problems with high res....and games not doing as good as a single card solution on lower res....im doomed either ways...my bad...

I was hoping for the average minimal fps to be reduced with SLi
but that did'nt happen or has'nt happend as yet...may be becasue i need more time
I've lost all three copies of Far Cry...dang...
i cant even test that...
I cant find my HL2 CD....and i cant find my Splinter Cell Demo to check the game....

Forgot to mention..that i am one stupid person...
Phew...my head aint working...

I cant expect Nvidia to have drivers that'll get the bug fixed....or can i...
Even if i keep my 2x6800GT's it'll always have high res problems..and it'll stay that ways...becasue of my monitor...
So im almost never going to see an improvement over the fact of having 2x6800GT's ....my GOD that is SAD....

****....what do i do next..im not sure....i guess im going to spent the next few mins in for thinking..of keeping these or going for the X850XTPE
becasue i dont have much time....im getting calls from the store for me to say yes or no....over the X850XTPE

EDIT..please read

i wanted to make sure....
See if i uncheck the multi GPU option which would in even cause me to restart....does this actully fully disable the second card from influencing the gaming....

thanks....
tc..

MikeMK · 05-09-2005, 12:27 | posts: 10,497 | Location: London

Sorry to hear u are having so many issues m8. Its not been like that for me... more the oposite!

Anyhow, to answer your question, if u fully disable one of the cards in the CP, then it shouldnt influence your gaming at all.

As to the XT PE... well.. thats your call im afraid.

phrozin · 05-09-2005, 14:23 | posts: 2,835 | Location: Earth

Quote:

Originally posted by MikeMK
Jesus phrozin, thats crazy, some nice clocks on those ultras! What PSU are u using again? is it an OCZ with the adjustable rails, or did u mod the PSU? Im gonna have a fiddle with my PCI-E clocks like u said too, and see what that does. Thanks for the heads up!

Its the ocz 520 power stream and no its stock psu atm i am going to try the 1.5v bios mod again 1 card at a time last time it did not go so good, completely blanked the bios on the card. Remmembering these cards are stock except for water-cooling so i am pretty please with them now was not at first.

Dropping the pci-e to 85mhz aqua went from 102000 to 105000 same for same used the cpuid clock gen to drop the pci-e Rev m8 the msi has just as many opts in the bios as the dfi

but wait till i finish testing i will let all know whats the best opts DONT TRY any think silly till i do, i can afford to blow away a card or motherboard and memory you guys may not this stuff cost a lot of bananas!

and yes I set voltage in the bios and windows and with Test eq so i know there right

MikeMK · 05-09-2005, 14:31 | posts: 10,497 | Location: London

Nice m8, well, im gonna definately try the PCI-E frequency and see what happens. Keep us posted on the voltages!

MikeMK · 05-09-2005, 14:48 | posts: 10,497 | Location: London

Right, well I went and checked my BIOS for the PCI-E freq, and it looks like I can only change it UPWARDS from 100mhz (default) and not downwards. Phrozin, i take it you are on your MSI board, and not your DFI one. Does anyone know of a DFI bios that might let my adjust it downwards (or just a decent more recent bios eve)? Im currently on the 310p.

phrozin · 05-09-2005, 14:50 | posts: 2,835 | Location: Earth

Marri slow down m8, you are jumping the gun a fair bit NOT ALL GAMES SUPPORT SLI !

I understand your frustration but didn’t I tell you to go ati but you now have sli! There are some games that run just amazingly on sli there is nothing in doom3 with sli or ut but it is early days so carm down try slinter cell chaos theory it just brilliant px3 sli, chronicles of riddick with px3 is great even yes i beg to say even counter strike source looks good, even far cry flat out is very nice you will finaly be able to run it 1600x1200 flat out with out the lag

look don’t even bother trying a game made before sli was available they don’t do anything but having said that there are some patches out for some of the older games so make sure you have all your games up to date

use the latest nv chipset driver and nv vid drivers. you will see as the newer game start to come out thing will get better! and tke a breath and play with motherboard settings wile you are doing nothing 1 wrong setting will kill your performance.

If you get stuck there are a few of us around here that will be more than happy help you in the right setup

almost forgot medal of honour pacific assult you got to give it a try its amazing on sli

phrozin · 05-09-2005, 14:52 | posts: 2,835 | Location: Earth

Quote:

Originally posted by MikeMK
Right, well I went and checked my BIOS for the PCI-E freq, and it looks like I can only change it UPWARDS from 100mhz (default) and not downwards. Phrozin, i take it you are on your MSI board, and not your DFI one. Does anyone know of a DFI bios that might let my adjust it downwards (or just a decent more recent bios eve)? Im currently on the 310p.

no dfi dl this and use it to down the pci-e freq
http://www.cpuid.org/clockgen.php

MikeMK · 05-09-2005, 14:52 | posts: 10,497 | Location: London

done well... your a man in the know

Marri · *Last edited by Marri; 05-09-2005 at 16:00.*

phrozin i must thank you as always...for being sOo extreamly helpful....and it alway helps to read your posts....

Yes..i do remeber you mentioning your X800Pro and you suggesting the X850XTPE...(indirectly

)
I must say...as you may know...i get confused very quickly...may be its becasue of the lack of brain cells that i carry...

The slighest jitter and i feel..like im dOomed..but
you were spot on with the Splinter Cell suggestion...i tried it out.... not on 1600x1200 but on 1280x1024 becasue my monitor only supports 1680x1050 max...
It did get a huge booste..in performance..over a single card...

i saved a spot...and i was getting 40FPS with a single card...
same spot with Multi GPU 80FPS

I have yet to play Far Cry...but splinter cell was the dice...(i dont like the game but yup..it showed the leap)

i played NFSU2 again..and again..until in noticed...that i was getting less performance with SLi enabled on 1024x786 like mentioned before..
BUT
when i upped the resolution to 1280x1024 i noticed the difference...10 to 15 FPS increase from a single card...

BUT BUT BUT...
that is if you dont mind my asking....i know i've pretty much covered
all that you HAD TO SAY about the X850XTPE and i might've asked this question.many times..but just to be sure

i wanted to know..weather if the X850XTPE could match 2x6800GT's on 1280x1024 with games ...becasue thats the resolution im going to be playing with 90% of my games...
Splinter Cell, NFSU2 , Riddick , Far Cry ,Doom3, WoW , Dawn Of War , CnC generals and most of the upcoming games...

AND will the gap...between the GT's and x850XTPE increase in the future...with newer drivers...or do you think that cant be said...plus talking from the point of view with games like
F E A R etc coming....

thanks alot for even mentioning the help offering.....im sure im going to bother you over settings and stuff once..im done...with this decision making process...

take care...

phrozin · 05-09-2005, 16:09 | posts: 2,835 | Location: Earth

Marri
The simple answer is yes sli the further we get in to it single card will be pushing it to keep up atm the x850 is a very good card don’t get me wrong, but that will diminish I am afraid the 520 could be a different story ati really haft to pull a rabbit out of the hat come xmas as nv g70 in sli will wipe the floor with them. The sad thing is that will hurt our pockets! In the long run you have made the right choice so don’t worry just enjoy the grunt.

btw its good to see you used your head and went for the 4000 over the fx and saved yourself money!

revenant · 05-09-2005, 17:37 | posts: 1,217 | Location: Bay Area, CA

Marri - just out of curiousity, and you mayhave discussed this, but I do not remember it... but what temps are your cards under load? I also think that in the lines of what phrozin was saying, you've gone the right thing with building an SLI system for long term performance... you _will_ eventually chase all these bugs out and will enjoy that rig... it's just being more fussy than normal, and part of it is playing the right games at the right resolutions before you see it "shine" as you say.

Hope your day goes well!!

Phrozin - so you used the clockgen program to change your 3.3 and 5v settings? I scanned my MSI's bios and didn't see anywhere I could change that... what bios are you running on that board? I am not planning on jumping right into that, but want to know how I can eventually...

Mike/Phrozin - I will try that pci-e frequency trick tonight and run some tests with it.

MikeMK · 05-09-2005, 17:46 | posts: 10,497 | Location: London

Tried it. Downclocked to 85mhz, made no real difference at all. Only tried aquamark mind u. Will do some more tweaking later!

revenant · 05-09-2005, 17:48 | posts: 1,217 | Location: Bay Area, CA

Maybe it only helps when your voltages are throttled up... mind you, I am not encouraging you to up them at all.. but just my immediate thought on it.

Lane · *Last edited by Lane; 05-09-2005 at 20:32.*

Quote:

Originally posted by phrozin
Its the ocz 520 power stream and no its stock psu atm i am going to try the 1.5v bios mod again 1 card at a time last time it did not go so good, completely blanked the bios on the card. Remmembering these cards are stock except for water-cooling so i am pretty please with them now was not at first.

Dropping the pci-e to 85mhz aqua went from 102000 to 105000 same for same used the cpuid clock gen to drop the pci-e Rev m8 the msi has just as many opts in the bios as the dfi

but wait till i finish testing i will let all know whats the best opts DONT TRY any think silly till i do, i can afford to blow away a card or motherboard and memory you guys may not this stuff cost a lot of bananas!

and yes I set voltage in the bios and windows and with Test eq so i know there right

"dropped the PCI- ex to 85 HZ", you have decrease or increase, on my sys, when i push alittle the bus PCI-express, 2500 mhz to 2800 mhz, the OC stay more stable, the latency of DDR3 on both cards seems have this importance too. I have use Ntimings under windows, and give new latency timings:

Ultra Timings
- Timing0 : 0813211B
- Timing1 : 0A01060A
- Timing2 : 20250407
=> Ultra BIOS timings

This timings is made for 6800 but it' s working realgood with 6600GT, the timings is the same on my cards.

I need try again one other settings.

Tight Timings
- Timing0 : 040D1A13
- Timing1 : 09010509
- Timing2 : 20250407
=> Tight timings

Can you give me a link to Test Eq i have ctrl my voltage on cards,
1.4V is the max with Asus, and this is the Voltage stock...

revenant · 05-09-2005, 20:34 | posts: 1,217 | Location: Bay Area, CA

phrozin - where in the bios did you set the 3.3 and 5 volt params? under the cell menu? huh.. I am running the 3.0 bios... time to go to 5 beta I think. er, wait, unless th3 3.1 has what I need for that.