SLI not working properly

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by CheloARG, May 7, 2015.

  1. CheloARG

    CheloARG Guest

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    GPU:
    x2 SLI EVGA GTX 970 SC
    Hey everyone,

    I tested my two EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 with some games and seems they are not working fine or something.
    They are both connected with the EVGA 2-way bridge (the rigid one, not the PRO or the flexible). One of them is in the primary PCI-e slot and the other one is in the second one (the 1st after the primary slot).

    Ryse: Son of Rome everything high/very high 1080p with AA etc. is giving me 20-25 FPS in scenarios with lots of water, reflections and lighting. I saw videos in YouTube showing people with almost my same rig with better FPS than that.
    GTA V is giving me 30-50 FPS in places with lots of vegetation and that stuff. There's a Guru3D benchmark showing like 100 FPS with 970 2-way SLI.

    GEFORCE SETTINGS
    http://imageshack.com/a/img633/267/u56Jyv.png
    http://imageshack.com/a/img912/290/EtlWku.png
    http://imageshack.com/a/img538/4109/vYKmVi.png
    http://imageshack.com/a/img633/8555/LtURRN.png

    RIG
    http://imageshack.com/a/img910/4917/c541zN.png

    - ASUS Sabertooth Z87
    - CPU: i5-46790k @ 3.4GHz
    - GPUs: SLI x2 EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0
    - RAM: G.Skill Sniper 2x8GB 1866MHz
    - SSD: Samsung EVO 840 512GB
    - HDD: Seagate Desktop 3TB
    - Corsair CX750
    - OS: Win 7 x64
    - GeForce Driver: 350.12


    ------ Other tests:

    Hitman Absolution 1920x1080 - High quality + 2x MSAA 16x AF
    Minimum FPS: 54.474709
    Max: 132.295715
    Average: 74.323105
    Comparisson: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_970_sli_review,11.html

    3DMark 11
    My result: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9780564
    3DGuru Comparisson:: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_970_sli_review,19.html

    There's almost 6k points of difference with the Guru3D results.

    -

    Any ideas? Am I doing something wrong?
    Thank you all
     
  2. Dorlor

    Dorlor Guest

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    Guru3d tests with a 6 core i7 with hyperthreading, which is overclocked - you have a 4 core i5 without hyperthreading, which is not overclocked.

    Thats the cause for the difference in the results, not that sli is not working, or anything else for that matter.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2015
  3. Shadowdane

    Shadowdane Maha Guru

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    yup he needs to look at his CPU usage... I bet these games are topping out his CPU when his framerate drops. Also might be VRAM issue... if he is going over that 3.5GB limit, might be causing the poor performance. Might need to reduce some of the settings or remove AA.

    I saw my framerate improve significantly in GTA5 in some spots when I overclocked from 3.8Ghz to 4.3Ghz. I play with VSync and in a lot of spots was dropping down to 35-40fps... with the higher clocks it pretty much sticks to 60fps all the time.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2015
  4. Dorlor

    Dorlor Guest

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    He is playing at 1080p, so vram is likely not the issue. Gta 5 and hitman are cpu hogs, so he will need to OC that cpu, if he wants better performance...
     

  5. Shadowdane

    Shadowdane Maha Guru

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    With GTA5 you can easily hit 4GB VRam at 1080p with 4x MSAA and Ultra settings. I had to turn down a few settings myself to Very High with 2x TXAA to keep at around 3GB usage at 1080p.

    If your expecting to get GTA5 maxed out on any current hardware with MSAA or TXAA it's not going to happen if you want 60fps solid. You'll likely need to wait for the next-gen cards.
     
  6. Dorlor

    Dorlor Guest

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    This is kinda off-topic, but yes you can easily go far beyond 4gb vram in gta 5.

    Point was, this is likely not his issue.

    But honestly, lol at your last comment... vram issues aside, 780 ti sli has the power to EASILY maintain constant 60 fps in gta 5 at 1080p, granted that you turn Down grass from ultra. How do i know this? Cause i have no issues maintaining 60 fps at 1440p with the very same Cards...

    And if you were to look at titan x in sli (which is current gen Cards) they will have a breeze maintaining 60 fps at 1080p, regardless of settings...
     
  7. CheloARG

    CheloARG Guest

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    Thanks everybody for the help.

    Could it be the temperatures? I'm using stock coolers of the NZXT 820 case, no extra coolers or fans.

    Running CS:GO temperatures are 66° and 63°.

    And I think GTA V is using more than 3.5GB because in the settings says something around +7000 VRAM.
     
  8. Dorlor

    Dorlor Guest

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    Youve already been told what the issue is... your cpu is too slow at stock clocks... solution = overclock it.

    But yeah, you wanna get some better cooling before doing that.
     
  9. CheloARG

    CheloARG Guest

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    Just asking, because you said lots of "possible" issues and one of them was the CPU, but on the other hand someone told me that the temperatures were a bit "high" idle, so maybe that could be an issue too.

    If I don't want to OC the CPU, can I upgrade to a new one? Or should I OC the actual one and get water cooling or something like that?

    Thanks again!
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2015
  10. Dorlor

    Dorlor Guest

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    You are correct that temps could pose an issue, but the main issue is that with a stock clocked cpu, you will have too low single thread performance - this will especially affect hitman absolution, but also games like gta 5.

    You could upgrade to a new cpu, but it would be a bad choice, as youll face the same issue that youre facing now - to get higher average fps in certain cpu dependant games, you will need higher single thread performance, and the only way of getting that, is overclocking - newer CPU's barely bring any improvements in this department... 10% or less with each new generation.

    If i were you, id stick with the cpu you have, and get a cooler like the corsair h110, and overclock the shizzle out of it :)
     

  11. CheloARG

    CheloARG Guest

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    Ok then, any other advices? Should I buy anything else besides the H110?
     
  12. Dorlor

    Dorlor Guest

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    GPU:
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    Youll get the 2x 140mm fans needed along with the h110 cooler.

    The only other thing you could do (and this would be to improve your general airflow in the case) is disable your 200mm sidefan, and then Mount 2x 140mm fans in the bottom of the case. Then youd have 1 front intake, 2 bottom intakes, 1 back outgoing, 2 top outgoing... should give a much more "clean" flow, which would also help on temps, on both gpu's and cpu :)
     
  13. CheloARG

    CheloARG Guest

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    You rock dude! Thanks for everything!

    According to "Linus Tech Guide" I should remove the upper fans, is that right?

    PS: I already bought the H110, I really want to make the SLI works as it should.
    [​IMG]
     
  14. Dorlor

    Dorlor Guest

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    The phantom 820 should have a 200mm fan in the top as standard, so unless youve already removed it, you will need to remove it, yeah.

    And youre very welcome :)
     
  15. CheloARG

    CheloARG Guest

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    One last thing:
    Should I upgrade the power supply? I have a Corsair CX750 running everything mentioned in the 1st post.
     

  16. Dorlor

    Dorlor Guest

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    Good question - youre quite close to crossing the comfort zone, if you give the cpu a proper OC.

    I actually had the exact same psu pop in my secondary rig not long ago, which uses a 4690k at 4,5 ghz and 680 sli... but those gpu's does use more watt (225 watt as they are OC'ed)

    Tell you what, Id take the chance and stay with the psu you have tbh :)

    Edit:

    Just calculated your watt usage based upon peak load:

    System Type: 1 physical CPU
    Motherboard: Desktop
    CPU Socket: Socket LGA 1150
    CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3400 MHz Haswell-DT
    Overclocked: 4600 MHz, 1.35 V
    CPU Utilization (TDP): 100% TDP

    RAM: 2 Modules DDR3 SDRAM
    Video Card 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
    Video Card 2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
    Video Type: SLI

    SCSI HDD 7200 rpm: 1 HDD

    M.2 SSD: 1 Drive
    DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive: 1 Drive

    Fans
    Regular: 5 Fans 140mm; 1 Fan 250mm;
    Water Cooling Kit: Corsair Hydro H100

    Keyboard and mouse: Yes

    System Load: 100 %

    Capacitor Aging (+ W %): 20 %



    Minimum PSU Wattage: 730 Watts
    Recommended Wattage: 780 Watts
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2015
  17. CheloARG

    CheloARG Guest

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    I did the same thing and seems that I can stick with it for now.

    Thanks again for your time and help, I really appreciate it.
     

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