Extreme 4-Way Sli Tuning

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by A M D BugBear, Mar 10, 2019.

  1. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    4 GTX 970/4-Way Sli
    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - UPDATE + SLI SPECIFIC HACKS - 7/23/20:

    This pertains to one of the areas that I was tuning within instant combat zone and NOT during campaign missions.

    Tuning in question:

    Area: Forest(Summer)

    Weather: None

    Atmosphere: Moderate

    Those of you who are tuning this game, certain adjustments needs to be made:

    You all can still use my bits that I given before but one change must be done,

    Open up your nvidia inspector program, under 1 - Compatibility:

    Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits:

    0x000000<<~~ This hex here, was set to letter C, Now it must be set to the digit: 3.

    Far as doing the beginning stages of campaign, set it to the Letter C for now, thanks.

    Soon as you launch the area, there will be a high chance that you will see white flashing anomaly, I tried to get rid of it, not very easy, best way to do this is restart the mission or sign off the game and go back on and revisit this area, soon as you see the game pop up and if you see very minimal flashing(Low chance, could take up to 20+ times), mainly within the mech itself, quickly hit ESC then go into your graphic option and toy around with the effect setting until everything settles down, also while your at it, Change your texture to low then back to maximum along with AA to off then back to TAA(High) to refresh your scaling to its peakest performance, might take a couple of times to bring the scaling out.

    There could be a chance where you might experience very very low fps during the start of this zone under 4-way sli mode, again, toy around with your effect settings a bit then resume to see if it will increase, normally it will.

    I checked peformance: 1 gpu mode then to 4 and the end result:

    Magnificent(Perfect) Scaling...

    Also, those of you who are seriously tuning this game, watch out:

    Sli Specific Hacks (DX1x) Bits:

    0x00000000<<~~ This hex here, if set to the digit 9 or letters A,B,C,D or E, can change your overall hue color to the game, it can make it all bluish looking, reddish or even highly over saturated HDR looks that covers the entire screen, so be careful while tuning, thanks.

    Far as that slight change to what I mentioned before(Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits, I only tested that change in the forest area, I have not tested in areas such as canyons,etc, but will give heads up on it later.

    Also, My entire focus has been 4-way sli with this game, just for kicks, tried 3-way sli within the Forest(Summer) Zone, TAA is infact working with no shaky looking effect BUT everything gives off a blur trail(Yes its strong) even when slightly moved, this only pertains to 3-way sli mode + TAA set to High.

    So far, very impressed how scaling is going for this game, I have not yet found a way to get rid of the TAA shaky looking effect while under 4-way sli, but it is clearly working for sure.

    One more important thing that I am currently investigating:

    When your mech sustains heavy damage, the whole mech looks likes its in a ball of white light, you can still view within the cockpit but I am still currently looking into this issue, I am suspecting HDR or anything Lights related, I will look into those later and will give heads up about it if situation is solved but please be aware of it.

    This game is looking extremely good, just takes time just like anything else.

    I will be testing other areas and will give heads up on how everything is coming along...

    Far as system ram utilization, I have seen as high as 24gb+ easy, so if your doing 4k tuning with this game with same card as me, make sure you have plenty of system ram to make up for it otherwise you will have major issues.

    So my ending bits is the pretty much exactly as the one before, no changes, along with with engine.ini changes(Previous post).

    Always check back on the ongoing commitment of this game...

    MechWarrior V: Mercenaries is still currently:

    >>>>>WORK IN PROGRESSS<<<<<
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2020
  2. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    4 GTX 970/4-Way Sli
    MECHWARRIOR V + QUADRO 392.61 & 461.14 TEST(BOTH NEWEST), SUPERMICRO X10DRG-q - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - 7/28/20:

    Got some Staggering news here:

    I'll mention about MechWarrior V last...

    First lets talk about SuperMicro X10DRG-q motherboard. Ever since Kings of Lorn killed the pci-e slot(1st one/under 1 gpu mode), I switched to my asus dual cpu motherboard which I had as a backup and used the SuperMicro X10DRG-q as folding@home/Bionic Rig.

    Just about a week ago, I tested 5 gpu's on the X10DRG-q mobo, 1 1080ti and 4 980ti's, Everything seems to be working correctly, There has been sometimes where one of the 980ti went missing under the device manager and had to re-install graphic drivers, everything seems to be working good.

    And just recently as of today, I went ahead and took out the 1080ti gpu and used the 4 980ti and installed the Modified Quadro Drivers: 392.61(NEWEST), and gave my personal game of choice when it comes to testing new drivers under 4-way sli mode, and yes to my amazement, everything works perfectly. I am not surprised at all about the drivers from function 4-way properly, it was the slot in general.

    I personally tested 461.14 drivers under 4-way sli with my personal game of choice while testing new drivers: Again, Rise of tomb raider, and yes, as I originally expected, with all 44x.xx drivers = DOES NOT WORK PERIOD.

    Also, as usual, after the graphic driver is installed, I must restart the system and wait till get into windows with 5 gpu's, then shut off, If I just re-install the graphic drivers, shut down system, take out the 1080ti, and mess with 4-way sli, then go back to 5-way gpu(Folding/Bionic). It will only show up as 4 gpu's, so it is very important that after installing the gpu drivers, have to go back into windows then safely shut off, so when going back to 5-way, everything will come up properly.

    One important thing about this motherboard, if your using an nvme riser card in one of those misc slots and that other Pci-e X8(IN X16) Slot, behind the main 4 pci-e slots, you have to make adjustments within the bios after taking out the 5th gpu, otherwise you will have major problems loading into windows, bsod or even a complete hang...

    So yes, I can confirm that this(Once I thought the port went bad), is actually infact working once again, rise of tomb raider works perfectly, played for a bit, not one single problem, and yes, I used my own custom made enhanced SMAA profile that I did awhile back ago, everything works excellent, I also mentioned about rise of tomb raider was working on 4 980ti's on this thread in the past and it was the only game that I tested and confirmed working on the 980ti's...

    Far as MechWarrior V is concerned, I haven't been on it really in a few days, still trying to work on the flashing white screen problem while Forest(Summer)/Moderate zone. Night time also have issues as well, I will be going back on the game today and will provide the most up to date stats on this game under 4-way sli mode.

    Thanks for reading.
     
  3. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    4 GTX 970/4-Way Sli
    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - HUGE DENT UPDATE - 7/28/20:

    More great news coming along for this game.

    I managed to get the out of control white flashing while doing some instant combat missions(Day or Night time).

    This only been tested in the Lush Canyon Areas.

    For those who are tuning this game and using same gpu set-up(GTX 970's) as mine, First need to do some changes within the bits themselves:

    Open up your nvidia inspector program, under 1 - Compatibility:

    SLI Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits: 0x00000<<~~ Switch this hex to digit: 2.

    Next, under SLI Specific Hacks (DX1x) Bits:

    0x0000000<<~~ Please switch this particular hex to digit: 6.

    Make sure you have all other stuff in place before making these changes.

    Before proceeding any further, this was done on the following bits used(My own custom made):

    WARNING: 100% GUARANTEE TO WORK "ONLY" ON 4 GTX 970's + MODIFIED QUADRO DRIVERS: 392.59 + WIN 10 X64 RS2(RTM):

    Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits: 0x00000C09

    Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits: 0x8B0021F5

    Sli Copy Engine: 0x00000020 FORCE_CE_UPLOADS Force - Copy Engine Async Uploads for all uploads (ignoring location of destination surface).

    Sli Specific Hacks: 0x00000B67

    And my engine.ini:

    [/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]
    r.MultithreadedShadowmapEncode=1
    r.CompileMaterialsForShaderFormat=1
    r.oneframethreadlag=2
    r.so.VisualizeBuffer=1
    r.TrueSkyQuality=0
    r.HZBOcclusion=1
    r.DetailMode=1
    r.EarlyZPass=1
    r.GBufferFormat=5
    r.ReflectionEnvironment=0
    r.SSR.Quality=0
    r.SSR.Temporal=0
    r.SSAOSmartBlur=0

    Next, launch the game, make sure all of your graphic settings are set to low and also "MAKE SURE" you have your initial startup of the game under fullscreen mode and nothing else as you will get a BSOD or a complete hang and a hard reset will be needed, be absolutely aware of this at all times, game is very fragile when it comes to tuning and other things.

    The main title screen will be flashing a bit, no worries as well as the hangar load out screen, the hangar load out screen will flash as a bit, to correct this, toy around with the effect settings but its really not needed as you still can clearly see the load out configuration, then head over to instant combat and go play the zone: Lush Canyon under Moderate condition and the time of day: Either daytime or nighttime/Clear.

    Soon as you jump on the game, you will see very strong flashing(White)/greenish anomaly,etc, Do the following steps below:

    Additional Note: There might be a chance you don't need to do some of this right when you jump on the game, mainly toying with the effects settings will correct the issue.

    Let us begin:

    Hit esc, go into the graphic menu, change your resolution scale slider to 49%, next, change your resolution to Borderless Fullscreen then restart the mission, soon as you restart the mission, the moment you see the game in motion, you might experience very little flashing then within a second or two it may or may not come back, when it does come back, hit esc button on your keyboard, next go to your graphic settings, switch your resolution slider to 100%, then under display tab, head over to your resolution setting and choose FULLSCREEN, then back to the game, it will continue to flash for a bit(Might be a chance that it will not(Minor), keep moving your camera left and right a bit until its gone, eventually it will settle down, you MUST do this everytime while playing in this zone, no exceptions until I find another workaround the issue(Doubt it), next comes the best part:

    To help further stabilize the graphic anomaly, toy around with the effect settings a bit, eventually everything will settle down big time, might want to toy around with the shadow settings a bit, then change your texture to maximum, after you apply that, change your TAA to either high or maximum, and yes, I still can not get rid of the shaky looking effect while TAA is set to high under 4-way sli mode but nontheless, it is working.

    The sky may or may not be flashing like mad crazy, if you see mad crazy flashing like within the skies at nighttime, toy around with your effect settings, should correct the issue.

    To see more clearly in regards about TAA shaky effect during 4-way sli mode, switch your resolution scale slider to 49%, then switch your TAA to high and under 4k, it is real bad, but soon as you put the scale to 100%, alot of it is non-existent but its still there, mainly the shimmering in the trees and such, again, TAA under high is working, I already checked FXAA then back to TAA(High Setting), it is working in conjunction with that somewhat annoying TAA shaky looking effect, again, make sure your Resolution Scale Slider is at 100% so alot of it won't be as visible.

    So far, very impressed how this game is coming along.

    Also, after making some of the above changes, while firing your projectiles on the ground,etc, the smoke and other effects appears as it should be, was leaving flashing trail behind, looks like its fine now.

    Best of all, all the above technique that fixed the major flashing anomaly and other things, was done all on my own and no one else.

    Always check back on the ongoing commitment of this game.

    MechWarrior V: Mercenaries is still currently:

    >>>>>WORK IN PROGRESS<<<<<
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2020
  4. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    4 GTX 970/4-Way Sli
    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - UPDATE - 7/29/20:

    Did quite of bit of testing in the other zones within instant action.

    Did pretty much all the terrains, rain/snow/none and mostly I choose either evening/afternoon or night, tried some extreme and moderate atmosphere as well as some clear and yes as expected, I gotten all the location, the extremely bad, White Flashing along with Green anomaly with the above procedure on my last post, well under control and everything is looking very very good.

    Several things of great importance need to point out here for those who are tuning 4-way:

    As before, I stated not to change anything within the display tab until your in the game itself, what I did is trying to change the resolution settings while your in the hangar load out area, everything went well then a complete hang, luckily I was able to sign off by doing CNTRL+ALT+DEL, what I did next is the strict protocol for this game:

    Re-load your nvidia inspector profile for this game and then delete your WindowsNoEditor folder, for the most part, never had an issue while doing this until just recently, after doing my strict protocol, Upon loading up the game, BSOD.

    I had to do a system reset and everything went back to normal.

    What I would highly suggest people do when this stuff occurs, the moment you manage to get to the sign off screen, instead of doing that, shut off or reset your system, reload your nvidia inspector profile for this game and then delete your WindowsNoEditor, should have no problems then, you all might want to force 1 gpu mode while loading up after you have done this, change your settings around, log off the game, re-configure your nvidia inspector profile for this game, back to 4-way then re-launch the game once more.

    Another anomaly I am trying to work around is that when your mech sustains some damage, certain parts of the body(Mech) will have flashing white anomaly, when the mech gets heavinly damaged, it appears your mech is like in a ball of white light, it is extremely bad but you can still view within your cockpit mode and seems everything is fine, you can still view 3rd person view but make sure your view is on shoulder mode, I am currently hard at work investigating the issue, and already confirmed its not coming from SSR(Screen-Space Reflections), as I 100% disabled that within the engine.ini file, so I took that out.

    Next thing I tested is before mech gets any kind of damage, I go into night vision mode, to see if it will block out the ball of white flashing anomaly within the mech, nope, I also tried other mech for kicks as well as different time of the day to see if it will change anything, again, nope.

    Far as the overall stability while playing in the game, seems like its rock solid, when the battle gets very hot, there is some fps fluctuations(In process of reducing this).

    Another very important factor I must point out when doing that resolution scale and resolution trick to get rid of the flashing anomaly, this is explained in the last post.

    Even after you got everything settle down, there might be a chance, while playing the game, some objects from buildings or even trees could appear out of nowhere, one time I had a tree right above my mech's head(Kid you not) and among other things, you can stabilize this issue by toying with your effect settings but one thing I never mentioned in the last post is that, by doing this over and over, toying around with the effect settings, you can actually decrease your overall scaling performance so be absolutely careful while doing this, always monitor your performance while toying around with your effect settings, if you see to much reduction, just restart the mission and do it again but make sure like before, resolution scale @ 49% and resolution set to borderless fullscreen, restart mission, set resolution scale to 100% then your display to fullscreen, if you see your scaling is top notch with minimal anomaly, try not touching the effect setting, only do so when needed as it may reduce your overall scaling potential, alot of it depends on the terrain as well.

    Games looking very good, Final conclusion of this game probably not going to be for awhile, I don't think by end of next week but I'll try, taking my time with this game, so far so good.

    MechWarrior V: Mercenaries is still currently:

    =====WORK IN PROGRESS=====
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2020

  5. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    4 GTX 970/4-Way Sli
    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - MECH DAMAGE/BALL OF WHITE LIGHT ANOMALY FIXED - UPDATE - 8/3/20:

    On the ongoing commitment to this game:

    Currently was very hard investigating the Flashing White Light anomaly soon as your mech gets minimal damage, when it gets really damaged, the mech will have a major graphic anomaly: a ball of white light, its really bad but not visible when under cockpit mode, I have found a workaround this issue at last, some parts of the mech, you will still see some minimal anomaly but nothing like it was before, to correct this issue, open up your WindowsNoEditor folder, within the engine.ini file, make the change underneath: [/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]

    r.BloomQuality=0(NO EXCEPTIONS)

    Did quite a bit of tracing back to what was causing this anomaly and I finally found it, took some time. I originally toyed with the post processing quality within the in-game graphic settings while this anomaly was taken place, soon as I see it was enhancing its overall effectiveness, I looked more into the UE4 post processing, did quite a bit of tracing back as setting the In-game Post Processing to Low doesn't help the anomaly, but in the end, I managed to find what was causing it and it was all coming from r.BloomQuality.

    So as of now, my engine.ini looks like this:

    [/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]
    r.BloomQuality=0
    r.MultithreadedShadowmapEncode=1
    r.CompileMaterialsForShaderFormat=1
    r.MipMapLodBias=-1
    r.MotionBlurQuality=0
    r.VPLViewCulling=1
    r.oneframethreadlag=2
    r.so.VisualizeBuffer=1
    r.MultithreadedLightmapEncode=1
    r.VolumetricFog=0
    r.TrueSkyQuality=0
    r.HZBOcclusion=1
    r.DetailMode=1
    r.EarlyZPass=1
    r.GBufferFormat=5


    Far as the Nvidia Inspector bits, pretty much everything is the same as it was before, still trying to find a workout to the TAA shaky looking effect while under 4-way sli, still can not find a workaround, not looking to good at this point.

    But nevertheless, game is shaping up very good, despite problems and such, still very promising game under 4-way.

    MechWarrior V: Mercenaries is still currently:

    =====WORK IN PROGRESS=====
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2020
  6. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    4 GTX 970/4-Way Sli
    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - SCALING ISSUES IN HANGAR(BEGINNING OF GAME) FIXED + TAA SITUATION - UPDATE - 8/7/20:

    Fixed another problem where you enter the hangar(Right in the beginning of the game), where the scaling drops significantly, there was a chance it may slide by but it will come back when replaying this area, to fix this issue, go to your WindowsNoEditor and open up your engine.ini file and add the following change underneath where it says: [/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]:

    r.EarlyZPassMovable=1

    From closer inspection, this above parameter here will basically solve the situation.

    Also, speaking about: Starting a new campaign, Several things of utmost importance:

    Before I go on, under 4-Way Sli mode, man does it take forever to get into the game, there was times were the system went under a complete hang and had to do a hard reset, some I was managed to do CNTRL+ALT+DEL then signed off, other times(Rare), I get Error message from the game itself, Again as before, when tuning any game, especially under 4-way sli, "ANYTHING" can go wrong here and I mean literally anything, so those of you who are looking into or getting into 4-way tuning, As before, be utmost prepared as its NOT to be taken to lightly, absolutely positively not.

    Back to starting new campaign, once you finally manage to get on the game, the whole screen will start flashing, mountains,planet,sky,etc. do NOT do anything just yet, let it go by naturally, on the next screen, there could be two outcome:

    White/Greenish Flashing anomaly(Very bad) with missing textures,etc and the other is without the flashing anomaly but lots of missing or flashing textures, Before going on any further, Make sure the game is not doing the White/Green flashing anomaly(Could take 1 out of 3 times to get it to work/Restarting the mission will help this issue), soon as you don't have that flashing anomaly and happen to see lot of flashing/missing textures,etc, now you can stabilize the missing/flashing textures, go to your graphic options, Under Effect Setting, keep toying with the settings until everything settles down, eventually it well, next comes bringing your scaling to its peakest:

    There could be a chance where your scaling is cut off significantly, to help this problem, stare to where you see the most fps, like facing the ground,sky,etc(Learned this from the game: ECHO), next, lower your resolution scale to like half, 50% or so, make sure also your texture resolution is set to low and your anti-aliasing either FXAA or NONE, then re-set your textures to maximum(While your resolution scale slider is @ 50%), then beef up your Resolution Scale once more to 100% then change your AA to TAA, overall scaling potential should see drastic difference, if its still kinda low, try changing your effect settings a bit while your textures set to low and AA to NONE or FXAA, once complete, re-set all the other settings back to where you had them.

    As of now, my engine.ini looks like this:

    [/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]
    r.EarlyZPassMovable=1
    r.EarlyZPass=1
    r.AlsoUseSphereForFrustumCull=1
    r.FastVRam.PostProcessMaterial=1
    r.BloomQuality=0
    r.MultithreadedShadowmapEncode=1
    r.CompileMaterialsForShaderFormat=1
    r.MotionBlurQuality=0
    r.VPLViewCulling=1
    r.oneframethreadlag=2
    r.so.VisualizeBuffer=1
    r.MultithreadedLightmapEncode=1
    r.VolumetricFog=0
    r.TrueSkyQuality=0
    r.HZBOcclusion=1
    r.DetailMode=1
    r.GBufferFormat=5

    Regards about TAA, something that you all want to be aware about:

    Further inspection on this particular setting, if TAA is set to lower then your Native Resolution, you will have a Image Blur Imprint left on the screen and there is no way in the world you can get rid of it, from native or higher = YES, simply by toggling your AA to FXAA/NONE then back to TAA, problem solved.

    Another thing about TAA under 4-Way Sli, I would highly recommend using this setting under 4k resolution @ res scale of 100% as I said before about the shaky/grainy looking effect with TAA being enabled, it is alot more profound/apparent under lower resolution, therefore for this reason, 4k or higher(Stronger Gpu's) is only recommended at this point, do NOT use TAA at lower resolution as the Shaky looking Effect and among other things, will be alot more profound when using lower resolution, thus, the end result will be = lower overall image quality, Again, TAA is infact 100% working but there is graphical anomalies while using it, overall, I recommend using this @ 4k, certain times, you might want to shut it off, some of these anomalies could be a bit annoying, other times it works very well where the graphic anomalies are not really all that present, places like glaciers(snow),etc, so be absolutely aware of this at all times while tuning under 4-way, I am still currently hard at work getting rid of this effect and still there is no solution for it, yet...

    For those who are seriously tuning UE4 based games under sli mode, This is what I use, EXCELLENT stuff:

    http://www.kosmokleaner.de/ownsoft/UE4CVarBrowser.html

    Final Conclusion, hoping sometime next week, overall: despite problems, Its still scales extremely well, Alot better then Kings of lorn.

    MechWarrior V: Mercenaries is still currently:

    >>>>>WORK IN PROGRESS<<<<<
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2020
  7. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

    Messages:
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    GPU:
    4 GTX 970/4-Way Sli
    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - MODIFIED QUADRO DRIVERS 392.61 TEST - UPDATE - 8/9/20:

    Tried These drivers, Newest branch(392.xx) out of the bunch, scaling works perfectly in this game, for those who are tuning this game, specifically in 4-way sli mode, here's some things you must be aware about before moving into these drivers:

    1st off: I tried doing new campaign mode, and right before jumping into the game, the scene where you see the ship heading towards the planet, this portion, there is graphic anomalies here, but the next portion(Locker room), this is where I was surprised no missing/flasing textures,etc, no need to toy with the effect setting to settle things down, but that being said, you might have to if you do happen come across with some scaling issues to help bring it back up to par a bit.

    Another of great importance here is TAA, TAA is 100% working, this times it does not leave the massive shaky looking effect(Quadro Drivers: 392.59), but instead when moving the camera around, you will see a blur trail(Similar to 3-Way Sli on 392.59 drivers), is it bad? Not to bad but it is there, it can get to some people but for me, not to bad but yes from the drivers 392.59, the overall image quality with these is vastly more superior but in return, some blur trail while moving.

    I also tried some instant combat mode, forest(autumn)/noon time, Scaling works excellent.

    I also found out while playing the campaign mission, I tried to exit out the game while playing, game stalled completely and I had to do a hard reset, you all might better off going back to the title screen and exit from there or CNTRL+ALT+DEL while on the game and then sign out from there, but fair warning: I have "NOT" tested these drivers long enough to know its overall stability, but I would treat it like 392.59 counterpart, Longs strict protocols are met(Stated in previous post), should be all good to go but I would not take this game to lightly, expect a hang or two while your tuning this game, remember, your dealing with 4 gpu's as oppose to 1 or 2, Huge difference here in terms of anything could go wrong, so take that into consideration, it differs from game to game, each game while tuning will act totally different, some games, their overall tuning sensitivity = 100% rock sold/no problems, so each game will be different, even if its running on the same engine.

    So yes, I would give these drivers a try for this game, Scaling is top notch, works excellent, but again, while tuning under 4-way, expect anything to happen unexpectedly...

    Edit: Tried 3-way sli, checked TAA anomalies, same as 4-way, Blur trail while moving, its overall effectiveness is roughly about the same.
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2020
  8. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    4 GTX 970/4-Way Sli
    EDGE OF ETERNITY(REVISITED) - NEW QUADRO DRIVER TEST: 392.61 - 4-WAY SLI - 980TI's - UPDATE - 8/12/20:

    As before, I said I was closely monitoring the updates of this game and out of my extreme curiosity, I wanted to see how this game would react with 4 980ti's(With my custom made 4-way 970 profile) and see how certain heavy vram areas such as Hereslor: Forest Entrance & Hereslor: Cascade Hills, I'll do some quick rundown:

    Just like it's lower brothers(4-Way Gtx 970's), 4 GTX 980ti's is 100% working BUT certain areas like Elon Village/Abandoned Mine and the battles scenes there, you MUST up the resolution scale slider to like 135% or in that range, otherwise overall scaling will not be up to par, the beginning battlefield and the first mech battle, scales great at resolution scale of 100%.

    Elon Village area scales very good, certain spots have to increase resolution scale slider a bit to bring out the overall scaling potential.

    Far as the Hereslor: Forest entrance, it scales basically up to 3-way(Same as the 970's), I tried missing with the resolution scale slider, it seems to help but there seems to be quite a bit gpu usage fluctuations, and the final area:

    Hereslor: Cascade Hills(Soon as you exit the forest), over here, its somewhat worse, it's basically pretty much how it was on the 970's, again, no matter if I tune the resolution scale slider.

    Far as Vram is concerned, in the beginning(Battlefield), everything maxed out(Except Vegetation),Res. Scale @ 100%, The vram is about low 4gb to 5gb, in the places where I went 135% on the Res. Scale slider: around 4.3/4.4GB Vram.

    In the outside map area like Hereslor: Cascade Hill, even if the Res. Scale slider set in the low 100's, I have seen over 6gb vram, I am already hitting the Vram wall of my 4 980ti's(6gb Vram), it could be higher. so extreme caution is to be advised in this area and far as system ram, seem high as 30+gb, be careful while tuning this game.

    This is on my other system with the Supermicro X10drg-q(Boinc/Foilding@home Rig).

    So now I can confirm 100% with two games tested with 4 980ti's:

    Rise of Tomb Raider & Edge of Eternity(Mostly in the beginning areas).

    Edge of Eternity was Tested on Win 10 x64 RS2(15063.V1703)-RTM/Modified Quadro Drivers: 392.61.

    Again, I was extremely curious how these 980ti's would react in heavy vram areas, and I was kinda surprised, same kind of fashion as the 970's, again, this is with the most current up to date on this game, game is now basically entering beta phase, was on alpha for like 20 months, moving into beta as we speak.

    Thanks for reading.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2020
  9. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - UPDATE ON TUNING SENSITIVITY/MOTION BLUR - 8/16/20:

    Some correction needs to be made:

    Earlier, I said that the Quadro Drivers 392.61(Latest of this particular branch) Fixes the Shaky looking effect while TAA is being enabled but in turn some blur trail is left, This is was overlooked by mistake, It was a particular hex within the Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits should have been used but it was not, it was coming from:

    0x00<<~~ This hex here, it "MUST" be used if you want 4-way to scale properly preferably from digits 8,9 and the letters: A,B,C,D & E.

    Now, if its just left at the digit 0, you will no longer have the missing/flashing texture problems, I mentioned this before and originally thought it was coming from the quadro drivers: 392.61, again, totally mistaken about the whole thing, I do apologize.

    Cause when I was trying out 392.61 drivers, I forgot to save the nvidia inspector profile for this game so when I changed drivers around, loaded the profile, the 0x00<<~~ was not being used, so in turn, I got some blur trail while TAA is being enabled, overall 4-way sli scaling reduction and no more missing/texture flashing.

    Again, this hex MUST be used, upon entering the game, again, you will experience texture missing/flashing,etc. Just toy around with your effect settings, eventually everything should settle down, might want to toy around with the res. scale slider to bring out the scaling more, might take some tries.

    Another thing that reduces 4-way sli performance is "MOTION BLUR", please, while tuning this game, do NOT use motion blur within the engine.ini settings, game does not like certain post processing effects, thanks.

    Another very important that should not be over looked: Launching and exiting out the game.

    As you can see, this game is pretty dang fragile while tuning but even with strict protocols, you will still have problems.

    Far as launching the game:

    Try starting the game under "fullscreen borderless" mode, seems more stable, while in the game itself, you can change it there but please only change the resolution ONLY during game play.

    I also notice that while under 4-way sli, exiting out the game, even while playing the game or during title screen, there might be a chance you will be stuck or in some cases, the system will reset itself naturally(occurs when exiting out the game while playing), also during main title screen, even exiting out the game here, at times, you will have problems, sometimes you can manage to do CNTRL+ALT+DEL and then sign off(If your lucky).

    Personally what I would do to exit out the game, this method that I am using now, so far, its been working perfectly, here it is:

    While playing the game, Press the following keys:

    CNTRL+ALT+DEL, then sign off.

    Safest way to get off the game without being stuck.

    Also, another protocol while tuning, MUST be met, otherwise you will have problems getting into the game, here is a couple of problems I discovered while tuning under 4-way sli:

    When launching the game, first screen(Where it says piranha games), you will have quick garbled sounds then a BSOD.

    The 2nd one:

    The intro splash screens will have no problems but right before it goes to the main title screen, there is a hang, you can get out of it by doing:

    CNTRL+ALT+DEL/works on this situation.

    Now, After you get these problems, DO NOT restart the game as it is, first you will need to re-load your nvidia inspector profile for this game and set the # of gpu's to one and set the option where it says:

    Disable Sli(Explicitly set through NVAPI): 0x00000001

    This will completely force 1 gpu mode while under 4-way sli, so no need to completely disable 4-way sli through NVCP.

    After that's taking care of, Delete your Windowsnoeditor folder for this game(MAKE SURE you always keep a back up of your tuned render.ini file), then re-launch the game, set all the graphic parameters to where it was, I normally set them to all low(I always set them to low prior to getting into the game), then log off the game.

    Re-configure your inspector profile to this game to 4 gpu's and set the:

    Disable Sli(Explicitly set through NVAPI): 0x00000000

    you absolutely must do this every single time otherwise you will have problems getting into the game or even a bsod, so to prevent all of this, you must do the above protocols, even then, don't expect to be 100% stable at all times, remember, your dealing with 4 gpu's as oppose to 1 or 2, absolutely big difference as anything could go wrong here.

    Its a very fragile game under 4-way sli, no doubt about it, so as always, be careful while tuning any game.

    I am in the process of starting up the final conclusion to this game very very shortly.
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2020
  10. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - UPDATE ON FPS FLUCTUATIONS DURING BATTLE - 8/18/18:

    As before, very hard at work investigating this issue where every time you get hit by any kind of weapon, there is a fps drag, thus: more stuff going on = alot more FPS fluctuations involved.

    I tried just for kicks: One gpu only and the end results:

    Exactly as it was on 4-way sli, even in lower resolution, it still does the same thing, so this isn't a 4-way sli issue, its also a single gpu problem as well, and yes, all the settings were set to low.

    Both 1 gpu mode and 4-way sli = Gpu Usage Fluctuates very abnormal when getting hit.

    Now if lets say, the enemies are attacking a base instead of you, there is NO fps drag of any kind, Even if you shoot any kind of projectile to the enemies, mountain, ground,etc = there is no drag, the only time you will experience this, is when you get hit directly, other then that, doesn't seem to have an issue.

    Just wanted to give heads up on this for those who are tuning this game.

    I am still investigating this issue as we speak, very stubborn to deal with.

    And yes under 4-way, I have tried many variations within the render.ini and still, no fix, if I can not fix it soon, I'll just dismiss it and go straight to do doing my final conclusion testing as this problem also pertains to one gpu, so please be aware of it while tuning, thanks.

    -EDIT: Just for kicks, did physics through cpu only and not gpu, to see what reaction it will give, again, same as before.

    -EDIT #2: Tried the infamous drivers: Quadro Drivers 416.30(Used this one alot back in early 4-way sli tuning days), understand its rather old drivers, gave it a shot and see how it would react, overall performance seems roughly the same but I wanted to see if the gpu usage/fps fluctuation problems would change while getting hit, nope, same results as before, worth a try but in the end, same results.
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2020

  11. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - UPDATE AGAIN ON FPS FLUCTUATIONS DURING BATTLE 8/19/20:

    Ok, pin pointed the problem, going to make long story short.

    As before, I been doing 4-way sli tuning for a very long time, so what I did is I tried out slot 2/3/4 by itself with its own respective gtx 970 card, and everything works perfectly, no slowdown while getting hit, I then went back to its original card, both 1600p and 2400p while textures at maximum with TAA being enabled, again, I didn't see any unusual slowdowns or ms(Frametime) Spikes.

    Initially I did in the beginning, I originally thought it was the card itself as the first gpu was emitting coil whine(From my knowledge not a bad thing, just noisy), or the pci-e slot itself, so in the end, its the 4-way tuning thats causing it.

    So now I know how to fix the 1 gpu issue, if on mulitple gpu, just switch main gpu(Cable) To another slot then go back to main(first) Gpu, problem is solved, even after going back to 4-way sli and then disable it, still doesn't have an issue.

    Again, Really thought it was the gpu or the slot itself, turns out no, Although I did had this particular card in the first slot a hard time on my other system while I was playing kings of lorn under 1 gpu mode, it took the slot with it, the pci-e slot on that motherboard still works but there is some problems with it but still functioning nontheless.

    So in the end, While your mech is getting hit under 4-Way Sli, yes, tons of abnormal gpu usage/fps fluctuation issues, still very hard at work getting rid of it, I am trying to get rid of this before I really do my performance rundown, this is whats really holding me back now, if any new updates on this, I'll post, thanks.

    EDIT: Just tried both 2-way and tri-sli, same results.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2020
  12. Matrices4

    Matrices4 Guest

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    Hello, I'm a big fan of your work! You are doing us a great service to keep 4-way SLI alive, as I really would like to see how I could get it working in multiple titles that are too demanding on 1 or 2 cards. I recently started building a watercooled 4-way GeForce GTX 1080 Ti rig back in May 2020, and I'm still waiting to finish it once all the parts arrive.

    I really want to try getting 2-/3-/4-way SLI working with my games collection, but mostly Hellblade, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, Metro Exodus, Final Fantasy XV, as they all have a DX11 back-end. I'm only running in 2-way mode with my 1080 Tis, all air-cooled right now, but I expect to have 4-way all watercooled by the end of the month. I'm running Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016 (1607), and I'm also using NVIDIA GeForce (Game Ready Drivers) 446.14.

    I would really appreciate if you can give me some pointers, on what my options are to get SFR (my preferred SLI rendering mode, but I'm open to AA, CFR, AFR, AFR of SFR [Boost Hybrid SLI?], SLI modes as well) scaling across my GPUs via NVIDIA Profile Inspector, in the games listed above; I am still trying to understand how this all works.
     
  13. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    Thank you for posting a comment on this thread.

    I'll try to answer all of your questions.

    First of all, in regards about the 4 1080ti's, I was originally wanted to go this route after my gtx 970's(4-way sli) projects are complete but decided to go with the 980ti route instead, I want to do one step at a time, from the way it looking now, its going to be a long time before I really jump on the 980ti bandwagon.

    I still have one 1080ti left, used to had two in sli but never went beyond that so I can not say for certain how it would operate but if you visit on the earlier post on this thread, it shows some videos where games in general was not even kicking in at all(Idle), not only that, from what I understand, you will need some kind of a key from nvidia to take advantage of 3 1080ti's or more, again, people with 3-way or 4-way sli in general, do not go deep and down to the nitty gritty to get games in general to scale at all(Tuning). There is a video on page 1 about more then 2 1080ti's and their reaction on games in general, again, I have not personally tried more then 2 so I can not say on my end.

    As before, don't expect any game to function 3-way or 4-way sli right off the back, this requires massive amounts of tuning, there were very few games on my side that did not require bit tuning at all but it was still needed in the end for better overall performance and they were: Dead Space 1 & Hitman Absolution.

    Far as drivers is concerned, from my own personal experience of tuning 4-way sli, I would "ONLY" stick with Drivers with branch: 39x.xx, 41x.xx, 42x.xx, & 43x.xx and nothing else.

    I tried a host of 44x.xx and few of 45x.xx/46x.xx and guess what???

    THEY DO NOT WORK PERIOD...

    Under no circumstances when operating under 4-way sli, you shall use these drivers, 110% confirmed: DON'T WORK...

    In regards about os, I am using win 10 x64(15063.V1703)-RTM, and it works perfectly, I only tested only a brief on V.1709(RS3-RTM), and it works excellent but only one game was tested from what I remember, never did alot of testing on it but it should work nontheless, far as RS4,RS5 and so on = Absolutely no guarantee's whatsoever that it will work, so for this reason, best to stick with 15063.V1703-RTM(RS2) Build to be utmost safe as all my testing is done on this build.

    Rendering mode of choice? Lately its been SFR or AFR of SFR for 4-way, all others are set to autoselect, few games showed better overall performance with AFR of SFR.

    CFR = Forget about it.

    We both have 2 totally different nvidia gpu families but it should work in similar fashion, but no guarantee's whatsoever.

    on my side, to make 4-way sli to function while using SFR or AFR of SFR, under Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits:

    0x0<<~~ Must set to the digits 6 through 8, if want to do under autoselect, leave it at 0.

    Another very important hex: 0x00000<<~~ This one right here, usually the one that really kicks in is 1,7,A,E, the digit 2 may help stop flashing/graphic anomalies but in turn might reduce scaling performance significantly or none at all, every game is going to be different.

    Then you got the Sli Broadcast and specific hacks, I don't use those unless I absolutely need to, all others like 8 - extra and the unknown id settings, usually the last ones I deal with if nothing else seems to be working but that's another ball game all together.

    Personally, I would start off a much easier game to get into tuning, Rise of Tomb raider is among one of the good start offs on this whole 4-way sli project, games like phoenix point = At least good one year worth of experience in tuning, if you check back on my work on phoenix point, you will see why(one of the hardest games to tune).

    Personally, I wouldn't start getting into 4-way sli right off the back, get more experience on 2-way then 3-way and lastly 4-way sli.

    But up to you though in the end, remember one thing: 4-Way Sli Tuning = The Dark Side of pc gaming, once your in, your stuck for good.

    To my knowledge, I think I am the only one to this day that has taken 4-way sli to this kind of a level, After doing it all this time, clearly can see no one in the world touches it.

    Again, I am trying to finish up Mechwarrior V, but in the meantime, feel free to read up on this thread.

    And about hellblade, that should not be one of your first games to tune, check back earlier on this thread on my works on the game.

    Again, thanks for the post.

     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2020
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  14. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - MASSIVE UPDATE ON GPU USAGE/FPS FLUCTUATION WHILE GETTING HIT 8/23/20:

    The moment we ALL been waiting for...

    I just found that will really help this nasty/stubborn situation, this problem persists from 2-way sli to all the way up to 4-way sli, to fix the Massive gpu usage/fps fluctuation problem(Only pertains while your mech is getting hit from any kind of Projectile), head over to your graphic settings, set the effect settings to maximum, problem is solved but I can not stress this enough, it is still there but it is NO WHERE NEAR as it was before, so for those who are tuning this game, look into this setting to see if will help for you, and no, setting the effect option to either medium/high will NOT work, you MUST have it on maximum, no exceptions.

    So now I got that out of the way, what a relief that was, now I can focus on jotting down performance readings for the final conclusion coming up so stay tuned.
     
  15. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - WARMING UP TO FINAL CONCLUSION - 8/25/20:

    Warming up to the final conclusion to this game, hopefully in couple days it should be done, I will be in the process of starting everything up later on today, but in the meantime, Take a gander on 3 of these videos as its getting hot towards the final conclusion of this game, The videos are not related to the game indirectly but still within the franchise itself, Are you all ready???, Because nothing can prepare you for whats coming.

    These videos are not mine.

    Video #1 - Evolution of MechWarrior Games 1988-2019:



    Video #2: BATTLETECH - Intro Cinematic(Mechwarrior is within the battletech universe, figured I add it in):



    Video #3 - Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance Intro HD:




    Stay tuned for final conclusion.
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2022
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  16. XenthorX

    XenthorX Ancient Guru

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    Your commitment is commendable. Nvidia should give you 3090 SLI.
     
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  17. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    MECHWARRIOR V: MERCENARIES - GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - IMPORTANT REMAINDER - 8/28/20:

    Several "VERY" important factors for those who are tuning this game in sli in general.

    These are just some quick remainders before the final conclusion.

    Before the quick remainders, Final Conclusion(Very hard at work currently), looking around Sunday/Monday time range, but more looking into monday, but things are looking very very good.

    Ok, certain quick remainders here and very critical.

    Certain things I found some solution/fixes, While under 4k mode, when moving your camera left or right, there seems to be alot of frame pacing/hitching like effect and its kinda bad, I have found a fix for those who are tuning this game in sli in general, that particular setting is called:

    View Distance.

    While in middle of doing my performance testing, was messing with this particular setting, was set to far, I set it to medium, it's pretty much all fixed but for some odd reason, while set to far and during middle of a heated battle, the frame pacing is no where near as bad, very strange and during battle, I would set it to low to be utmost safe and don't forget one other critical setting to help the massive abnormal gpu/fps fluctuations when your mech gets hit, and that setting is called effect setting, make "SURE" its set to maximum to correct this issue, it is a "MUST" or you will have major major problems during a heated battle(Only pertains when you are getting hit), absolutely no exceptions period.

    Another thing that I didn't mention before is the AF setting, before I had it on X16.

    Further investigation on this setting, it is working during 4-way sli but there seems to be some major fps impaction, on single gpu mode, there is some hit but not to bad, further investigation on this setting, there were some reports while this setting turned on, some people had some problems with it on, but on my side, I set it to 0, the scaling drag is to much on X16, even just on X2, so for this reason, for the best possible performance under 4-way, leave it to X0.

    One last thing, While venturing the hangar area, You better putting your effect and your post processing effect to low in this area, there seems to be some scaling potential issues here.

    I jotted some stuff down within the hangar area, with and without post processing, certain spots and view, there seems to be some problems, but yes, best to keep both effect and post processing effect in the hangar to low for the best overall scaling performance.

    I'll explain all the necessary protocols while playing this game in the final conclusion, how to prevent bsod's, hangs, etc, that being said, even if all the protocols are all played right, expect something to happen on this game, game is extremely fragile under 4-way, one of the worst but still kinda fine if all the protocols are met.

    See you all in the final conclusion, hoping around sunday/monday range, be sure to look for it, Thanks for reading.
     
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  18. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    Everything is well taken care of, and what error? Never got an error, only time I get a bsod or anything along those lines is when doing Sli in general while tuning the current 4-way sli project: MechWarrior V, game overall tuning sensitivity and getting around the game stability wise is absolute brutal, again, every game and their sensitivity wise is going to be different.

    Again, dealing with 4-way Sli compared to the traditional 2-way Sli = Absolute massive difference when it comes to dealing with overall stability of a particular game, Amount of time tuning time required, Dealing with and stabilizing all graphic anomalies, The difference compared to the two is like Looking directly at the sun and then looking deep into a very dark Water Well...

    Again, I am probably the only one in the world that has taken 4-way sli to this kind of a level and dealing with all kinds of situation that no one couldn't even comprehend and the massive amounts of tuning and the learning curve from doing this from the very beginning, I basically pretty much learned everything on my own as I went along.
     
  19. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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    that's a spammer.
     
  20. A M D BugBear

    A M D BugBear Ancient Guru

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    Thanks, I figured as much but I was just stating on my side in general.

    I didn't realize till later that it was geforce experience related, right there it was not related, thanks again.

    Back to on topic on 4-way sli + Mechwarrior V...

    I am pretty much done with my performance write up, Many Many performance readings are all done, lots, and LOTS of stuff to cover.

    I should be done in a bit, then going to take a bit longer to post all of my stuff, so going to be a bit, Everyone if possible, be sure to check for it, your not gonna miss this one, awesome stuff.

    I can say this though: Tuning Level Experience for this game: Extremely Advanced, I wouldn't say not Stubborn as Phoenix Point but it is Very Very Advanced game to tune and Alot more Sensitive then Phoenix Point and defin't takes tons of hours of 4-way sli tuning experience before hoping on to this game, I would say at least, If I want to get real technical, Probably up to 1k worth of tuning hours experience, basically tuning 4-way sli with this game: game is flat out: NO JOKE.

    Reason why I say that much, If your going to do everything on your own, Learning and understand certain bits/hex work and what their implications are and so on, everything on your own, yes, up to 1k hrs with this game, IF you were going to do everything on your own and never looked stuff up, not even for reference. MechWarrior V = Top of the Crop, in terms of 4-way sli difficulty, absolutely no doubt about it.

    And dealing with another tuning: UE4, This right here takes another great deal of time as well under 4-way sli.

    As Reference only for this, This is what I use:

    http://www.kosmokleaner.de/ownsoft/UE4CVarBrowser.html

    Talk about lots of time, I only use the one I feel that may help. Lots of stuff.

    -Edit: Everything is pretty much done in Mechwarrior V, going to take some break then I'll do my write up on here, check for it later, thanks.
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2020

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