Extreme 4-Way Sli Tuning

GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - HALO: MCC - HALO 2 (ANNIVERSARY EDITION) - 1ST UPDATE - 2/25/23:

1st update for this game.

I can confirm now, 100%, 4-Way Sli scales way beyond insanity level, holy moly.

Before going any further, under 5k (3200p), right in the beginning of the game, where you adjust your camera around with those 4 lights, before the lights came on, I got 30 fps under 1 GPU mode, 4-Way Sli I got about 111-112 Fps, soon as the red light came on, 1 GPU gave me 27 fps, 4 Gpu's gave me about 104 fps or so, but then, something else strikingly happens next, I wanted to clean up some shadow flickering, I do the ALT+ENTER method right before you get on the game when loading up your saved game, I switched my resolution back to 5k (3200p), now under 4-Way Sli, its showing 131 fps (No lights), then soon as the targeting lights came in, again 1 GPU gave me 27 fps, 4 GPU's dishes out 122 fps, beyond perfect scaling potential, I had these extremely rare occurrences in the past, not common at all, but apparently this game is showing it, I was like WOW!. EDIT: I tried this ALT+ENTER method under 1 GPU mode, just to see what kind of performance it will be, even though under 1 GPU its not needed, yup, before the lights come on, its showing 37 FPS, so I'll take it back, celebrated to early.

Now that we got that out of the way, lets move on to what make this game ticks:

Open up nvidia inspector, lets look at some things first:

Under:

Sli compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits: 0x00000<<~~ 5th hex down, it is required, either digits 3 or 7 will make it tick, 3 performs the best.

&

Sli Specific Hacks (DX1x): 0x00000000<<~~ 8th hex down, currently set to letter: A, it is also required as well.

Sli compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits: 0x00<<~2nd hex down, also improves 4-Way Sli scaling performance, as well as: 0x0000<<~~ 4th hex down, this will also improve overall scaling performance, currently set to digit: 4.

Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits does as a very tad boost to overall scaling performance but not much, the above mentioned are the ones that make this game tick.

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EDIT ON USER.CFG & SHADOWS:

Apparently, when modifying the User.cfg within the game files themselves (Steam), seems to effect the game, also, I am having kinda of a hard time controlling the shadows within the game itself, instead try this: Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits: 0x00000000<<~~ 8th hex down, switch to digit 7, it should fix majority of the issue, might be some loss in performance on top of it, if still having issues, look under the User.cfg file within the actual game files itself, within the User.cfg file, look for Video section, you can change all your stuff there, again, within the LocalLow Folder > MCC, changing the engine.ini settings from here does absolutely nothing, tried turning off shadows from here, no can do, within the User.cfg file, yes. EDIT: Now I am like, WTH???, now apparently, the shadow flickering dies off naturally for some odd reason, I went back to my usual custom made bits, and the flickering control was the same, so totally disregard about the above Sli Broadcast bits change, however, digit 7 is known to fix graphical problems with other games, thought originally this might be the case.

How I triggered this in the first place? I was adjusting some settings within the User.cfg of the game, next, I completely took out User.cfg game completely to see what changes would be made, drastic changes, then I finally put back the stock User.cfg file, this is when most of the Shadow flickering were kept under control but this is when I was re-loading my saved game file. EDIT: Also when dealing with reshade, it is very hard to turn on reshade due to buffering problems (High Bus usage), this pertains to when the settings in general is to strong to keep under control, so for this reason, people who are tuning under similar setup as mine, you might want to crank it down to like 3.4k or so, cause I am having issues of turning on reshade @ 4k (2400p), even under 1 gpu mode, and on top of that, everything set to lowest within the Halo 2 game settings, that didn't change anything, so again, watch out when tuning this game, the Vram/main ram hit will be much greater then compared to the last 2 halo games I worked on.

EDIT ON 2/27/23, SHADOWS:

While testing/tuning this game yesterday, I was at a part where you use that tank on the bridge, there is some massive shadow flickering from the far distance, you can help minimize this by doing the ALT+ENTER right before your save game loads up and do it once more to go back on the game, forewarned though, your resolution now will go back to your native resolution, regardless if your main windows screen matches the desired playing resolution within the game, it does not matter, also within: Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits: 0x00000000<<~~ 8th hex down, this seems to help control some texture flashing issues to a degree while your in the 2nd portion area (Outskirts), try using these digits to what your outcome is: Digits: 2,3,6 or 7, also, if your still not completely happy on controlling the shadows, you can completely taken them out within the User.cfg within the game files themselves (Steam), far as right now, ever under 2-Way Sli, controlling the shadows, at this current stage, doesn't seem to easy to keep it under control, I will keep updating this as I go along.

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Infact, I will show a quick image down below showing performance difference between 1 GPU vs 4 GPU's @ 5k (3200p) Resolution, Max settings, also, toggling detail quality doesn't seem to change the overall scaling performance like the last 2 halo games I have personally tuned.

Images down below are compressed as the original files were way to large to be uploaded on here, furthermore, by uploading it on to here, the image quality also goes down even further, so please aware of this, thanks.

Performance section:

@ 5k (3200p) Max Settings.

1 GPU:



4 GPU's:



All in all, looking very good at start.

Also, those of you who are tuning are similar setup as mine, be very careful with the Vram Usage, especially at 5k (3200p), I am completely way out of the boundary level of the 970, its using the System ram as buffer, although I have no issues, the buffering part could take a slight time to adjust, also please makre sure you have at least 32gb of main system ram, I have seen high as over 27gb of main system ram being used during switching resolution while in game, so be extremely careful and have good amount of system ram, it is a complete must, runs perfectly fine otherwise.

There seems to be a some bus usage problem on one of the gpu's, I will correct the issue.

Also, speaking about bus usage, under Sli Mode, there a specific change that's required within nvidia inspector, otherwise while on the main title screen of MCC, adjusting your settings, etc, you will experience a heavy bus usage, and the fps will also go down, to help completely neutralize this, open up nvidia inspector and make this one simple change: Sli Specific Hacks (DX1x) 0x000000<<~~ 6th hex down, set to either digits: 1,3,5, or the letter B, also, it may help to keep the bus usage down while in the game, but on my side of tuning, with this specific game, didn't seem to do much, but I played only right in the beginning of the game so I won't know until way later.

More updates to come.

 

GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - HALO: MCC - HALO 2 (ANNIVERSARY EDITION) - UPDATE - 2/27/23:

Finished doing some very extensive 2-Way Sli testing, everything is working top notch.

I only got so far when you play with that tank then after the tunnel, after that, I stopped shortly thereafter, however, I did very extensive testing on previous areas.

As before, the hardest part of keeping under control is the shadows themselves, I am basically doing the best I can, the worst shadow flickering part is when your playing the tank on the bridge, although I have minimized alot, while on the bridge, most of the shadows are coming from the tank itself, not to much on the bridge, right when you come down the bridge, over here, shadow flickering could be bad too.

Soon as you go down the tunnel from here, you will be introduced with some texture flickering and among other things, I have completely neutralized the situation but there is steps of doing so.

Lets go back on the bridge scene while using the tank, right in the beginning, in the far distance, you will see massive shadow flickering on the buildings, whatnot,etc, you can do: ALT+ENTER at anytime, do it twice in succession, soon as you come back, you will notice that everything is completely stable, the shadow flickering in this scene, seems to be mainly dependent on your native resolution, so when your going above native resolution, this is where things are alot harder to control, right after getting back on the game while doing ALT+ENTER, try switching your resolution to your desired playing resolution, majority of the shadow flickering should be non-existent, most of the shadow flickering during the bridge scene should be coming from the tank itself (The one your playing as).

Soon as you go down the tunnel area, this is another problem where you will see quite a bit of texture flashing etc, to fix this, go down the tunnel for a bit until you hit the next save game spot, exit out the game and re-load your saved game, everything should come back to normal, however, I can not stress this enough, all of it is how you tune your bits.

Lets go way back during the 2nd portion of the game (Outskirts area), while playing in the beginning portion of this area, you will experience alot of shadow flickering, texture flickering etc, 3 things that plays important role, far as my testing is concerned:

Open up nvidia inspector:

Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits: 0x000000<<~~ 6th hex down & 0x00000000<<~~ 8th hex down

&

Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits: 0x00000<<~~ 5th hex down.

All 3 of these, depending on you fine tune them, will greatly effect on how the texture flashing/shadow flashing, etc behaves.

Also, within: Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits: 0x00000<<~~ 5th hex down, Digit 8 seem to control pretty good overall along with the Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits change but the major drawback here: Much higher Bus Usage, something that needs to keep it minimized while playing as to high of this will increase overall stuttering, vastly lowered both 1% & .1% Low's, while still on the topic of this particular hex, when set to digit: 3, seems overall performance is really good while keeping things under control, especially when going underneath the tunnel during the tank scene, but in that instance, you need to quit the area and then re-load your saved game to keep everything under control.

My Current Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits, only 2-Way Sli has been through very extensive testing:

0x00000403

Current Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits, only 2-Way Sli has been through very extensive testing:

0x8D5337F1

And lastly: Sli Specific Hacks (DX1x):

0x0000050A

Rendering mode: SFR

Far as the 8 - Extra & the unknown ID settings, I will go over on future posts.

So, as of all, 2-Way Sli testing is complete, next will be Tri-Sli and then 4-Way Sli.

In future posts, I will show performance images, from 1 GPU all the way to 4 GPU's, with and without reshade.

Far as the default graphic display (Original) is concerned, I had no issues, no flickering problems or anything down those lines.

Once Tri-Sli testing and 4-Way Sli testing is complete, I will revise this particular post.

 

Was messing around with matrix awakens demo and the commands from this thread, it goes in to d3d12 afr but then crashes?
https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-5-multi-gpu-support-not-sli-not-nvlink/231825/11

 

Not surprised by the results of this, as I already said that, DX12 = X, there is only "One" game that can do 4-Way Sli under DX12 with absolute ease and 0 tuning required, and that game is none other then: Rise of the Tomb Raider, and the other but different API Opengl (Only one that I am aware of), that is Doom3, but for Rise of the Tomb Raider, certain specific drivers has to be used in order to get proper results, and yes when right drivers are used, 4-Way Sli will scream for ice cream, louder then any DX12 or Vulkan based game, coupled with 0 graphical problems, none, 0, it even surpassess DX11 counterpart along with my custom made bits, far as overall performance is concerned, this part I was kinda surprised in a way.

EDIT:

Got confused when you mentioned DX12 on here, originally thought 4-Way Sli but your running 2-Way Sli, got very confused, sorry.

 

Might be because the demo is unreal engine 5.0, instead of 5.1?

 

Never even touch them, although, there is a UE5 benchmark demo on steam you can download but that is DX12 only I believe.

I don't usually touch DX12 or Vulkan based games cause of no basically Sli support, and those DX12 bits within nvidia inspector, seems it does absolutely nothing. When these new API's came about, Sli in general went the other way around. I know RDR2 and Strange Brigage, Sli (2-Way Sli) is working fine but that was several years back.

You own Halo: MCC?, I been working on that game, quite a few games on it, testing has been completed (Only 2 were tuned/tested), you can give that a try but no guarantees, look for by scrolling up on this page, some on previous page as well, really curious on how it will run on your setup.

 

Tried your halo reach nip, its says failed to import?

 

Are you using the modified tesla drivers 427.60? Along with nvidia inspector (Deadmanwalking), version 3.50?

I will revise the earlier post with a full run down of my custom made bits, be sure to check them out later.

The .nip should import without any issues, don't know why your having issues on your own end.

EDIT:

Please check back on page 76, scroll down to Halo: MCC / Halo: Reach, I revised the post, I gave a complete run down of the necessary changes that needs to be made within nvidia inspector, give me an update later, I am also revising the Halo: CE (Anniversary Edition) in the same manner, please "Only" use the graphic drivers and the version of nvidia inspector that I have recommended before along with the OS build, if everything is met, you should be ok, but no guarantees as your using a totally different cards then the one I am using, fill me in later, thanks.

EDIT:

I revised the Halo: MCC / Halo: CE (Anniversary Edition) Post, I added the full run down of my custom made bits, please check back on the previous page, scroll all the way down to where you see this game, everything will be there, thanks.

 

Tried it, no luck, I have the microsoft version and when I try to add the mcc exe to inspector it says access denied?

Tried changing permissions but it doesn't work, but I'm sure the profile already has them.

 

With the tesla drivers 427.60, it does not, you have to manually inject the .exe to the given profile, navigate to the actual game folder, the .exe will be in there.

 

Callisto protocol running with mgpu ue5 engine.
Create a short cut to exe and add this -game -d3d12 -MaxGPUCount=2 -AFR

 

Show me performance differences from 1 gpu vs 2 gpu's, gpu usage doesn't look good either but they really don't mean anything.

Upload 2 images, 1 gpu vs 2 gpu's, thanks.

 

I already agree, just wanted to show it works with flickering.
Forgot to mention it has dx11 and fullscreen.

 

Callisto Project is UE4 based game, it will take awhile to tune.

Personally if I were you, if you are very serious into tuning, I would just focus one game at a time.

 

why are ue5 commands working if its ue4?

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...MAKHQaoCjQQzmd6BAgUEAU&biw=1912&bih=967&dpr=2

 

I don't get it' it says both?

 

I looked up the game just recently, says the developers are using the latter version of UE4 (4.27).

However, I have seen other sites that it says UE5, so not to sure, but, I knew you could run it under dx11 by using the -dx11 launch commands, I am still interested to try out this game.

 

GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - HALO: MCC - HALO 2 - UPDATE - 3/7/23:

Current stats thus far:

Before I begin, performance images showing 1 GPU all the way to 4 Gpu's, with and without reshade are all complete, it will be on the very next post, along with my initial testing/tuning thoughts and my custom made bits.

No doubt about it, out of Halo: Reach and Halo: CE (Anniversary Edition), this one is the hardest one out of the two, primarily because of one main sole reason: Controlling some of the texture flickering and Shadow flickering, although I have manage to put alot of it under control, it will still be there, very very very very hard to control, but for the most part, game plays fine.

Another thing I am having problem with and I routed the problem, when you rotate your camera in a very rapid succession, you will notice a decrease in your overall scaling performance, from 2-Way Sli to 4-Way Sli, it is coming from shadows themselves, I tried going under the User.cfg to see if I can reduce this scaling drag while rotating your camera, no can do, if you put your shadows on low quality settings within the in-game settings, it will help alot, now, the only way around this issue as we speak, is taking out the shadows themselves completely from the User.cfg and it does work, I already tried several times in the past, but if you do this, the game will not look right, completely changes the look of the game, also, by turning off shadows completely within the User.cfg (By simply removing them), the scaling drag when moving your camera in a very rapid succession, will no longer be there, it is completely non-existent.

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EDIT on Shadows:

Correction in regards about the in-game settings called Shadows.

If your Shadow Quality setting is set to low, while on the game itself, depending on directional view, camera, etc, you will experience massive flashing issue, to correct this, set the Shadow Quality setting to either Medium or to High, thank you. EDIT: More on shadows: If you take out all the shadow parameters within the User.cfg, while on the game, there is a massive ghosting blur trail while playing, with reshade, depending on the settings, it makes it even worse, so just heads up on it while you are tuning this game.

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Another thing is reshade, very interesting:

Within the Arbiter area, with reshade, if you use TAA, certain texture flashing will be under control, however, one thing has to be changed:

Under Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits:

0x00000<<~~ 5th hex down, it must be set to digit: 8, now, this is the digit I said before the it has pretty good control on the flickering problems, however, if you use TAA reshade along with this, your bus usage will be very high, I have seen in the upper 40% to 50% range, to high, we need to keep it low as possible as I already said many times in the past that, if this is to high, you will experience alot more stuttering, vastly lowered on both 1% & .1% Low's, you will defin't notice the difference, but there is ways to neutralize alot of this, by forcing Vsync, although this method will help tons, you will still get stuttering due to the bus usage being way to high, my sweet spot is 4% and under, but for this game, in certain conditions, very hard to control.

Another thing with reshade:

By using SSAO.fx, certain texture flashing can be kept under control, again, alot of it is where you are on a particular mission.

Some places, as I said before, by putting the Fps cap to 60 within the in-game settings, can help the overall flickering issues, some places it can make it worse, some places works alot better if you have your fps cap set to unlimited and alot of it is how you fine tune those bits in general as they all work together.

So right now, I am doing some more extensive testing with reshade, I have notice more flickering, texture flickering with reshade, so trying to help minimize the situation.

For serious Sli tuners out there that's using reshade with this game, be forewarned here, as if your reshade setting is to strong, it can cause flashing issue (Mostly when facing downwards), this can be minimized by tuning the: Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits: 0x00000000<<~~ 8th hex down, so please tune accordingly.

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EDIT on Reshade:

More on the topic of reshade:

Another thing that will greatly enhance the flickering problem while using reshade (Depending on how strong your reshade settings are), you can pretty much completely control this problem, under Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits: 0x00<<~~ 2nd hex down, if this is not being used, it greatly help keep the texture flashing, etc under control while heavy reshade is in use, if your using this particular hex, and if your reshade is getting to strong, you will notice alot of graphical corruption, so tune with absolute caution, also, more on this particular hex, if you don't use this hex, especially under 4-Way Sli, and not using reshade, your overall scaling potential will be reduced, so if your not using reshade at all and want pure out all out speed, please "Use" this hex, only take it out if your using brutal reshade as this will fill in the missing void nicely.

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EDIT - More on Reshade:

Ok, I got some damning news here, I was extremely curious to see how an older version of reshade would react with this game with the flickering problems when heavy reshade is in use, initial testing results has confirm what I suspected all along, Verison 4.9.1 of Reshade, does not have this problem, however it is more sensitive as while tuning, game very unexpectedly crashed then exited out the game by itself, also, under DX11 tab, there is a check box called: Clear buffer before clear operations, soon as you check this box, game will go into an immediate crash, I tried several times over, same thing but its really not needed, what's more important is to fine tune a particular reshade setting called: Displaydepth.fx, if that is set to its correct parameter, reshade with this game will work without any issues, but yes, the flickering issues while using heavy reshade settings is causing from the newer version, that version in question was: 5.7.0, which is the latest, also in regards about using RTGI, I used the beta 0.33 version, although it works, it still have lots of performance issues as well as overall bus usage problems, I then reverted back to where I think it would work alot better, yup, version 0.25 runs completely circles all over the 0.33 version, so as of now, please only use 0.25 of RTGI until further notice, thank you very much. EDIT: Now for some reason, the flickering situation came back on reshade version 4.9.1, this happened after I uninstalled version 4.9.1, then installed 5.0.2, 5.0.2, same situation happened, then I reverted back to 4.9.1, this is where it came back. I will do more testing on this. EDIT: Stupid me, LOL, I didn't have the Fps cap to 60 within the in-game settings, yes, the flickering has stopped, again, alot more testing needs to be conducted, but the fps cap is playing a major role here in controlling the flickering issue, with reshade that is. If your on a 60hz screen such as myself, this is something I forgot to mention earlier, if you force Vsync on through nvidia inspector and then set to 60 fps cap limit within the in-game settings, the in-game 60 fps cap will completely override the Forced Vsync option through nvidia inspector, how do I know this? Well to start, I look how potent forced vsync is in controlling all known flickering, the in-game settings controls quite a bit better, however, that being said, far is keeping the frame rate smooth while slightly above 60 fps and keep both 1% & .1% Low's in peak state, the forced Vsync option through nvidia inspector will work alot better then just setting 60 fps cap through the in-game settings, so, keep this for your own reference, thanks. EDIT: Just to confirm everything, with the in-game 60 fps cap checked, I tried reshade version 5.0.2, 5.5.2, 5.7.0, then back to 4.9.1, the flickering control, based in the beginning of the game, seems more or less the same, so basically, it was not the reshade version, I just happened to forget to use the in-game 60 fps cap feature.

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Also, people testing/tuning, using very similar gpu setup as mine, be forewarned by using with reshade, as anything more then what it seems, 3.5k resolution, your texture has to be set to low for the most part as if you don't, the bus usage will be out of whack and very very very hard to keep it under control and your overall performance while doing so will be significantly reduced, so please be aware of it.

For 5k resolution without reshade, I can put the texture to High or Medium, best to put to medium, for 6k Extreme testers out there, I would put it to either medium or low, be careful though, please have at least 32gb of main system ram before attempting, it will eat it like it was nothing, 6k does work fine, I forced Vsync on, world of difference, some stuttering but overall, @ 6k, moved incredibly well, especially for the amount of GPU Vram I am using, talk about Extreme tuning to overcome Extreme Limitations, you can put the texture to high but I don't got enough system ram to do so, you can still do it but your Bus Usage will sky rocket as a direct replacement.

More on the topic of reshade:

If your using heavy duty reshade settings along with high resolution, you might want to consider using the lowest one first prior to loading your saved game and then turn on the other one by one, as if your reshade settings are to strong, and alot of it has to do with the in-game texture settings, soon as the saved game loads up, your bus usage will be very high, so, very important here, prior to loading up your saved game, just have one of the lesser reshade setting that your currently using, turned on, then right before the save game loads up, try to face downwards, quickly as possible, this way, it will help keep the bus usage down while turning on the other reshade settings, one by one, it will help keep the bus usage under control, alot of the issues was coming from my Vram, so alot of extreme amounts of workaround was present, I had tons of fun with this game.

So in the next post, I will post performance images showing 1 GPU, all the way to 4 GPU's, with and without reshade along with my custom made bits and initial testing/tuning thoughts about this game.

Far as custom made bits is concerned, from 2-Way Sli to 4-Way Sli, I will have several custom made bits for each one, so extreme tuners can give it a test to which one will help with the shadow/texture flickering, one might work better then the other, game was defin't not easy for me, mainly the shadow flickering and some texture flickering but from the progress I made since I first started this game, I made significant progress, overall tuning difficulty wise, mainly due to the flickering part, I would say pretty advanced, even experienced hardcore tuners out there will defin't find it very challenging.

And yes, I took this game all the way up to 6.5k, but the texture has to be set to medium or low, I have seen my main physical ram, all of my 32gb of main ram, all used up.

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EDIT:

Yes, under 4-Way Sli, without reshade, on my testing system, the resolution "Must' be set to at least 6k, otherwise, your not going to get the scaling performance that you would hope for, even @ 6.5k, I still had some tad scaling issues in certain location and a given specific spot, reshade will fill the scaling gap nicely at a much lower resolution, but the downside is, anything from what it seems, 3.5k resolution and above, I have to put the texture to low, otherwise the bus usage themselves are extremely hard to control.

And lastly, under the original default graphics (By pressing the tab key), everything seems to be running excellent, absolutely no flickering of any kind was present.

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EDIT:

After upgrading my main system ram from 32GB to 64GB, on 6k (3456p) with Medium Textures, over 30GB of main system ram are now being utilized easy, now if the textures are set to high, slightly over 40GB of main system ram is being utilized, most I have ever seen while testing/tuning in my own experience.

Also, while using reshade, and you have shadows completely taken away within the User.cfg, if you have 60fps cap turned on or if you force Vsync on (I am on a 60hz screen), massive ghosting blur trail is present while moving, if your not using forced Vsync and within the in-game settings, if you have the Fps cap set to unlimited, the massive blur trail, for the most part will be gone but some ghosting blur trail will be present, also, very important, if your using reshade, and want to use shadows, the in-game shadow settings, "Must" be set to high as if anything underneath it along with strong reshade settings being used, there will be some massive flickering issues on certain spots and location, again, to completely get rid of this, is to completely take out the shadows themselves within the User.cfg, I backed track to see what I could do, no can do, extreme tuners that's not using reshade, your all good, this is for extreme reshade sli tuners, I absolutely highly recommend to completely take out shadows while using brutal reshade settings, not only that, by removing the shadows completely, you will basically eliminate all scaling drags while moving your camera during a rapid succession or just some basic camera moving.

See you all on the next post, thanks.

 

GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - MAIN SYSTEM RAM CAPACITY UPGRADE - UPDATE - 3/10/23:

My main system ram has been upgraded from 32GB to 64GB, same brand (Corsair) and Speeds, etc.

I tried to keep my usual oc setup within the bios but it was not stable, 2 things had to be adjusted here:

1st off, the ram itself is 3600mhz but its oc'ed to 4000mhz, the 4000mhz is what I been using for the original oc, I could keep this speeds but and all the other timings but one very specific timing had to be adjusted, command rate, which was set to 1 when I had the original 4 sticks of ram in the testing system, now total of 8 sticks of ram, command rate is now set to 2.

The 2nd thing I needed to adjust is the Cpu speed, if I had it on the usual 4.7ghz speeds, it was unstable within like 3-4 mins within Prime95 (While using stress memory controller and ram), so lowered my clock speeds to 4.6ghz, everything was perfectly stable while using Prime95, using the stress memory controller and ram option, testing was done almost 3.5hrs, no errors to report.

Also, way before I found out how I corrected the entire issue, I was originally running @ 4.7ghz, I was messing around with the ram speeds and timing, even @ factory profile 3600mhz, it was unstable, it took awhile to figure out the cpu speeds were the culprit along with the command rate timing, just for kicks, during this time, I tried to up the cpu voltage from what I originally had it on while under 4.7ghz, it was still unstable, so in the end, Prime95 ran with 0 problems, so for those using similar mobo as mine and want to upgrade from 4 sticks of ram to 8 and having some kind of issues, try adjusting what I mentioned earlier, thanks.

Next post will most defin't be: Halo: MCC - Halo 2 (Anniversary Edition), performance images, initial tuning/testing thoughts and custom made bits, stay tuned.

 

GTX 970 - 4-WAY SLI - HALO: MCC - HALO 2 (ANNIVERSARY EDITION) + RESHADE - FLICKER CONTROL UPDATE - 3/12/23:

So I been doing very extensive testing with reshade and completely removing all shadow parameters within the User.cfg.

As before, by eliminating all the shadows within the User.cfg, and depending on how you tune your bits, by moving your camera around, you will notice that the overall scaling drag is basically non-existent, even with brutal reshade settings.

Now I mentioned this before, if your going to be using heavy reshade settings, absolutely must to get rid of all the shadows parameters within the User.cfg, from here, you will also notice that by using heavy reshade settings, texture flickering will be present, now you can help completely control this by using a reshade setting called: Bessel_Bloom.fx, this should help tons in controlling the flickering problem, the down fall about using this specific reshade setting, performance penalty will be very obvious, and I would also put the performance setting to high as it has better overall flickering control, performance difference from low to high is nothing to worry about, now there is another setting that will basically minimize all flickering while using heavy reshade settings, within Bessel_Bloom.fx, under pre-processer definitions, there is only one parameter line shown, default is set to 0, if you set it to 1, big difference but, at a cost of more performance penalty.

Also, the Bessel_Bloom.fx technique, some of the bits has to be changed:

Namely: Sli Broadcast (DX1x) Bits: 0x00000000<<~~ 8th hex down

Also, another one that needs to be changed while using very heavy reshade:

Sli Compatibility (DX10+DX11) Bits: 0x00<<~ 2nd hex down, please do "Not" use this hex as it will enhance the overall flickering potency, only use this if your "Not" going to be using reshade, thanks.

I am also currently looking at other reshade filters (Shaders) to see which one has similar effects such as Bessel_Bloom.fx, so far, there is none.

I also tried to use this technique with the use of Shadows, I could not control the massive flickering issue while using heavy reshade setttings, this only applies to when all the shadows parameters within the User.cfg is eliminated.

4-Way Sli played extremely well overall, again, the only down fall of not using any shadows is that: ghosting blur trail while moving (Suspect different monitor might react differently), if your not using reshade, the ghost blur trail is so-so, but, if your going to be using heavy reshade, the ghosting blur is going to be pretty bad so be careful while tuning with reshade and the fps cap has to be set to unlimited, otherwise, if you set to 60 fps cap, the ghost trail becomes extremely bad, I tried doing forced Vsync through nvidia inspector, the results were the same as putting it on 60 fps came within the in-game settings, so if your going this route, choose fps cap: Unlimited.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention earlier that, there will be some increased bus usage while using the bessel_bloom.fx technique, around 13% and under, more reshade settings (More stress) is put on to the gpu's, overall bus usage will come down a bit, overall for the most part, plays fine, the bus usage while doing the bessel_bloom.fx technique, is alot less then doing that TAA technique I described earlier and oh, forgot to mention this earlier: Make sure bessel_bloom.fx is on the bottom most on your current working reshade settings list, the technique won't work properly otherwise.

EDIT:

Finalized my testing with 2-Way and Tri-Sli, no shadows + reshade, everything works perfectly.

One thing I need to point out here, while under 2-Way Sli, controlling the flickering problem is alot more easier then Tri-Sli or 4-Way Sli as you don't necessarily need to specifically use bessel_bloom.fx, shaders such as Clarity.fx, Local_Contrast.fx to name a few will help, but it seems stronger the reshade setting, the better the control of the flickering problem, for instance, if I use RTGI, everything holds extremely well, some minor screen flashing/flicker but nothing serious, overall, excellent.

So, all testing is complete, I might do some performance images, showing 1 GPU vs 4 GPU's, no shadows + reshade, stay tuned.

EDIT: Performance images, No shadows + Reshade from 1 GPU vs 4 GPU's are all complete, stand by for my final thoughts of this game on the very next post.

Total testing/tuning time of HALO: MCC in general, over 70+ Hrs (Only worked on Halo: Reach, Halo: CE (Anniversary Edition & Halo 2, the others, I have not worked on them yet).

Going to finally test this out on both 2-Way Sli and Tri-Sli, then I will do my performance images later.