Sli isnt working on any games

Headshot

i5 and 2x GTX 570

Im at my wits end here. I just cant get sli working on any games. Iv just recently upgraded windows, from Home Premium to Ultimate now.

I run 3D mark and get a score of P8763 3DMarks so its working there but not in games

I go into the control panels, manage 3D settings and pick crysis 2.exe and make sure that's at Nvidia recommended sli rendering mode and it is, same goes for Witcher 2 (Witcher 2 gets 60 frame rate, should be higher and Crysis 2 dx11 only gets 24)

Iv tried clean install of Nvidia latest beta driver and http://www.evga.com/articles/00463/Default.asp but no luck

DirectX 11 is installed too

What am i doing wrong here?

Global settings

CapBean

I don't have SLI so can't really help but have you tried the Nvidia faq's links below.

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/sli_technology_faq_uk.html
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/sli_technology_howto_uk.html
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/slizone_howto_install_uk.html
Also forum link below.
http://www.xoxideforums.com/graphics-cards/74545-setting-up-sli.html

Hope these help.
CapBean

CapBean

Also found this video on Utube like below,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=fLvnuA1uhoE

It shows how to install and configure the SLI.

Again hope this helps,
CapBean.

Headshot

Thanks for the replies but unfortunately they weren't helpful

edit

Does anyone know could it be the fault of not doing a clean install of windows?

yoyo

I know this may sound obvious but did you switch the SLI selector card inside the motherboard to access the second card? And also bridge the 2 together, never used SLI so not sure if this is needed for newer standards but worth mentioning anyways jic

Nick

Blowfish

I've slightly older cards so the layout of the Nvidia control panel may have changed a bit, but I presume under Set SLI and PhysX Configuration, SLI is enabled and neither card is set to be dedicated to PhysX?

Also, at the very top menubar, under 3D Settings, there should be a 'Show SLI Visual Indicator' option. If you tick it, it'll make games fugly, but it'll definitely tell you if it's using SLI for them or not.

Headshot

Blowfish wrote: »

I've slightly older cards so the layout of the Nvidia control panel may have changed a bit, but I presume under Set SLI and PhysX Configuration, SLI is enabled and neither card is set to be dedicated to PhysX?

Also, at the very top menubar, under 3D Settings, there should be a 'Show SLI Visual Indicator' option. If you tick it, it'll make games fugly, but it'll definitely tell you if it's using SLI for them or not.

Some great news, I got crysis 2 going. I had to turn off the vsync which is strange, had to do the same in witcher 2 and deus ex HR

call of duty black ops is still a bit low compared to pre installing new windows

blowfish how does that show sli visual indicator work, is it suppose to stay green from top to bottom or what?

Blowfish

Headshot wrote: »

blowfish how does that show sli visual indicator work, is it suppose to stay green from top to bottom or what?

The green vertical bar just indicates that SLI is definitely enabled and it's using AFR. It doesn't stretch the full length of the screen.

Headshot

with the vsync turned off Im left with screen tearing which I dont want

How come I can only get the sli working with vsync turned off, its very frustrating

edit

iv done a clean install of windows and I have the same trouble

wtf is wrong with my pc

Headshot

Thanks mod for moving this

Im hoping the lads may help me here since they have alot of experience with sli

Tea_Bag

Vsync forces the card(s) to render the frames at a set rate, according to the monitors refresh rate. its a 60hz monitor so the card is forced to 60fps.

this is designed to older slower cards to keep them at a set speed as apposed to jumpy everywhere. you dont need it enabled (read: make sure its disabled ) for SLI'd 570s.

now as to the problem of it being wonky when disabled, im not sure how to help you there.

Serephucus had 580's SLI'd up until recently so when he comes online im sure he could talk you through problem settings or driver issues.

Serephucus

Unfortunately, I never used v-sync, so I can't help you there.

I never really had any issues with my drivers. I didn't even have to reinstall. I simply turned the computer off, plugged in the second card, and restarted. Windows bitched at me for a bit, but after another restart everything was running perfectly. Crysis 2 included.

Headshot

Serephucus wrote: »

Unfortunately, I never used v-sync, so I can't help you there.

I never really had any issues with my drivers. I didn't even have to reinstall. I simply turned the computer off, plugged in the second card, and restarted. Windows bitched at me for a bit, but after another restart everything was running perfectly. Crysis 2 included.

Would it be my monitor 60 Hz that is causing it

if I had a 120hz would that solve the trouble?

marco_polo

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Vsync forces the card(s) to render the frames at a set rate, according to the monitors refresh rate. its a 60hz monitor so the card is forced to 60fps.

this is designed to older slower cards to keep them at a set speed as apposed to jumpy everywhere. you dont need it enabled (read: make sure its disabled ) for SLI'd 570s.

now as to the problem of it being wonky when disabled, im not sure how to help you there.

Serephucus had 580's SLI'd up until recently so when he comes online im sure he could talk you through problem settings or driver issues.

VSync is meant for cards operating faster that 60FPS cards to reduce tearing, not for slower cards. It is a subtle distinction but what is happening is not that the card is forced to produce frames at 60 FPS, rather that 60 times a second the monitor signals that it is ready to accept a frame from the GPU (ie that the GPU has 16.6 ms to produce a frame. A cards that is rendering @40 FPS will only be able to averaging a single frame every 25ms)

A GPU that is capable of more than 60 FPS will always have one ready in that 16.6ms timeframe, but a slower GPU operating at under 60 FPS will often miss the window resulting in a drop in frame rates , because if even it if it has just missed the window by 1 ms it will to wait until the next refresh to send the completed frame.

Serephucus

With the result being, that if you enable v-sync with a card that can't keep up with the 60FPS requirement, you'll get slower framerates than you otherwise would: If a card has a frame ready just after the monitor signals it's ready for one, the card will have to wait until the next frame call, giving lower framerates over all.

Tea_Bag

thanks! yea after posting it i realised something didnt add up and because ive never looked much into its design i was probably mostly wrong. that said, with a 570SLI setup or on my 6950CF im automatically switching it off so didnt care to research my post.

Headshot

marco_polo wrote: »

VSync is meant for cards operating faster that 60FPS cards to reduce tearing, not for slower cards. It is a subtle distinction but what is happening is not that the card is forced to produce frames at 60 FPS, rather that 60 times a second the monitor signals that it is ready to accept a frame from the GPU (ie that the GPU has 16.6 ms to produce a frame. A cards that is rendering @40 FPS will only be able to averaging a single frame every 25ms)

yap that's my problem then, it does 60fps because the monitor can only do 60 refresh rate

I might treat myself to a new monitor for Christmas but the hard thing will be to find a 32" which does higher than 60. Reckon that will be big money

thanks lads for the help, really puts my mind at ease that its not the gpu's fault or drivers

Tea_Bag

i still think its a driver issue. vsync off should work fine.
however, if you want a new 120hz monitor thats bigger than 24", prepare to shell out.

this is pretty much the best in its class the last time i checked, but you get to play Crysis2 et al in 3D out the box!

Headshot

Tea_Bag wrote: »

i still think its a driver issue. vsync off should work fine.
however, if you want a new 120hz monitor thats bigger than 24", prepare to shell out.

this is pretty much the best in its class the last time i checked, but you get to play Crysis2 et al in 3D out the box!

why do you think its a drivers fault, tea bag?

Since I did the clean install of windows crysis 2 is 60 fps vsync on (before clean it was 25fps) and vsync off is very up and down 100-150 (this is in crysis 2 dx11)

thanks for the link, ill have a look

marco_polo

Tea_Bag wrote: »

thanks! yea after posting it i realised something didnt add up and because ive never looked much into its design i was probably mostly wrong. that said, with a 570SLI setup or on my 6950CF im automatically switching it off so didnt care to research my post.

Yeah it does seems almost wrong to limit 450 odd euro worth of cards to 60FPS unless the screen tearing is really bad. I rarely use it myself except for a handful of (mostly source engine) games. In any case its becoming a fairly rare problem nowadays for my rapidly aging HD4870 (It has served me well but hopefully I'll be making the jump up to the whatever the 7XXX equivelant of the HD6950 will be in the next few months.).

Tea_Bag

marco_polo wrote: »

Yeah it does seems almost wrong to limit 450 odd euro worth of cards to 60FPS unless the screen tearing is really bad. I rarely use it myself except for a handful of (mostly source engine) games. In any case its becoming a fairly rare problem nowadays for my rapidly aging HD4870 (It has served me well but hopefully I'll be making the jump up to the whatever the 7XXX equivelant of the HD6950 will be in the next few months.).

hopefully the 7000 series doesnt come too quickly, my 6950's arent even dusty yet

some of the leaked info shows the 7870 (new 6870 or whatever) has the specs to destroy the 6950's and does it with half the power. the new RAM arcitecture looks mighty impressive too.

i think we'll be seeing the first GPU's clocked at 1ghz stock with AMD, but most certainly with Nvidia's Keplar.

ill be waiting for Maxwell though.

marco_polo

Tea_Bag wrote: »

hopefully the 7000 series doesnt come too quickly, my 6950's arent even dusty yet

some of the leaked info shows the 7870 (new 6870 or whatever) has the specs to destroy the 6950's and does it with half the power. the new RAM arcitecture looks mighty impressive too.

i think we'll be seeing the first GPU's clocked at 1ghz stock with AMD, but most certainly with Nvidia's Keplar.

ill be waiting for Maxwell though.

Its usually worth skipping at least one generation, a pair of HD6950 should see you safely through 2012. I was extremely tempted by a HD6950 myself but I had a look at the sort of game in my games backlog and felt I could squeeze one more GPU lifecycle out of the HD4870 (I also like to shoot for at least double performance in an upgrade and the 6950 was a little bit shy of that by my reckoning)

Serephucus

As long as you can hold out, it's definitely worth it. You'll gain more in a 2x performance boost, paying for most of the card, than you would from a 1.3x boost paying for most of it. Out of interest Tea Bag, what sort of 3DM11 scores are you getting with those 6950s?

I upgraded from a 280 to a 480, that was pretty much double for me. Then the 580s came out and, well, I caved. Going to try and keep this current one until Maxwell - god knows I've gone through enough trying to make this damn rig silent, I've finally gotten there, so I might as well keep it for a while.

Tea_Bag

Out of interest Tea Bag, what sort of 3DM11 scores are you getting with those 6950s?

ill let you know when i get home. 2 lab reports due in the morning though so might be here a while...:(