GTX SLI Benches - F.E.A.R.

E

eastvillager

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 23, 2004
Messages
1,093
Config notes:

FX-55 2612 MHz, 13.0 Multiplier, 200.9 HTT (stock)
2 Gigs PC3200 DDR in dual channel mode, 2-3-2-2, (2 x1024)
Windows XP, all updates, installed on RAID 1(mirrored) of two 74GB raptors
F.E.A.R, v1.01, installed on RAID 0(striped) of 4 36GB raptors
two BFG 7800GTX OC in SLI (stock)

nvidia settings set to application preference and global profile. There isn't a fear-specific profile in the 81.85 drivers.

The game does not seem to be recognizing that I have an audigy 2 ZS in the rig, which is rather annoying. There is sound during the ingame bench, so this may be significantly affecting the benchmark numbers.

Benches:


benches.jpg


Ok, got hardware sound working(I hate creative labs forever). Ran some more benches with hardware sound, vsync on/off, and single card/sli. These do show that SLI is doing something, heh. If you get same benches with/without SLI, my first guess would be that you're CPU-bound.

Round 2:

benches2.jpg


Beyond the benches, I must say the game is fairly fun, and I've only got two real complaints:

1. Very little diversity in your enemies. I've encountered 4 types, not counting stuff you run into during your 'mental' sequences.
2. Very little diversity in the areas. Hallway-->airshaft-->hallway-->roof-->office cube-->roof--->repeat ad nauseum.

Oh yeah, I picked up quake 4 today too, I'll do some benches for it later this week.
 
Nice benches just what I wanted to see! You should try it with some of the AA and AF settings enabled (mostly 1600x1200 cause there is no way in hell you would be able to play 1920x1200 with AA and AF)


Pretty odd that the 78.05 smokes the newer drivers which have SLI and 7 series improvements.
 
probaby because when you install new drivers and enable SLI, you also have to go into the performance/quality settings, display advanced options and manually set SLI Rendering Mode to "Multi GPU Rendering" since by default it's Single GPU Rendering even with SLI enabled. That would be my guess. I make that mistake all the time when installing new drivers :D
 
I'm starting to suspect that FEAR isn't recognizing SLI. On the system in my sig, i'm using the 81.85 drivers. Then i created a new profile since the drivers didn't have one for FEAR. Then i started trying out the different SLI methods (split frame rendering, alternate frame rendering, etc) and running the performance test. I didn't see any difference between SLI and no SLI. I turned on the "Show GPU load balancing option" and FEAR doesn't show anything. I'm not sure if it must have a profile from nvidia to show it. In any case, SLI doesn't seem to be working.
 
Zinn said:
probaby because when you install new drivers and enable SLI, you also have to go into the performance/quality settings, display advanced options and manually set SLI Rendering Mode to "Multi GPU Rendering" since by default it's Single GPU Rendering even with SLI enabled. That would be my guess. I make that mistake all the time when installing new drivers :D
Click to expand...


wrong. when you install the drivers and it detects two cards, it asks you if you want to enable multi-gpu----and guess what? I said yes each time. :)
 
eastvillager said:
wrong. when you install the drivers and it detects two cards, it asks you if you want to enable multi-gpu----and guess what? I said yes each time. :)
Click to expand...

But if you look in the application profiles, the global profile is set to use Single GPU Rendering. If you want to use Dual GPU Rendering, the program must either have a profile in the drivers, or you must set the global profile to use one of the SLI rendering modes.
 
beanman101283 said:
But if you look in the application profiles, the global profile is set to use Single GPU Rendering. If you want to use Dual GPU Rendering, the program must either have a profile in the drivers, or you must set the global profile to use one of the SLI rendering modes.
Click to expand...


Look at the single card vs SLI numbers and tell me the second card isn't being used...

Looking at the advanced settings for the global driver, there is no setting to pick SLI/non-SLI. You may be confusing hardware acceleration: single-display as that, but that isn't what that is. Right click on it and pick what's this to see what it is.

Average framerate doubles, max framerate almost triples in SLI, I'd say the 2nd card is doing something. The lowest framerate barely changes----which shouts out that the game is CPU-bound at that lowpoint.

The real bummer is how vsync kills average framerate and no vsync causes wicked tearing. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
 
The reason the 78.05s kick ass in frames is because the don't allow Vsync to work... I have it on, but it's not working.. lol... just noticed that. I think that was in the 8x.xx changes, vsync on direct3d games was fixed. Anyways..

EDIT: whew.. it looks baaad with vsync off on my lcd... wow. going back to the 81.85s
 
eastvillager said:
Average framerate doubles, max framerate almost triples in SLI, I'd say the 2nd card is doing something. The lowest framerate barely changes----which shouts out that the game is CPU-bound at that lowpoint.

The real bummer is how vsync kills average framerate and no vsync causes wicked tearing. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
Click to expand...

exactly!

I also think a dual core should push that minimum frame rate up slightly.
 
Ya the Multi GPU settings is only if your using more then one display, it has nothing to do with SLI for games unless its multi moniters, Also when i was playing QUAKE 4 i use the DOOM3 Nvidia Profile and it is using SLI if you enable the SHOW LOAD BALANCING bar u can see it at work.
 
The game notes on SLI Zone for FEAR indicicate that it has it's own SLI profile built into the game (no nview profile).

I verified that SLI was working by enabling Show GPU Load balancing and I get a green horizontal line across the center of the screen that moves up and down somewhat. (Forget which mode this is)

Update - after loading the FEAR 1.01 patch - the SLI mode being utilized has changed - now it shows the green vertical bar on the left side (similar to other games) and my performance testing results more than doubled!!
 
dworley said:
The game notes on SLI Zone for FEAR indicicate that it has it's own SLI profile built into the game (no nview profile).

I verified that SLI was working by enabling Show GPU Load balancing and I get a green horizontal line across the center of the screen that moves up and down somewhat. (Forget which mode this is)
Click to expand...

Like i said, i couldn't see the load balancing.

When i went to bed last night i hadn't seen the Round 2 results. I'm at work now so i can't check my settings, but it's certainly possible i'm messing something up. lol Wouldn't be the first time. :p

I'll play around with it more in.. 8 hours or so.

EDIT: And it probably doesn't help that i created a profile that's probably overriding or otherwise interfearing with the one in the game. I guess that SLIZone site is more useful than i thought.
 
just out of curiousity, when you use sli without vsync do you have twice as much vertical tearing?, seems like you would as both cards probably would have the problem
 
dworley said:
Update - after loading the FEAR 1.01 patch - the SLI mode being utilized has changed - now it shows the green vertical bar on the left side (similar to other games) and my performance testing results more than doubled!!
Click to expand...

Sounds like they decided that AFR is better than SFR. My guess is they had to do an app specific AFR, like AFR2.
 
kleox64 said:
Vsynch fixed in what way?
Click to expand...

It would not work at all on direct3D games with the 7x.xx and earlier drivers while in SLi config. The 8x.xx drivers had a note about it "being fixed" so I assume it just works now. I know I saw the tearing with D3D games on my SLi setup.. I tried the 78.05s last night and it was very apparent. I am back on the 81.84s because they seem to work the best with my setup and FEAR. :)

EDIT: I think the vsync issue also had something to do with rendering modes also... like it worked with AFR, but not with SFR.. after all, with one card drawing the top of the screen and one drawing the bottom (Split Frame Rendering), getting vsync to work "perfectly" would def be tricky. While one card has complete control of one whole frame (AFR), then I can imagine vsync would be easier implement, because the one card does not have to factor in what the other is doing with the other side of the same screen (SFR). The post I just responded to below reminded me of this...

EDIT: (again) I found this on NVforums

"With the new "Release 80" driver, NVIDIA takes SLI to an entirely new level. First of all, gamers can use graphics cards in SLI mode with different clock speeds, different BIOS settings, different input/output configurations, different memory sizes and from different manufacturers. That means that our friends Nick and Jeff can buy any graphics card they want, as long as it's the same model as their current graphics card (GeForce 7800 GTX for Nick, and GeForce 6800 GT for Jeff). How's THAT for flexibility?
**--> Also, with this new driver release, SLI gamers will be allowed to enable vertical sync for ALL games! Say wave.gif to tearing!"


Yes indeed, Say wave.gif to tearing.. lol
 
J-Mag said:
Sounds like they decided that AFR is better than SFR. My guess is they had to do an app specific AFR, like AFR2.
Click to expand...

you mean SFR? right? with SFR you get the green line, because it splits the screen into two and each card handles one section. I know most games perform better with SFR... but it seems to not work well with vsync.. I get more tearing with that rendering mode... hrm..

This is interesting.. I noticed a big change after the patch.. I got better frames, but the game seemed a little more choppy... Tonight I am going to play with forcing AFR and SFR in the drivers and see what happens. I think I prefer the smoothness of the pre-patch render method.. hmmmmm... :)
 
So since F.E.A.R. has a built in profile should i use a Generic Profile for fear juat enabling AA, ANIS, ETC. ?
 
No sure... I am going to play that stuff more tonight.

Does anyone have another 6800GT SLI setup I can compare drivers + IQ + peformance results with?
 
well rev, all i can tell you is: the 81x drivers SERVERLY hamper my 6800's performance. i dunno what it does for you SLI guys, but i have to stay with the 78 series of drivers. like benches suck, cs:source sucks, everything is severely screwed for my machine with them new drivers.

ive actually been waiting to hear about it on the web... the new drivers screwing up non sli owners or 6 series owners or agp owners or some category i fit in haha
 
el rolio said:
well rev, all i can tell you is: the 81x drivers SERVERLY hamper my 6800's performance. i dunno what it does for you SLI guys, but i have to stay with the 78 series of drivers. like benches suck, cs:source sucks, everything is severely screwed for my machine with them new drivers.

ive actually been waiting to hear about it on the web... the new drivers screwing up non sli owners or 6 series owners or agp owners or some category i fit in haha
Click to expand...

DOH! that sucks... I saw a lot of screen tearing with the older drivers, which is better with the 81.xx series... for all SLI peeps... I reckon. I am dying to go home and try the 81.85s again with some different settings... I think those are the only one which really fix vsync... but before the patch, on the 81.84s it was running soooo smooth @ 1600x1200 with no soft shadows, no volumetic lighting, no AA, 4x AF and all other settings maxed... now it runs faster after the patch, but there is /some/ screen tearing... WTF? not as bad as before, but it's annoying. it must be a change in rendering modes from AFR to SFR or something..

Anyways, I am going to go home early and experiment. :)
 
I'm going back to 78.05 and see if vsync works in fear. If it does, that looks like it'll be the best performance.
 
Those numbers look way lower than I've seen GTX owners post around the other forums.
 
eastvillager said:
I'm going back to 78.05 and see if vsync works in fear. If it does, that looks like it'll be the best performance.
Click to expand...

cool... I am going to force AFR and then SFR in the drivers with the 81.84s to see if I can get my old smoothness back.. if not I am going to use the 81.85s and "make'm work".
:p
 
Split (or Single) Frame is generally better performing, from what I have seen, and most games prefer that method. but I am going to try them both tonight... one of them still does not play well with vsync.. I think...
 
I think i borked the built in SLI profile when i created my own. Like i said above, i do not see anything when i have Show GPU load balancing selected. I checked some other games and it does show up in them. I tried reinstalling the patch but that did not help. I'm thinking i should back up my save game files and reinstall the whole game. Anyone have any other ideas before i try that?
 
I would just clean your drivers out with a driver cleaner and load up the 81.84s, which seem to work better than the 81.85s with my 6800GTs.. ymmv!

I found that my old "smooth" feeling was happening because I had vsync off. There is just no way I had it on and got smooth play with my settings maxed...(minus vol lighting and soft shadows) ....but with the 81.84s using (forcing in the drivers) split-frame rendering, I can run FEAR with:

AA = 2x
AF = 8x
all settings @ max except for no volumetric lighting or soft shadows...

low: 25
avg: 59
max: 176

92% of the rates were above 40.

That's pretty acceptable for me for now.
 
It's weird because when I first started benching this game with the settings below.

Graphics.jpg

Effects.jpg


I was getting just horrible scores with those settings. Min: 27, Average: 58 and Max: 188

I went into my graphics settings and changed Trilinear Opt to OFF and now I'm benching at this:

BenchTest.jpg


That is the only thing I changed from the first set of bench marks to this one and my score dramatically went up. There was a restart in between all this as well. This makes me wanna start the game over.

Driver Control Panel Settings
2X AA
16X AF
 
Changed my driver settings from what they were ^^.

Running 4X AA and 16X AF now. Game seems to take a huge hit when AA is enabled.

Bench24XAAand16XAF.jpg
 
yes it sure does... I had to disable AA again because it was just too taxing on the game for me... fooooo!! I like AA also.. gah! oh well... I am getting two GTXs end of next month, so I can just deal for now. :)

I am thinking about going down to 1280x1024 and enabling vsync and AA again... hmmmmmm..

vsync is another huger performance monger... wow. with this game at any rate. drops my frames way down.

on doom3 I can run with vsync and 4xAA 8xAF and it's like buttah.. FEAR is def the PIG of system resources for 2005. :eek:
 
you should check out anandtech's newest article. they bench it on everything and with all settings to show jjust what AA will do to it. soft shadows must remain off and forget vsync. i say you play it at 16x12 no AA and no soft shadows rev.
 
I am at work so I don't have hard numbers right now. I will try to get some tonight. However, I do know this...

Last night with Vsync On and the 81.85 drivers I was able to turn every Computer and Graphics setting to Maximum, turn Soft Shadows on, and then run the game at 1680x1050 with 16xAF and never drop below 25fps on the test (can't recall my average).

I have no problem playing single player games with low Frames as long as the lowest point is 25 or higher, so I those are the settings I am using currently, and the game looks great.

I am debating turning softshadows off and turning on 4xAA, or going up to 1920x1200, since the softshadows effect in this game are not as good as they could be.
 
el rolio said:
you should check out anandtech's newest article. they bench it on everything and with all settings to show jjust what AA will do to it. soft shadows must remain off and forget vsync. i say you play it at 16x12 no AA and no soft shadows rev.
Click to expand...

That's what I am doing now... I just could not get vsync to behave with any sort of useable performance. AA is ok for some scenes, but it gets choppy sometimes... but at 1600x1200 AA is not a necessity... imo. I'll check the article now, thanks for the heads up. :)
 
I have had luck at setting the rendering mode of the global driver settings in the Nvidia control panel. I was only using one card when playing FEAR after the patch. I have a Matrix Orbital LCD display that shows the temps of the cards and typically they are within a few degrees of each other when SLI is working properly. Well, with the 81.85 drivers and the 1.01 patch, the temperatures clearly showed that SLI was not working in FEAR at the time. I changed the global setting for SLI rendering to AUTO and voila! SLI FEAR again. Hope this helps.

Also, check this thread. Quite useful. ;)
 
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