[H] users SLi guide

Oh - I meant that I did not think there was a setting on 3Dmark itself which overides the driver settings for rendering modes, etc... I am thinking this is why some people with new machine builds sometimes say they're bench tests look like single card performance, but games seem to play with multi-GPU performance... I have seen that a few times... I am guessing that installing a few more driver sets seems to bounce that setting into SFR and things clear up.. because those threads usually finish off with a "I installed the new drivers and things look ok now", or something like that. :)
 
I haven't read through everything, but looking at your compilation, you might wanna add a special note for users that have a dual core processor. If you have an x2 and are trying to use SLI, you might need a beta bios in order to get your SLI to properly perform. I am not exactly sure where the problem lies, but until I found the right bios, which ended up being a beta bios, I couldn't run my memory in dual channel, and my SLI 3dmark05 score was equivalent to the score of a single card. So I am not sure exactly how it is related to SLI, but if I would bench a single card, it would be only about 1k less that SLI. So I think its a combination of SLI and dual channel memory support for dual core procs. Yes, I havent explored it very much, I was just happy to get my marks from 9000 up to 12,500 where it belongs.
 
swflbatth said:
I haven't read through everything, but looking at your compilation, you might wanna add a special note for users that have a dual core processor. If you have an x2 and are trying to use SLI, you might need a beta bios in order to get your SLI to properly perform. I am not exactly sure where the problem lies, but until I found the right bios, which ended up being a beta bios, I couldn't run my memory in dual channel, and my SLI 3dmark05 score was equivalent to the score of a single card. So I am not sure exactly how it is related to SLI, but if I would bench a single card, it would be only about 1k less that SLI. So I think its a combination of SLI and dual channel memory support for dual core procs. Yes, I havent explored it very much, I was just happy to get my marks from 9000 up to 12,500 where it belongs.
Click to expand...

This is a very good call. I will add something tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
swflbatth said:
I haven't read through everything, but looking at your compilation, you might wanna add a special note for users that have a dual core processor. If you have an x2 and are trying to use SLI, you might need a beta bios in order to get your SLI to properly perform. I am not exactly sure where the problem lies, but until I found the right bios, which ended up being a beta bios, I couldn't run my memory in dual channel, and my SLI 3dmark05 score was equivalent to the score of a single card. So I am not sure exactly how it is related to SLI, but if I would bench a single card, it would be only about 1k less that SLI. So I think its a combination of SLI and dual channel memory support for dual core procs. Yes, I havent explored it very much, I was just happy to get my marks from 9000 up to 12,500 where it belongs.
Click to expand...

hrm... are you sure this was not related to a rendering mode being stuck in "single GPU" operation in the drivers? That's the default mode I notice when you load drivers for the first time, I just noticed. (having installed XP about three times in as many weeks), but games and apps seem to override the driver with their own "profiles" most of the time... so it does not seem to matter all the time, but I am thinking this could be the root of many "I get single card performance with my SLI setup" issues. Also, do you mean a beta bios for your video cards or motherboard... I will need more specific details before adding something to the OP... like which bios it is, and which one you were running before. I am runnung the 623-3 bios on my SLI-D, which is not beta, and apparently has the X2 processor fix in it.. I would like to include this info, but just want to make sure the right info gets in there. :)
 
Just a note (source of information)....

if you have non-certified SLI hardware. IE: Intel 945, 955, 975, Via K8T900, etc motherboards with 2 PCIx 16 slots, you can use driver version 71.24 and use SLI on 6x00 series boards. Unfortunately the driver is too old to work with 7800 cards.

Someone should be able to release a hacked version of the new drivers which would allow SLI on non-nforce 4 boards as its a simple driver level hardware check.
 
whoa.. nice SLI tid-bit...:D
sounds like the DFI ultra-D hack... a little.. too bad on the sans 7800 action...
 
So I have a few questions about profiles. After I modify a profile, so say SLI AA, how does it know which profile to activate? Whats with the msg everytime I make a change telling me that the profile is being used by more apps and asked me if Im sure I want to change it? Whats the easiest way to break down rendering modes, such as whats the best for newer games? Such as BF2, CoD2, and F.E.A.R.
 
Well - I find leaving the profiles alone yields the best results, especially with these new drivers... the games and or drivers seem to pick the best option without any hassles. if you want to enable AA rendering, you can hard set that in the "advanced settings" menu in the "performance & quality" section... but I am pulling this from memory, so it might be off a little... that AA rendering mode let's you use 8X more or 16X mode... both are very resource intensive... I could not even use them with my 6800GTs... I tried with UT2004 and it still was completely unplayable.. but it looked real purdy. :) the 7800 series cards fair much better with AA rendering from what I hear, but I have yet to try it with my new GTXs... I need to do that actually, thanks for the reminder. I will post results here. :)
 
How do you go about not using a profile? Its already there, just delete it? Im a bit confused on why there are two BF2 profiles. One is a +menu.exe, which doesnt make sense to me.

Also, transparency AA wont work for me. :( At this point I dont even think the BF2 profile is working. I went from 8xAA, to 16xAA and it didnt take a fps hit at all.
 
Hrm... some games just over-ride the driver settings it seems... I had issues getting FEAR to stop doing that and finally gave up... because it runs very well with whatever it's set at... I guess because it's got it's own in-game video settings which it seems to prefer to use. A lot like Doom3 and Quake4. I found that UT2004 was a great test-bed for testing rendering modes because it does not seem to over-ride anything... whatever I set in the drivers shows up in that game. Are you just trying to test trans AA? Maybe use an older game to test it, like UT2004. I am not sure how to completely disable profiles, or to check if they are even being used. I never mess with that and all my games seem to work fine with SLI... I'll have to play around with it soon... sorry I could not be of more help here.
 
I just joined the SLI club. Do i get free sli goodies? like case badges and stuff :D
 
fallguy said:
How do you go about not using a profile? Its already there, just delete it? Im a bit confused on why there are two BF2 profiles. One is a +menu.exe, which doesnt make sense to me.

Also, transparency AA wont work for me. :( At this point I dont even think the BF2 profile is working. I went from 8xAA, to 16xAA and it didnt take a fps hit at all.
Click to expand...


ok - I played around with FEAR two nights ago and wow, it would NOT take anything I set in the drivers as far as the default rendering mode for SLI... I was trying to get it into SFR but it just stayed in AFR (tested with the show gpu load balancing check box) and so I grabbed Nhancer and that's a pretty cool little tool, but still, no dice with getting FEAR to run in SFR... so I searched FEAR's config files high and low and saw no place where I could specify the default rendering mode for SLI. Anyways, so this means that some games must have this hard set, maybe in the .exe file? not sure, but clearly trying to force the settings in the drivers does not work for all games.
 
If you are having the problem with FEAR locking up after exiting the game, which seems to only happen for SLI peeps, try this as a work-around. When you want to quit, leave the game to the main menu, then hit ALT+F4 to quit out of the game. It works for me every time. I spent two weeks emailing VU tech support trying to convince them this was a bug, so they finally got the deleopers involved and they came up with that work-around. Hope it helps!
 
sup guys. I have a a8n-sli deluxe board and i have a zalman vf700cu on my 7800gt. If i add a second 7800gt, will the zalman heatsink clear the bottom video card? Is it gonna cause any problems? i want to be sure it will fit when i get my second 7800gt. thanks.
 
i have new sli system, my temp are 80~85 full load, my pws is MIS http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=TurboStream%AE_500W_Power_Supply&class=psu

my perfomance sometimes is inestable, artifacts, low fps, etc

i have a question, is a pws or cooler system?, i need help for take a choice
1) buy new system cooler or
2) buy new PSW

are any tools for detect low power of PWS....(never Nvidia drivers showme any pop about lower power.
I have 81,98 (install correct with dcp in safe mode)

anybody......... can you help me????

Merry chrismats
 
RaDeonXtreme - with that Asus mobo you do have the larger pci-e slot gap - so I do believe that you can run with two of those Zalman's on your cards... in fact I have seen such a setup in the forum somewhere in this thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=776563&highlight=show+video+card


andersondiaz - a couple of things. for one, your PSU looks on the low side for the 12v rail. It's only got 18amps which is just too low. you should get a PSU with over 30 amps on the 12v rail. 34+ amps is recommended. Here's a list of SLI certified PSUs for you


Akasa PowerPlus 650W PSU
Akasa PowerPlus 550W PSU
Antec NeoHE 500W
Antec TPII-550
Antec NeoHE 550
Antec TP2550EPS12V
Antec TrueControl II 550
CoolerMaster Real Power 550W SLI
Coolmax CXI-600B, 600W
Coolmax CXI-500B, 500W
Coolmax CW-650T 650W Extreme Power
Enermax EG565P-VE FMA 535W
Enermax EG651AX-VH EPS12V 550W
Enermax EG851AX-VH EPS12V 660W
Enermax EG701AX Noisetaker 600W
FSP Group EPSILON FX600-GLN 600W
FSP Group EPSILON FX700-GLN 700W
High Power HPC-560-A12S EPS, 560W
High Power HPC-560-A88S EPS, 560W
Hiper Type-R series 580W HPU-4[B,K,R,S]580
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool® 510 SLI (510ATX-PFC)
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool® 850 SLI (850ETX-PFC)
Seasonic S12-500 Watt
Seasonic S12-600 Watt
Silverstone ST56ZF 560W
Silverstone ST65ZF 650W
Silverstone ST60F 600W
Sparkle Power FSP550PLG-SLI 550W
Sunbeamtech NUUO Series 550W SLI (SUNNU550-US)
Ultra Products X2 550W PSU - Titanium
Ultra Products X-Finity 500 Watt PSU
Ultra Products X-Finity 600 Watt PSU
Zippy Gaming GSM-6600P(G1) 600W

list taken from: http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_build.html

I would pick one of those, just to be on the safe side, but if you have trouble locating one, or can't afford one, just make sure you get a PSU with at least 30 amps on the 12v rail. (34+ would be better tho)

Also - your temps look very high, 80+ degrees at full load is not critical, but it's VERY wam, and you might want to re-think your cooling as some of your artifacting may be coming from those high temps... try and get more air onto the video cards... maybe mod the side of your case putting a 120mm fan in it blowing air from the outside right on your card pair... or get one of these: http://www.xoxide.com/3dedge.html Getting those cards flooded air from the bottom, side, and inbetween will bring those temps back down. If you need to just open the case up and point a room fan into there to see if it helps... that should buy you some time while you re-think your cooling strategy. Good luck! :)
 
Hi - that PSU looks fine. the older Ultra PSU's had some issues, but these new ones seem good. Also - yes - with your motherboard you can fit two of those video card coolers in your system, and being that they push the hot air out of the case, it should help your temps cool down. Having a side case fan pulling fresh air from the outside right onto the cards also helps, but it sounds like you might not need that... Anyways. Good luck and let us know how things go. :)
 
revenant said:
Hi - that PSU looks fine. the older Ultra PSU's had some issues, but these new ones seem good. Also - yes - with your motherboard you can fit two of those video card coolers in your system, and being that they push the hot air out of the case, it should help your temps cool down. Having a side case fan pulling fresh air from the outside right onto the cards also helps, but it sounds like you might not need that... Anyways. Good luck and let us know how things go. :)
Click to expand...
Thank you for your help. As soon as I get the new parts I'll let you know.a friend

Anderson
 
thanks revenant. I appreciate your help. I definetly gonna run 2 zalmans on both cards.

revenant said:
RaDeonXtreme - with that Asus mobo you do have the larger pci-e slot gap - so I do believe that you can run with two of those Zalman's on your cards... in fact I have seen such a setup in the forum somewhere in this thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=776563&highlight=show+video+card


andersondiaz - a couple of things. for one, your PSU looks on the low side for the 12v rail. It's only got 18amps which is just too low. you should get a PSU with over 30 amps on the 12v rail. 34+ amps is recommended. Here's a list of SLI certified PSUs for you


Akasa PowerPlus 650W PSU
Akasa PowerPlus 550W PSU
Antec NeoHE 500W
Antec TPII-550
Antec NeoHE 550
Antec TP2550EPS12V
Antec TrueControl II 550
CoolerMaster Real Power 550W SLI
Coolmax CXI-600B, 600W
Coolmax CXI-500B, 500W
Coolmax CW-650T 650W Extreme Power
Enermax EG565P-VE FMA 535W
Enermax EG651AX-VH EPS12V 550W
Enermax EG851AX-VH EPS12V 660W
Enermax EG701AX Noisetaker 600W
FSP Group EPSILON FX600-GLN 600W
FSP Group EPSILON FX700-GLN 700W
High Power HPC-560-A12S EPS, 560W
High Power HPC-560-A88S EPS, 560W
Hiper Type-R series 580W HPU-4[B,K,R,S]580
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool® 510 SLI (510ATX-PFC)
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool® 850 SLI (850ETX-PFC)
Seasonic S12-500 Watt
Seasonic S12-600 Watt
Silverstone ST56ZF 560W
Silverstone ST65ZF 650W
Silverstone ST60F 600W
Sparkle Power FSP550PLG-SLI 550W
Sunbeamtech NUUO Series 550W SLI (SUNNU550-US)
Ultra Products X2 550W PSU - Titanium
Ultra Products X-Finity 500 Watt PSU
Ultra Products X-Finity 600 Watt PSU
Zippy Gaming GSM-6600P(G1) 600W

list taken from: http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_build.html

I would pick one of those, just to be on the safe side, but if you have trouble locating one, or can't afford one, just make sure you get a PSU with at least 30 amps on the 12v rail. (34+ would be better tho)

Also - your temps look very high, 80+ degrees at full load is not critical, but it's VERY wam, and you might want to re-think your cooling as some of your artifacting may be coming from those high temps... try and get more air onto the video cards... maybe mod the side of your case putting a 120mm fan in it blowing air from the outside right on your card pair... or get one of these: http://www.xoxide.com/3dedge.html Getting those cards flooded air from the bottom, side, and inbetween will bring those temps back down. If you need to just open the case up and point a room fan into there to see if it helps... that should buy you some time while you re-think your cooling strategy. Good luck! :)
Click to expand...
 
Hmmm,

Is it just me, or is it now impossible to set AFR or SFR rendering modes? When I modify a profile now, I can only choose Dual-mode, Single-mode, or SLI-AA. No AFR or SFR.

That seems odd! I'm using v81.95 on a clean install.

H
 
y0 B (hurin) what up? yeah - I noticed that also... plus when I removed FEAR's SLI profile and hard set the global SLI rendering mode to SFR it still defaulted to AFR... I think we're starting to see game developers add custom SLI profile settings to the game's them selves, just like the in game IQ (AA, AF, etc...) settings which are getting more popular... I actually sort of like that, because I can keep each game tweaked independently of any driver settings... Anyways...

Hey - have you had any issues gaming with SLI and using wide screen resolutions? or games which are native 4:3? How does that work out?
 
Yo A! :p

D'oh! False alarm. I had neglected to put the "Coolbits" registry setting to "8" after my last system rebuild. I just did so (after upgrading drivers) and the AFR and SFR settings are back.

Regarding widescreen CRT gaming. . . all is good so far. The only problem I've had is with Rome Total War which freaks out if I enable "Medium AA" within the game. But Civ4, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty, Rise of Nations, and Age of Empires III all support widescreen gaming either natively or via some tweaking. I've found Widescreen Gaming Forum to be very helpful while I have figured things out.

NVIDIA users will also want to go into the custom resolutions tab of the NVIDIA drivers and add all the 16:10 resolutions that aren't already there:

1920x1200
1600x1000
1520x950
1440x900
1360x850
1280x800

H
 
revenant said:
updated the guide with some new content... and one DFI specific mobo tip.
Click to expand...

revenant said:
~ If you have a DFI mobo - make sure your bios option for "SLI broadcast apature" is set to "disable" (not auto).
Click to expand...


Is this correct?

SLI still works if you have the SLI broadcast apature set to "disable"?

:confused:
 
I put that there because people had said it was the case.. I have mine set to disable and it works fine, so I am assuming that it does not hurt to have it there. So it's a "known to be good" setting... but I'll remove it if people think otherwise... or maybe re-word it... like "you might try disabling this if you have a DFI mobo..." ? thoughts ?
 
revenant said:
I put that there because people had said it was the case.. I have mine set to disable and it works fine, so I am assuming that it does not hurt to have it there. So it's a "known to be good" setting... but I'll remove it if people think otherwise... or maybe re-word it... like "you might try disabling this if you have a DFI mobo..." ? thoughts ?
Click to expand...



Well, I have been having some issues and mine is set to auto.

I will try to disable it and see if it fixes any of my issues.
 
go rev go! im part of the club now! mayb i can get some free schwag! i want a sticker for my case / psu!
 
hi revenant, i got the ocz powerstream 600watt sli, and buy http://www.xoxide.com/3dedge.html, and other fans for my case, now when my pc load full the temp are under 65~73°C<--(max °C), i can see the diference with the sux psu msi, now the games are stable fps, in fear i can play with high qly with big details, only have problems with my memory (1giga ozc) i read review fear in guru3d and recomend 2 giga mem system (same bf2). now my case is closed and the temps are fine, power stable, great pc.....

Thx for you help revenant, i apreciate
a friend
Anderson :)
 
andersondiaz - that's great news! :D I am glad any of my advice helped get your machine working better. ...and yes, FEAR does like 2gb of memory, but there are some great 2gb memory kits available now, like this G.skill kit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231021

or the Mushkin

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146397

but I like the G.Skill... I think it's going to be my next memory kit. :) Anyways, there is a lot of talk about these kits in the memory forum. Anyways, glad your machine is working so much better now. Happy gaming! :)
 
Yes, your motherboard will support the G.Skill and the Mushkin just fine... but you can also save some $ and get another OCZ kit identical to the one you have, so you will have 4x512mb = 2gb! but it will change your memory timings to 2t, which is slower.. but it's not too noticeable... I think the addition of the extra 1gb of memory will be well worth the slight performance hit. :) good luck!
 
revenant said:
Yes, your motherboard will support the G.Skill and the Mushkin just fine... but you can also save some $ and get another OCZ kit identical to the one you have, so you will have 4x512mb = 2gb! but it will change your memory timings to 2t, which is slower.. but it's not too noticeable... I think the addition of the extra 1gb of memory will be well worth the slight performance hit. :) good luck!
Click to expand...
hehe thx i thinking what buy :D:D
 
reddhaus said:
Is this correct?

SLI still works if you have the SLI broadcast apature set to "disable"?
Click to expand...

I was wondering about this too...but I guess it's a "try it if things dont work; otherwise if it ain't broke, don't F' with it. :)


Hurin said:
I had neglected to put the "Coolbits" registry setting to "8" after my last system rebuild. I just did so (after upgrading drivers) and the AFR and SFR settings are back.
Click to expand...

Which setting in coolbits? I'll peek in regedit...maybe it'll jump out at me.....
 
revenant said:
Yes, your motherboard will support the G.Skill and the Mushkin just fine... but you can also save some $ and get another OCZ kit identical to the one you have, so you will have 4x512mb = 2gb! but it will change your memory timings to 2t, which is slower.. but it's not too noticeable... I think the addition of the extra 1gb of memory will be well worth the slight performance hit. :) good luck!
Click to expand...

hey revenant nice guide ya got here i did notice the G.Skill kit has high cas lat is that gonna cause a problem, also i noticed in this quote that you said it would change his timings to 2t were you refering to the cas cause if so his system should speed up not slow down, less of course it cant handle the better timings my pentium system has that problem though my amd dont but i think it's due to the crappy mobo in that system (its a storebought got it from a bud for $125 after teaching him to build his own).
 
just double checking do i need ot do a driver update on both cards? i just got my secomd card last night and installed it and decieded to reinstall the drivers that were previously on now do i have to do that twice or just up date each card individually from the windows controll panel?
 
The nVidia Display driver should handle both cards. I used driver cleaner before installing my second card and then put it in and installed the latest display drivers. Enabled SLi and rebooted. Has been running like a champ since!
 
cobaltdog said:
hey revenant nice guide ya got here i did notice the G.Skill kit has high cas lat is that gonna cause a problem, also i noticed in this quote that you said it would change his timings to 2t were you refering to the cas cause if so his system should speed up not slow down, less of course it cant handle the better timings my pentium system has that problem though my amd dont but i think it's due to the crappy mobo in that system (its a storebought got it from a bud for $125 after teaching him to build his own).
Click to expand...

Hi - I meant "2t" timings as in, cas3 3-3-8 2t - which is the "command rate".. when you move to 4 ddr chips most motherboards will need "2t" command rate timings to work stably... except for the DFI expert, but only to 240 mhz... anyways, 2t is for sure slower than 1t.. here's a good description, which is slanted for the DFI bios, but it's a good explanation none the less.

"Command Per Clock(CPC)

Settings: Auto, Enable(1T), Disable(2T)

Command Per Clock(CPC) is also called Command Rate. It may be best in some instances to Disable (2T) w/ 2x512 RAM modules. It has a large Influence on Bandwidth/Stability.

From Adrian Wong’s site: http://www.rojakpot.com/
“This BIOS feature allows you to select the delay between the assertion of the Chip Select signal till the time the memory controller starts sending commands to the memory bank. The lower the value, the sooner the memory controller can send commands out to the activated memory bank. When this feature is enabled, the memory controller will only insert a command delay of one clock cycle or 1T. When this feature is disabled, the memory controller will insert a command delay of two clock cycles or 2T. The Auto option allows the memory controller to use the memory module's SPD value for command delay. If the SDRAM command delay is too long, it can reduce performance by unnecessarily preventing the memory controller from issuing the commands sooner. However, if the SDRAM command delay is too short, the memory controller may not be able to translate the addresses in time and the "bad commands" that result will cause data loss and corruption. It is recommended that you try enabling SDRAM 1T Command for better memory performance. But if you face stability issues, disable this BIOS feature."

Large Influence on Bandwidth/Stability."

taken from here: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.php?p=203179&postcount=4

another good memory timings resource is this: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=6859

now, back onto SLI topics. :)
 
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