7900 GTO - SLI tearing in games?

[dcr]

I just installed my second 7900 GTO, and before this, my single 7900 GTO ran fine with no tearing.

The easiest test for tearing is to stand in one place in WoW and simply hold down the left or right turn key. The screen will spin, and tear pretty badly. It didn't do this with one card, and it will even do this a bit while I walk normally.

Settings:

Quality

In game - Triple Buffering, V-sync enabled, everything on high.

My Nvidia drivers are 9.1.4.7

Since I am new to SLI, there might be a setting or driver I am missing.

Rest of system:

X2 3800
1g OCZ 3500 RAM
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
OCZ 520 W PSU

 

[LittleNemoNES]

I thought the v-sync problem was fixed in the newest drivers...???

 

[lopri]

What is your monitor? Your monitor might be too slow.

 

[Elfear]

I had very similiar problems with my SLI'd 7800GTs but I thought Nvidia had resolved it. Maybe a current SLI owner can chime in.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Elfear
I had very similiar problems with my SLI'd 7800GTs but I thought Nvidia had resolved it. Maybe a current SLI owner can chime in.

I had eVGA 7800GT CO SLI last year too

Hated the Vsync problem...I'm over it now, though.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: gersson

I had eVGA 7800GT CO SLI last year too

Hated the Vsync problem...I'm over it now, though.

Me too. I've had a couple issues with Crossfire but at least there is no tearing. That was terribly annoying in the Source games I played.

I just noticed we have almost the exact same rig except for the motherboard and monitor. How is you're motherboard for overclocking? Is it fairly stable and can it hit a high fsb?



Sorry for the off topic OP.

 

[dcr]

It is the Gateway 21" Widescreen FPD2185W @ 1680x1050.

60 is the refresh rate, and upping it to 75 in WoW didn't help, at least for the minute I tried it.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: gersson

I had eVGA 7800GT CO SLI last year too

Hated the Vsync problem...I'm over it now, though.

Me too. I've had a couple issues with Crossfire but at least there is no tearing. That was terribly annoying in the Source games I played.

I just noticed we have almost the exact same rig except for the motherboard and monitor. How is you're motherboard for overclocking? Is it fairly stable and can it hit a high fsb?



Sorry for the off topic OP.

Yeah, the P5W is great though you got a lot out of your MSI mobo: 440 FSB. I saw some guy do 500 fsb with the new P5b Xtreme Systems

 

[lopri]

You may want to try stressing the graphics subsystem. In other words, try forcing High Quality, AA, etc. via the Control Panel so that your average FPS could match the monitor's refresh rate. Better graphics with no tearing.

 

[Woofmeister]

I am currently running two 7800GTs in SLI on a 1920x1200 Dell monitor. I have no SLI tearing whatsoever and haven't ever had the problem ever since it was supposedly fixed with a driver release before I installed my second card. I am also currently running the 91.47

I just received my 7900GTOs, so I will let you know whether the problem crops up.

Do you only experience tearing in WOW? Are you using the default SLI profile?

 

[CP5670]

This issue annoyed me to no end when I had two 7800GTs, but it's been a while since then (the last driver I used was 84.21, where it was still there in most games). I've heard that in some cases, using DXTweaker to force triple buffering on can fix things, although I never tried it myself.

 

[josh6079]

I know nitromullet had problems with Vsync and WoW. Specifically with a 7950GX2 and WoW in fact, so it was essentially an SLI setup.

My story is almost the exact same as Elfear's, two 7800GT's with horrible screen tearing and non-helpful vsync.

 

[BFG10K]

Vsync + SLI is a known problem in that the two don't always work as expected.

 

[dcr]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Vsync + SLI is a known problem in that the two don't always work as expected.

Is there a way to make it work?

SLI is totally useless to me if I get tearing. I have tried forcing triple buffering, v-sync, etc in the WoW profile, and I have gone to high quality and jacked everything to max, and it helps some, but I still see some tearing and "waving" when I am moving.

 

[CP5670]

Try playing around with DXTweaker as I mentioned earlier. Beyond that I don't think there is anything you can do, aside from going back to a single card like I did.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: dcr
Is there a way to make it work?

SLI is totally useless to me if I get tearing. I have tried forcing triple buffering, v-sync, etc in the WoW profile, and I have gone to high quality and jacked everything to max, and it helps some, but I still see some tearing and "waving" when I am moving.

You should be able to set Vsync to "On" or "Enabled" or something of the sort through the Nvidia control panel. If you are using the Nvidia control panel, don't bother setting its Triple Buffering option to "On" because it only forces that in OpenGL games with that particular setting.

If you are playing a Direct3D application, the only program that I myself have used that forces Triple buffering with D3D, would be DXTweaker. Although I think another third-party utility such as nHancer can do it was well.

Although in order to just simply correct the tearing, soley enabling Vsync in the Nvidia control panel should do the trick. Make sure that if you do that to disable any vsync option that the game might provide just to avoid command conflicts.

 

[nitromullet]

V-sync doesn't properly work with SLI in WoW.

This is my experience with v-sync and WoW with more than one GX2 (not quad-SLI, just more than one individual GX2) and GTX SLI on an Athlon 64 X2 system and my current Core 2 Duo rig:

1) Enabling v-sync in game or in the NVIDIA control with triple buffering enabled has absolutely no effect whatsoever. You might as well not bother enabling it.
2) V-sync works perfectly in WoW when it is enabled in either the NVIDIA control panel or in game when triple buffering is disabled in both the NVIDIA control panel and in game. The catch is that your computer will freeze about 90% of the times you exit WoW.

My solution: I just crank up the AA to 16x and deal with the tearing... It is less than ideal, but I've accepted this weakness in an otherwise stable and very fast setup.

On a side note: both the GX2 and the SLI set offered up another treat in WoW... If you let the monitor go into sleep mode before launching the game your WoW cursor will flicker. This issue is also fairly easily reproducable, and I found another individual with this issue on the NVIDIA forums. A re-boot will take care of the problem, or you can just disable auto monitor shut off in Windows. I just turn my monitor off manually if I leave for extended periods of time and I don't turn off my PC.

 

[Woofmeister]

I'm running my 7900 GTOs in SLI at 1920x1200. So far no tearing in Company of Heroes, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, Rise of Nations.

I don't own WoW so I can't test your problem, but if I had to guess I'd say its application specific.

 

[josh6079]

Do you notice when it is enabled if there is any sort of distracting juttering that occurs when quickly turning a corner?

 

[Madellga]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
V-sync doesn't properly work with SLI in WoW.

This is my experience with v-sync and WoW with more than one GX2 (not quad-SLI, just more than one individual GX2) and GTX SLI on an Athlon 64 X2 system and my current Core 2 Duo rig:

1) Enabling v-sync in game or in the NVIDIA control with triple buffering enabled has absolutely no effect whatsoever. You might as well not bother enabling it.
2) V-sync works perfectly in WoW when it is enabled in either the NVIDIA control panel or in game when triple buffering is disabled in both the NVIDIA control panel and in game. The catch is that your computer will freeze about 90% of the times you exit WoW.

My solution: I just crank up the AA to 16x and deal with the tearing... It is less than ideal, but I've accepted this weakness in an otherwise stable and very fast setup.

On a side note: both the GX2 and the SLI set offered up another treat in WoW... If you let the monitor go into sleep mode before launching the game your WoW cursor will flicker. This issue is also fairly easily reproducable, and I found another individual with this issue on the NVIDIA forums. A re-boot will take care of the problem, or you can just disable auto monitor shut off in Windows. I just turn my monitor off manually if I leave for extended periods of time and I don't turn off my PC.

While I played WoW using a 7800GT SLI system, I had the same issues described by you.

Other thing I had with WoW also, was by switching from the game to desktop (to look at Thotttbot). Sometimes it would crash WoW on the return. Or have only half screen available (the top one).

 

[nitromullet]

I don't own WoW so I can't test your problem, but if I had to guess I'd say its application specific.

Totally, v-sync works fine with SLI in a lot of apps... As far as WoW goes, you could technically run in single card mode as well if the tearing bothers you that much, and not really suffer. I don't have SLI for WoW specifically. The only setting I would have to knock down on WoW would be 16xAA to 8xAA if I ran WoW in single card mode.

Other thing I had with WoW also, was by switching from the game to desktop (to look at Thotttbot). Sometimes it would crash WoW on the return. Or have only half screen available (the top one).

Interesting... I don't have that at all. Alt-Tab or the Windows key works flawlessly (unless v-sync is enabled without triple buffereing). I was actually really excited about that after having an X1900XTX because the ATI card has an issue in WoW that causes weird distortion around the edges after atl-tabbing. Also, the Radeon likes to put a 1 pixel border around the screen on occasion, which got on my nerves.

 

[lopri]

Did you try cranking IQ settings up? Set X8 AA (or X8/X16 SLI AA) through the CC and see if tearing still occurs. Please report back.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: lopri
Did you try cranking IQ settings up? Set X8 AA (or X8/X16 SLI AA) through the CC and see if tearing still occurs. Please report back.

Yep, I run WoW MAXED out...

16xtrSSAA/16xHQAF, every quality/effect slider over to the far right in game.

I decided to check on my thread over at the nvidia forums, and it looks like ChrisRay replied late last week.

If anyone is interested:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=18970&st=0&p=119227&#entry119227